buildings | as I walk Toronto

Posts Tagged ‘buildings’

more lovebot!

Posted: May 3, 2015 in graffiti and street art
Tags: buildings, city, graffiti, grominator, heart, invasion, lovebot, lovebot the robot, robot, stickers, street art, Toronto, TTC, urban, wheatpaste

More lovebots that I have seen in the past couple of months –
since back when there was snow on the ground. He certainly gets around!

below: At the bottom of the stairs over the train tracks, Dundas West, in the Junction

below: A very large 3D looking lovebot in a little alcove on Keele St. near the railway underpass

below: lovebot waits to cross the street.

below: Lovebot and a friendly dinosaur together in the snow near the AGO

below: A rusty gameboy lovebot

below: A lovebot and grominator hybrid

below: Standing beside Lee’s Palace, Bloor St. West

below: Watching over Nathan Phillips Square

below: Lovebot on a crumbling corner on Ossington

below: Double! Two lovebots on an old orange door at Queen and Sherbourne.

below: Lovebot waits for a TTC streetcar

below: This lovebot lives with the folks at Toronto Collective

winter trees

Posted: March 10, 2015 in general Toronto, nature
Tags: alley, bare branches, blue sky, branches, buildings, city, deciduous trees, garages, houses, lane, laneway, no leaves, residences, shadows, snow, street scenes, Toronto, trees, urban, winter

Bare branches, snow, and sometimes blue sky –
things that usually only come together in winter.

Views that are hidden behind summer leaves are revealed in winter’s barrenness.

Trees take on a different character when they have no leaves

and they cast a different shadow.

Toronto is a city of trees. They are everywhere, and a surprising number of them are large, mature trees.

When we think of trees we usually think of shade on a hot day, or maybe the joy that spring buds bring, or maybe the rustle of fallen leaves in the autumn. The winter tree is often overlooked but they too add to the character of this city.

standing alone

Posted: February 1, 2015 in locations
Tags: apartment buildings, buildings, concrete blocks, condos, construction, demolition, digger, dwelling, house, midtown, north toronto, off colour, Redpath Ave., Roehampton Ave., Toronto, vacant lot

at the corner of Redpath and Roehampton

Irene Ave

Posted: January 16, 2015 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: African, alley, animals, back, Bloorcourt, buildings, Christie Ossington Neighbourhood Centre, colourful, colours, CONC, faces, graffiti, lane, lion, Loft, loftycsei, man, motifs, murals, people, photographs, photos, street art, Toronto, tribute, urban, woman, youth

Irene Ave. is a short street that runs behind the north side of Bloor Street West between Carling and Shaw streets, just east of Ossington Avenue. Irene Avenue Parkette takes up most of the south side of Irene Avenue. There is an alley that runs between the park and the back of the stores on Bloor West.

The Christie Ossington Neighbourhood Centre, through the Graffiti Arts portion of their LOFT program, has sponsored a number of murals in this alley.

This is what it looked like on a cold afternoon last week.

The next picture was taken in June of 2012.
The mural is still there but I couldn’t take a proper photo of it last week as there was a car parked too close.

When I walked around the block to check out the fronts of these buildings, this is what I found

Street art mural by elicser of three men on a bench. One is smoking a cigarette, one is reading and one is holding a lunch box in his hands.

A mural by Elicser and to the right the LOFT Youth Centre for Social Enterprise and Innovation.

by kids

Posted: December 7, 2014 in locations
Tags: Adam Beck Junior public school, art, artwork, buildings, city, CN Tower, dogs, elementary, exhibit, fence, flowers, houses, ladybug, mural, outdoors, painting, Scarborough, scenes, school, students, sun, Toronto, trees

On a fence at Adam Beck Junior Public school in Scarborough is a wonderful “mural” composed of pictures painted by some of the students. Kudos to all involved in the project!

A “Danger due to construction” sign, the CN Tower and a Toronto police car.
Ladybugs, flowers and trees.
On the very right is a picture that looks like a sunset or sunrise. What you probably can’t read are the words written on the blue stripe. They say, “the story of my life”.

Buses, soccer balls and a hat left on the fence.
Another CN Tower, an arena, and ice cream.
Stop bullying too.

A Canadian flag and the Toronto Maple Leafs.

walls in the abstract

Posted: October 25, 2014 in abstract, general Toronto
Tags: abstract, blue, bricks, buildings, city, concrete, grey, houses, orange, paint, reflections, stone, Toronto, urban, walls, windows, wood

Just a collection of walls that caught my interest as I walked in the past few weeks.

reflections in the window of the OPG (Ontario Power Generation) building, a curved glass structure.

diamond blues

patches, cracks, and drips under a bridge

close up of a maroon coloured drain pipe down the side of a house that is red and orange.

vibrant orange with drain pipe

Four storey brick building with large windowes with rounded arched shaped tops. Yellow brick details around the tops of the windows.

Pattern of arches at George and Adelaide

close up of a concrete wall that has black paint (or something like black paint) spilled on the lower part of it.

black and white under grey

Close up showing part of a wood pallet that is leaning against a grey brick wall.

wood on brick, browns and greys

one December evening

Posted: December 17, 2013 in general Toronto
Tags: benches, Brookfield Place, buildings, Christmas, city, December, decorations, downtown, drifts, glass, lights, park, path, reflections, road, shadows, snow, St. James, storm, streets, Toronto, traffic, urban, windows, winter

One cold Saturday evening, during a snowstorm, in downtown Toronto

Snow, lots of blowing snow!

Ruts in the snow on King St. reflect the light from the street lights. Snow is blowing across the road. There is a red stop light in the distance, and you can see the headlights of the cars that are stopped for it.

Snow on the roads and snow blowing across the streets.

Snow covered ground lights make round patches of light in the snow. Small white Christmas lights are wrapped around a small tree trunk. The wind is blowing snow across the lights.

A dance of snow and light choreographed by the wind.

A shop window with 6 mannequins. They are all dressed in long dresses or black skirts except one of the mannequins who is wearing a red dress. They all have large red bows in their hair. The backdrop makes it look that they are standing in a snowy pine forest.

Ladies of the night – all dressed up but nowhere to go.

Night time. Fresh snow on the ground with only one set of footsteps walking through it. There are a number of trees along the side of sidewalk and they cast shadows over the snow.

Shadows playing in the drifts of snow.

Black & orange construction cones along side a plastic orange fence around a construction site at the side of the road. Traffic stopped at a stoplight in the distance.

It wouldn’t be a Toronto street unless there was construction on it somewhere, even on the snowiest nights.

With the shorter days of December come the lights of Christmas to brighten the longer hours of darkness.

The photos below were all taken in St. James Park.

looking across a snowy St. James Park towards the cathedral whose steeple is partially obscured by trees. Late afternoon. Part of the Toronto skyline can be seen in the background.

St. James Cathedral through the snow as twilight falls.

Shining

Two tree trunks wrapped in strands of multi-coloured Christmas lights are in the foreground. In the background are bare tree branches against the sky. The sky is a grey colour because it is a cloudy winter night.

Spots of colour contrast with the plain grey of the bare tree branches against the grey late afternoon sky.

snow covered benches under trees whose trunks are wrapped in strands of Christmas lights.

Snow covered benches await a warmer day.

Six trees with their trunks wrapped in strands of Christmas lights. There is a fresh, deep layer of snow on the ground.

Colour, light, and shadow. St. James Park trees in the snow.

A snow covered path through a park. The tree trunks have been covered with Christmas lights. A couple of trees have blue lights, a couple of trees are covered with white lights, and some trees have multi-colored lights.

More lights…. a snow covered path through St. James park.

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.

Kensington – the colours of Kensington

Posted: August 28, 2012 in locations
Tags: buildings, Kensington, streets, Toronto, urban

Words to come later I think

I love the names!

Cirque de Poulet

Baldwin street, walking towards Spadina

as I walk Toronto

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