brick | as I walk Toronto

Posts Tagged ‘brick’

viceroy on dupont

Posted: December 1, 2013 in graffiti and street art, landmarks
Tags: boarded up windows, brick, factory, gone, graffiti, heritage, Junction, laser, photos, siderodronophilia, street art, Toronto, trains, viceroy, West Toronto Railpath, windows

1655 Dupont Street, a large red brick building that once housed the Viceroy Rubber Company factory. Now it is Planet Storage with over 10,000 square feet of self-storage space.

The building, now designated as a heritage building, has had it’s structure preserved although some of the lower storey windows have been boarded up. The east side of the building backs onto the Toronto Railpath and it has been decorated with graffiti at ground level. An old storage tank at the southeast corner of the building has been painted bright green to match the Planet Storage logo.

Viceroy still makes hockey pucks and other rubber items but at a newer plant on Weston Road, under the name of Allied Viceroy.

Three storey brick factory building. The windows in the lower storey are covered with orange wood. There is graffiti along the lower five or six feet of the building.

looking south along the side of the building

Looking north along the side of the old Viceroy rubber factory building. A red brick building with large windows. There is graffiti on the bottom five or six feet of the building.

Looking north along the West Toronto Railpath.

a chainlink fence is in the foreground. Behind the fence is a tall green storage tank (the top part of it is not in the picture. One wall of a three storey red brick building is in the background.

At the southwest corner of the building and behind a fence is a tall green storage tank.

bottom two storeys of a red brick factory. The lower storey has the windows boarded up and painted orange. There are graffiti tags along the bottom of the building.

tags under the orange

An open window covered with metal bars and a metal screen. Graffiti on the walls too.

a large tree is in the foreground and it is casting a shadow over the wall of a red brick building that has graffiti on it.

In the shadows.

Large windows on a red brick building. The window frames are metal and they are rusty.

Rust, writing, and reflections

an old door is painted bright green and on it is a piece of street art of a man in a black and white striped shirt. A blue and white graffiti tag is on either side of the door.

on the green door.

a black and white drawing of a woman with binoculars sitting beside a train track waiting for a train that is in the distance

S is for Siderodronophilia, a proclivity to become aroused by watching or riding trains.

The sun is shining on a red brick building with large windows. Graffiti tags are on the wall.

Tags in the sunshine.

graffiti of many white fingers in at least three rows of four. The fingers have eyes and their noses look like the number two.

many fingers with twos.

great fire of 1904

Posted: November 9, 2013 in history, locations
Tags: 1904, April 1904, Bay St., brick, buildings, Croft St., downtown, facade, fire, history, John Croft, memorial, mud, mural, old photographs, Toronto, wholesale district

On the 19th of April, 1904, a large section of downtown Toronto burned for nine hours.

street map of downtown Toronto showing the buildings that were affected by the fire of 1904.

Map showing the area of Toronto affected by the fire of 1904. Bay Street from the Esplanade to Miranda Street (just south of King Street) was the hardest hit. At the time, this was called the Wholesale District of the city.

Historical photo of Bay street after the 1904 fire in Toronto. There are people on the street. The street is all mud. There are many burned out buildings on both sides of the streets. Brick facing of two to four storey buildings is all that remains.

Aftermath, Bay street, April 1904.

In part, because the fire started in the evening, there were no fatalities. As a result of the fire, 5000 people were left without a job. In 1904, the population of Toronto was about 200,000 so the loss of employment on this scale had an impact on the city.

a very bright and colourful mural on the back of a brick building, It shows, in reds, yellows ans oranges the burning of a couple of brick buildings, with flames coming out of the windows.

Mural painted on the back of the building on the northwest corner of College St. and Croft St. (398 College St.), commemorating the fire of 1904.

Demolition of the ruins left by the fire took many weeks. On the 4th of May, John Croft died while using dynomite to bring down the remains of the W.J. Gage building on Front Street. His was the only known death associated with the fire. What is now Croft Street was renamed in his honour.

The east side of 398 College St., at the south end of Croft St., is painted with a mural as a memorial to John Croft.

corner of a building showing parts of two murals. On the back wall is the mural depicting the fire itself. On the side wall is a memorial to John Croft.

northeast corner of the building

Burned out brick buildings. All that remains is part of the front facade of these two to six storey buildings.

Burned out buildings, April 1904

The images of the fire’s aftermath are available online. The originals are kept at the City of Toronto Archives, located on Spadina Road., just north of Dupont Street.

red umbrella day

Posted: November 4, 2013 in abstract, general Toronto
Tags: alley, autumn, brick, brighten, city, damp, fence, gate, homeless Jesus, humour, lane, leaves, purple wall, rainy, red umbrella, stone, Timothy Schmalz, Toronto, urban, wet, whatsoever, whatsoever you do, wood, yellow wall

umbrella, parapluie, paraguas

red, rouge, rojo,

Grey, damp days always need a touch of colour.

Yesterday, as I walked from Dupont subway station to Kensington I made use of my red umbrella. It kept me dry. It brightened up a few photos!

A red umbrella is open and sitting on the wet pavement beside a grey painted wall.

Every rainy day needs a splash of colour.

A red umbrella is wedged between two poles beside a purplish brown garage door in an alley

caught in the alley

A mural on a garage door shows a girl reaching out her hand. The umbrella is placed by her hand.

When this mural was first painted, there was a downspout for the eavestrough running down the side of the wall. Her hand was painted to look like it was reaching for, or holding onto, the downspout. Because that downspout is no longer there, I decided that she needed something else to hold on to.

A red umbrella is lying on a wet sidewalk beside a large puddle. There are lots of leaves on the sidewalk as well.

left in a puddle

‘Whatsoever you do’, a sculpture by Timothy Schmalz. It is also referred to as ‘Homeless Jesus’. This installation is outside of St. Stephen-in-the Fields church on College Street. It was installed on 14 September and was originally scheduled to remain there until 6 October. According to the description of the sculpture, it is a fiberglass cast of a silent, huddled panhandler. A person that people walk by and ignore. But if you look at the outstretched hand, you will see the stigmata (the wounds of Christ).
When we first placed the umbrella over her, we worried about the appropriateness of such an action but as I took the photo, a passerby commented on how people have been known to place cheeseburgers and other food in her hand.
The statue was stolen at the end of November. More information

A close up photo of the red umbrella's reflection on the roof of a black car. There are lots of rain drops on the roof as well.

car roof reflections

A red umbrella is beside a stone and brick wall that was once painted yellow. The yellow paint has started to wear off.

red and yellow

A white line drawing of a man with a top hat (upper body only) on a dark grey wall. On the ground beside the wall is a red umbrella

top hat, umbrella…. where are my dancing shoes?

A man is crouching beside a brick wall that has been painted purple and grey. He is holding a red umbrella over his head.

Toronto siesta

A red umbrella on the ground beside a gate made of weathered wood

something old, something new

The red umbrella is wedged between the top of a chainlink gate and a wood door.

The End

Special thanks to Sasha and David who played along and made the day even better!

Also to Michael for crouching against a purple wall!

Adelaide abstracted

Posted: October 13, 2013 in abstract, general Toronto
Tags: abstract, brick, city, door, fire hydrant, glass, grate, green wall, Hyatt hotel, metal, orange, orange wall, photos, pink wall, reflections, shadows, Toronto, urban, windows

Today was a beautiful, sunny and warm October day. The warmer than usual weather that we’ve been having continued today, the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend. The nice thing about walking in downtown on a Saturday, especially the Saturday of a long weekend, is that there aren’t many people around. Nobody to give me strange looks as I take pictures of things that most people just walk past.

Today I walked Adelaide Street between Spadina and University and back again. I also took a detour along Pearl Street which runs parallel to Adelaide, but one street south.

a pinkish coloured wall with a yellow fire hydrant in front of it. There is also a door and some grey steps on the right side of the picture

fire hydrant in the middle

blue sky and a yellow brick bulding are reflected in the many windows of a hotel

reflections in the windows of the Hyatt Hotel

in the washroom, Ravi Soup restaurant. If you have never eated here, the food is fabulous, the restaurant smells wonderful and the staff are very friendly.

in the washroom, Ravi Soup restaurant, 322 Adelaide West. If you have never eaten here, the food is fabulous, the restaurant smells wonderful and the staff are very friendly. I highly recommend it.

A couple of tall buildings are reflected in the windows of the building across the street

reflections

close up photo of metal bars on a window and the shadows that they cast on a sunny day

criss crossed window

A wall where part is painted dark green and the other part is off-white. There are three windows, each window has a metal grate over it.

green and white divided

Tower Automotive Building

Posted: September 2, 2013 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: 1988, blue face, brick, eyeless, faccio sempre la brava, face, fence, girl, graffiti, heritage, industrial, Junction, Loopy Le Loop, Looter, lsd, street art, tags, the Junction, Toronto, Tower Automotive, vacant lot, wall, watering can

Standing alone in a vacant lot on Sterling Road is the Tower Automotive Building. It was built by Northern Aluminium in 1920 and at some point became the property of Tower Automotive who used the site to build car parts. In 2005 it was declared a heritage building but it was closed shortly thereafter when the company declared bankruptcy.

The ten storey Tower Automotive bulding. In the foreground is the land left vacant after the demolition of the sheet casting machining buildings in 2010.

The ten storey Tower Automotive building. In the foreground is the land left vacant after the demolition of the sheet casting machining buildings in 2010.

Looking up the spine of the building. North side of Tower Automotive.

walking along the west wall

Faccio Sempre la Brava, translate from the Italian as I always do the good.

Faccio Sempre la Brava, translates from the Italian as, I always do the good.

Loopy Le Loop with tags

two wire gates. One has a sign on it that says 'protected by' but the name of the company is obscured by a tag

ungated

interior, doors

When I was researching this building, I found a site that has a collection of great photos of the interior of the building that were taken in May of this year:

jermalism.blogspot.ca/2013/05/abandonment-issues-tower-automotive.html

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Art Spin

Posted: September 2, 2013 in events, galleries
Tags: art, Art Spin, brick, Caroline Larsen, Celia Neubauer, concrete, gallery, green door, heritage, industrial, Jinny Yu, John Oswald, Lois Schklar, Mary Grisey, Michael Toke, Noel Middleton, projections, sculpture, Stillnessence, Toronto, Tower Automotive, visual, Vuk Dragojevic, wire

Fourth Annual Art Spin Exhibition,
Tower Automotive Building, 158 Sterling Rd.,
Aug 29 – Sept 1, 2013

18 artists, one old vacant heritage industrial building.

Interesting lighting. Interesting use of the space. Interesting relationships between the installations and their surroundings.

I have not included photos of all the art in the exhibit. My apologies to the artists whose work I haven’t shown.

looking at ‘Sound the Alarm’ by Caroline Larsen’ with the video installation ‘I,I,I,I’ in the foreground

‘We Are Happy’ by Michael Toke. Like a visit to the dentist’s office.

a group of people looking at a piece of art. They are in a large open space that once was a factory. Concrete and brick walls.

The painting on the wall to the left is ‘Exit Enter’ by Celia Neubauer.

‘Sterling Caer Observer’ by Noel Middleton

A sculpture that is composed of three tall vertical pieces of shiny metal. A yellowish brick wall is in the background.

‘Untitled’ by Jinny Yu. Three shaped pieces of metal by brick wall.

artist: Mary Grisey

‘Floating in the Eye of the Storm’ by Lois Schklar.

wire sculpture

‘Stillnessence Vivarium’ by John Oswald.

This installation lent itself to a many interpretations.

more information about Art Spin http://www.artspin.ca

The video installation ‘Melting Bricks’ was in small room where it was shown fairly high up on the wall. It was the only source of light in the room. I focused on the relationship between the room and the light when I was taking pictures of it. (my apologies to the artist as I seem to have forgotten his/her name).

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as I walk Toronto

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