as I walk Toronto

below: I’d heard that the old Coach Terminal was no longer in use (since mid 2021) but I hadn’t heard anything about its present status.  Now I know: Empty.  Abandoned.

below: Apparently the land is owned by the city. There is talk of redevelopment that includes affordable housing, office space, etc. I am not sure where the plans are at (does anyone?) at the moment.

below: Concrete.  Just a concrete wall…  But an interesting use of concrete.

below: The sign says “weather” and the weather this day is miserable.  Wet. Grey. Luckily I had a rainy day plan….

I was meeting friends at Starbucks at Sick Kids.

below: This is when I learned that Sick Kids Hospital is in two buildings that are across Elizabeth Street from each other.  Only one has a Starbucks!

below: Inside the bridge with its zigzagging light

below: A white goose

below: One side of the atrium, 8 storeys high, in the older building on the west side of Elizabeth

below: On the east side of Elizabeth Street is the new Sick Kids’ Patient Support Centre – we didn’t venture too far past the main entrance and bridge to the other building, but there was a lot to see just in this space!

below: Swirly squiggly LED lights turn an ordinary ceiling into something more.

below: Gerrard Street entrance to Toronto General Hospital (TGH)

below: Part of a conference room door.

below: There aren’t as many photos from TGH for a couple of reasons. First, regrettably (in hindsight) we didn’t explore much of it and second, although hospitals are generally public spaces they are also places where people expect privacy. So you’ll have to settle for some empty chairs and artwork in a waiting area. I suspect that a wander around all of TGH would provide ample material for its own blog post, just not today.

below: After TGH we entered MaRS – they call themselves “North America’s largest urban innovation hub”.  A modern building that incorporated part of an older stone structure that was built in 1913 as the original home of Toronto General Hospital.   Ooops, it’s not a building, it’s a “Discovery District”.

below: 1923 view of Toronto General Hospital with College Street in the immediate foreground and University Avenue on the right.  There weren’t many tall buildings 100 years ago!

As it turns out, MaRS doesn’t like cameras.  It was the only building that morning where security approached us.  Apparently you can take all the photos you want if you use your phone but cameras are not allowed.  Snuck in a few before we got told off.

below: Here’s the tunnel leading to Queens Park subway station.   Brightly lit but with the minimum of planning and imagination.

below: Back at ground level it’s a bit more interesting.

below: In front of MaRS is a sculpture of two men talking.

below: Dr. James Till (left) and Dr. Ernest McCulloch (right) having a discussion in the rain (with an onlooker).  There are lots of seats available so if you are passing by you can join the conversation.   The two men were involved in stem cell research at the Ontario Cancer Institute and at Princess Margaret Hospital in the 1960s.  They were pioneers in the field.

below: Dr. McCulloch needed some help keeping dry!

below: Pardon the raindrop – across College Street from MaRS is (the first phase of?) the new Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus (part of the University of Toronto).

below:  When I saw it, my first reaction was, “This looks familiar” … i.e. the recessed glass withing the window frame is reminiscent some concrete buildings used back in the 1960s such as the Clarke Institute just down the street (built in 1964).  There is also a similar “modernist” building from the same era at Yonge & Roehampton (just north of Eglinton).  I thought that it was interesting to see an older architectural “detail” show up in a modern building.  It’s a nice change.

below: Walking on University Ave… which is a mess on the southbound side between College and Queen Street West because of infrastructure upgrades.  Apparently the water mains here were 150 years old.

below: Campbell Family Building, part of the front facade and doorway.  This building was constructed in 1935 for the Hydro Electric Power Commission of Ontario (later Ontario Hydro).  In the 1990s it became part of Princess Margaret Hospital.  Audrey Campbell was the daughter of Roy Thomson and it is her family that the building was named for (because of donations obviously).

below: Across the street from Princess Margaret Hospital, part of TGH.

below: South on University Ave

below: Digging up the street in front of Mt Sinai Hospital

below: In a small space between two buildings on University Ave are a few small sculptures.  The building on the left is Mount Sinai Hospital where there is now an art gallery. The building on the right is Princess Margaret Hospital.

below:   This is a small part of the interior of the Hennick Family Wellness Gallery at Mount Sinai Hospital. All of the pieces are the work of Sorel Etrog (1933-2014, Canadian).

There is a plaque in Mt. Sinai that tells the story of The Ezras Noshem Society (Ladies Aid in Yiddish) led by four Jewish women who started raising money in 1913 for a new hospital. By 1922 they had raised $12,000 and in 1923 the Hebrew Maternity and Convalescent Hospital was opened at 100 Yorkville. They seem to be known only as Mrs. Cohn, Mrs. Miller, Mrs. Spiegel, and Mrs. Adler (and others).  They also opened a Jewish Old Folks’ Home in 1917.
Contrast that to the “Hall of Chairs” – a hallway with the portraits of all the past “Chairs” of the hospital, all men.

below: Large mural on the side of the parking garage behind Mount Sinai Hospital

below: Love Locks

It would have been nice to get a break in the weather but the rain just kept coming.

So a warm, dry place with coffee – with a shout out to Carbonic Coffee on Baldwin as well as thanks to Jeff, Paul and Perry who walked with me today.