condos | as I walk Toronto

Posts Tagged ‘condos’

changes, again… and again….

Posted: May 15, 2026 in construction, intersections, locations, stores
Tags: Annesley Hall, architecture, Bloor St., brutalist, concrete, condos, construction, COR, Cottage Lane, Cumberland Street, downtown, Flavelle House, glass towers, Justus Becker, La Scala, Manulife centre, mural, Museum subway station, Planetarium, Robert Barron stables, ROM, St. Nicholas St., stores, William McElcheran, windows, Yonge St.

After I got off the subway at Bloor but before I got to the street, the first construction change of the day hit me in the face (luckily not literally!). Bloor Street East is now a mess.

below: “The Bay” sign has been removed from the old store. Founded in 1670 to control the fur trade in the area, the Hudson Bay Company used to lay claim to being North America’s oldest continuously operating company. The company went bankrupt late in 2025 and all of their stores have closed including this one. The complex (includes 34 storeys above) was opened in 1974 and was referred to as the Hudson Bay Centre. Now it is just 2 Bloor St. East. The next question is how does one re-purpose a large windowless space on a busy street? (personal aside – I started by honeymoon at the Plaza II which was the original hotel in the complex. I won’t tell you how long ago that was, but the Quebec Nordiques were in a playoff game that day).

below: Upwards at Yonge & Bloor

Of shorts and strawberries, and hoping for spring . So far it’s been a cool (or rather cold) May.

Shorts!

below: On the south side of Bloor is another concrete building from the 1970s, the Manulife Centre, which has undergone a transformation at street level in recent years.

below: Found on the City of Toronto archives website, a photo from its early days. (As another aside, after graduating from high school, I worked for a few months at a store in the basement – back in the day when Ashleys, Creeds, and Birks had stores there. Bay Bloor Radio may be the sole survivor?)

vintage photo, faded colour, from City of Toronto Archives, manulife center at Bay and Bloor (southeast corner), concrte brutalist architecture

source: Fonds 200, Series 1465, File 750, Item 14

below: A contrast between the Manulife Centre and the new towers on the south side of Bloor (east and west of Yonge)… even the upper levels of the Hudson Bay Centre can be seen in the distance.

below: A little farther west on Bloor…. another concrete building with recessed windows. Very much the style at the time!

below: Northwest corner of Bay & Bloor with yet another concrete building from the 1960s and 1970s (1200 Bay Street was built in 1966). The last time that I walked here, the lower levels were boarded up and painted black. Now they are hiding behind a large expanse of Tiffany Blue. There are rumblings of an 87 storey tower being built here. Dutch Dutch developers Kroonenberg Group and ProWinko filed a development application with the city to build such a tower back in 2020.

below: Looking west on Cumberland Street

below: But there are things that don’t change – like cars getting stuck in an intersection on a red light.

below: Never ending renovations at the Royal Ontario Museum

below: It has been sitting empty for years. The McLaughlin Planetarium closed in 1995 after the provincial government cut its funding. It wasn’t even thirty years old at the time; it opened in 1968. It is a big cement box with a large dome on top and is not very photogenic! It was sold to the University of Toronto back in 2009 but it is only now that redevelopment is about to occur.

below: Backside view. This post has been difficult to write – so many changes. One of the reasons that I started this blog was to document the changes happening in the city. I hadn’t expected those changes to be quite so relentless. Never ending. A perpetual motion machine of changes. Are we tired of winning yet? This picture is already out of date – there are photos of the demolition popping up online now that show the dome broken open and disappearing.

below: Museum subway station is getting a new elevator entrance from the sidewalk on University Avenue in front of where the Planetarium is/was.

below: Little blue signs of spring dot the lawn. Emmanuel College (U of T) is in the background. It is affiliated with the United Church of Canada and is one of the members of the Toronto School of Theology.

below: Part of University of Toronto Law School.

below: Annesley Hall, Victoria University, U of T,was built in 1903 in the Queen Anne Revival style. Annesley Hall was the first university residence built for women in Canada and is still used as such. (What?, no changes?)

below: Charles Street West where a few original houses remain steadfast.

below: Still on Charles Street – but it is a perspective that is now very common around the city as everything moves upward, taller and taller. Egos get stoked and massaged as yet another “tallest” tower gets built, only to be outdone by someone else down the line….

below: “La Scala”by by Canadian sculptor and architect William McElcheran. The women are walking up the stairs, or walking around in circles…

below: A peak at what is behind – lots of balconies and stairs and even an upper level addition.

below: St. Nicholas Street runs parallel to Yonge, one street west. It runs south from Charles Street to Wellesley.

below: 81 St. Nicholas is this red brick building with the interesting contrasting brick detail across the top. It was built in 1912 and is known as the Robert Barron Stables. In 1889 Robert Barron built a store at Yonge and Charles. A few years later he added this building, his stables, behind the grocery store.

below: There are stretches of Yonge Street where there are many closed storefronts. This usually indicates that a developer is sitting on a chunk of properties and is in the process of accumulating more… or is waiting for approval to redevelop what he already has. Nothing moves quickly. It’s just sad to see the emptiness and decay in the meantime.

below: Filed under “learn something new everyday” is the fact that there is such a thing as soy milk volcano buns. I assume that they are $7 each and not $70!

below: Charles Street East (just east of Yonge). The large mural on the side of the apartment building is “Toronto & Stadt Frankfurt Am Main” and it was painted by Justus Becker (aka COR). The reflection within the glasses depicts the skylines of both Toronto and Frankfurt and represents the sister city relationship between the two cities. See that orange and white awning? That’s a gelato place – a fabulous gelato place!… and that is where I ended my walk, almost a circle back to Yonge & Bloor.

south from Liberty Village

Posted: October 26, 2025 in history, locations, old buildings, public art, transportation
Tags: Allan Lamport stadium, BMO Field, condos, construction, cranes, Dufferin Gate, E.B. Cox, Elford Bradley Cox, Exhibition Place, Gerald Glastone, GO trains, Greek gods, Lakeshore Blvd., Liberty Village, McGillivray Fountain, Mino Bimaadiziwin, Ontario Place, people, Scadding cabin, sculptures, Shrine Peace Memorial

Liberty Village is the neighbourhood that is south of King Street, west of Strachan, and east of Dufferin. It’s southern boundary is a combination of the Gardiner Expressway and the railway tracks (CN, VIA, and GO)

below: A temporary park has taken over a corner of the parking lot on Hanna.

below: The sign says Ontario Place straight ahead.

below: Dream Big

below: Allan Lamport stadium concrete

below: Looking north from the goalposts in the stadium.

below: Once it was a carpet factory – The Toronto Carpet Factory was spread over 8 brick buildings on a 4 acre site. It was built between 1899 and 1920. The company was established by F. Barry Hayes in 1891 and was originally at Jarvis and Esplanade. At the end of WW1, 1250 people were employed here. The factory remained in production until 1979, although the number of carpets that were made annually was greatly reduced by the end.

below: Streetcars waiting at Dufferin Loop, Dufferin south of King.

below: View from the bridge at the south end of Dufferin looking west along the Gardiner Expressway towards Etobicoke and Mississauga.

below: Eastern view

below: The arch marks the Dufferin Gate, the west entrance to the Exhibition Grounds.

Part way between Dufferin and Strachan is Exhibition GO station. The station has been designed to provide access from both sides of the tracks which in turn offers another walking route south from Liberty Village. The area north of the tracks is a bit of a mess as the new Ontario Line will terminate at Exhibition and the completion of that project is still a few years away.

below: The pedestrian tunnel under the tracks.

below: Looking north under the Gardiner – Liberty Village provides that background in this image.

below: More Ontario Line construction as seen from Platform 4 at Exhibition station

below: South end of BMO Field, looking east towards downtown and the CN Tower.

below: BMO Field is home to both the Toronto Argonauts (CFL, football) and the Toronto FC (MLS – Major League Soccer). It has just undergone upgrades (think $$$) to make it ready to host some of the FIFA World Cup soccer/football games in mid 2026.

below: Some of the lights seen at the Exhibition – with the CN Tower in the distance.

below: rooftops

below: One of the latest public art addition to the Exhibition Grounds is “Mino Bimaadiziwin”, an Anishinaabemowin phrase that translates to “Good Life”. The mural was developed in partnership with the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation 50-meter-long artwork honors Indigenous history and culture and was unveiled in October 2024.
The installation is part of a plan to separate Exhibition Place from the Gardiner Expressway.

below: The McGillivray Fountain was designed by Canadian sculptor Gerald Gladstone and donated to Exhibition Place in 1968 by Gordon B. McGillivray in honor of his father, John A. McGillivray.

below: The Scadding cabin was originally built in 1794 by John Scadding on land that he owned east of the Don River. He owned more than 200 acres and his property stretched from Lake Ontario to what is now the Danforth. The next owner of the property used the cabin as an out-building. In 1879 it was donated to the York Pioneer and Historical Society who arranged to have it moved close to its present site to celebrate the opening of the Industrial Exhibition (now the CNE).

below: The title printed on this image is “Log Cabins of the York Pioneers,Exhibition Grounds Toronto 1880. Lithographed and printed at the Exhibition Building, Rolph, Smith & Co. Toronto”. The cabin on the left is labelled Simcoe 1794 (i.e. the Scadding cabin) and the other is labelled York Pioneers, Lorne 1879.

below: Shrine Peace Memorial

below: There is a collection of twenty small sculptures representing Gods, heroes, and monsters of Greek mythology in what is called the Garden of the Greek Gods. They were created by Elford Bradley Cox (1914-2003) in the 1960s.

below: Hercules is the tallest of the sculptures.

Immediately south of the Exhibition Grounds is/was Ontario Place. This pile of rubble is all that remains of what was on West Island – mostly the decaying amusement/theme park that hasn’t been in operation for years (death by neglect).

below: The round Cinesphere is still there but everything west of it is gone. Once it was the pride of Ontario – built in response to Montreal’s Expo ’67 – but slowly over the years many of its features have been altered or removed (Children’s Village, the Forum with its free concerts, and more). Having said that, other sections have been renovated – Trillium Park on the east end for example. I didn’t get that far on this walk but you can some of it in Ontario Place 2.0 from 2017.

dense and denser

Posted: August 11, 2025 in construction, intersections, old buildings, public art, transportation
Tags: apartments, Canada Square, Catherine Widgery, condos, construction, demolition, development, Eglinton Ave., history, Ilan Sandler, KPMB, LRT, Mindshadows, North Toronto Collegiate, NTCI, Postal Station K, St. Monicas church, St. Peter, TTC, Yonge Street

…. another visit to Yonge and Eglinton

Of course, this is also the location of the Eglinton station on the mysterious Eglinton LRT. The underground walkways between it and the Yonge – University subway line are complete, as is the entrance on the south side of Eglinton. The latter is a large building and it will definitely help with the flow of traffic… but it sits idle.

below: All of the old Eglinton station bus bays are long gone.

below: Canada Square, home to Canadian Tire head office for more than 50 years, was built in the 1960s and 70s. It consists of two towers connected by a lower section – it is this middle connecting piece that has the vertical concrete slabs on the exterior. These verticals are on both the Yonge Street side (below) and this motif is repeated on the back of the building (see photo above, behind the new station entrance). Earlier this year, Canadian Tire announced that they had renewed their lease for another 20 years and that the building was going to be redeveloped/upgraded/modernized in the near future.

below: Northwest corner of Yonge and Eglinton

below: The Duke of York pub at Yonge and Roehampton

below: The old Postal Station K has been incorporated into a new condo development. The older building dates from 1936; it was built on the site of Montgomery’s Tavern (made famous in 1837 when it was the epicenter of William Lyon MacKenzie’s rebellion). It was a big square building but with Art Deco elements around the entrance. Because it was built in 1936, it actually featured (and still does) the Royal Insignia of King Edward VIII whose reign was very short-lived because he abdicated the throne only 11 months after being crowned.

below: North of Montgomery/Broadway more development. More cranes.

below: About 15 years ago, North Toronto Collegiate (NTCI) was rebuilt on Broadway. The new school was incorporated into a condo development. At the north entrance to the school is an artwork by Catherine Widgery’s called “Mindshadows”. It is a 20 foot high stainless steel cube on legs that is covered with numbers, letters, and words. Serene, provoke, laugh, loud, big, spirit, and up are some of the words.

below: View from Broadway of the North Toronto football field and track and some of the condos that surround it.

below: Looking north from Roehampton

below: At the south entrance to NTCI (on Roehampton) is another public art installation. “What’s your name?” by Ilan Sandler (2011) contains the first names of all the NTCI students since the school opened in 1912. Each name only appears once – but there are still 2053 different names such as Sven, Connie, Marlee, Janis, Lola, Ephraim, Bryan, and Snezana.

The neighbourhood that is north of Eglinton and east of Yonge has been the home of many apartment buildings for at least a few decades. A growing number of them have been replaced by taller glass and steel condo developments, especially since the city has targeted the area for “… tall buildings and an intense concentration of office, retail, institutional and residential uses…” (quote comes from Yonge Eglinton Secondary Plan, 2018)

below: Old style (1920s?) 4 storey walk-up apartments. There was a time when this type of architecture was common and these apartment buildings are (were) scattered around the city. There aren’t as many as there used to be although some, like this one, has been renovated and kept in good shape…. a testament to their good design.

below: Concrete building from the 1970s at 2323 Yonge …

below: … but it too has a blue and white development notice on the side of this building. Fifty eight stories with 40 car parking spots but room for 350 bikes.

below: St. Monicas church, an A-frame structure built in 1959, is set well back from the street with a parking lot in front.

below: One of the many stained glass windows inside St. Monica’s church. This image shows a window that features gold crossed keys which are a symbol associated with St. Peter. These are the keys to the Gates of Heaven. The church website describes this window as representing the (Catholic) Sacrament of Reconciliation (the pardoning of confessed sins).

below: Redesigned. From the KPMB website, this is rendering of the proposed new St. Monica’s church. It has been brought forward closer to the street which also allows for a new condo tower behind. That’s the plan.

below: Beside the church is St. Monica’s school. The original brick building was built in 1916. A few additions have been added over the years.

below: Changes are also happening to the west of Yonge Street. For instance, this building on Eglinton between Duplex and Henning is coming down.

below: Old, new, and in between

below: Remnants of what used to be.

below: As I am sure you are aware, I have blogged about Eglinton Avenue before. Back in 2015 (ten years ago!!) I posted this photo of Eglinton and Duplex. Both glass buildings are now gone. The Toronto Hydro Systems building (the short brick one) at the northwest corner of Duplex and Eglinton remains – it is the one with the coloured patches on the wall in the photo above.

below: Same corner, slightly different angle, taken this past week.

below: After the glass clad building on the northeast corner of Duplex and Eglinton came down, the backside of the Yonge Eglinton Center was exposed (on the right) as well as another tower (in an area that needs to be explored more!).

below: With thanks to my mother who walked with me that day.

around Wilson station

Posted: March 4, 2025 in construction, locations, public art, transportation
Tags: art, clandestinos, concrete, condos, development, Downsview airport, fourplexes, graffiti, houses, kiss n ride, murals, parking, redevelopment, Shalak Attack, street art, subway, Ted Bieler, tiles, TTC, Wilson Heights, Wilson station

Wilson subway station, on the University side of Line 1, opened in 1978 and was the end of the line until Downsview station just to the north opened in 1996. It is not a thing of beauty. Concrete. Austere from the outside. It’s entrance from under the Allen Expressway is dark, gloomy, and depressing.

below: Northwest entrance to the station, nestled up against the Allen Expressway.

below: Walkway to southwest entrance

That stretch of the subway runs down the median of the Allen Expressway.

below: Although the platform has a roof, it is open at the ends and in the winter it is cold. There are a few of these pod-like waiting areas, circular glass structures with benches for those wanting a tiny reprieve from the wind.

below: Inside the station a concrete wall sculpture by Ted Bieler entitled ‘Canyons’

What drew me here in the first place …. To help brighten up the area, some of the concrete, both inside and out, has been covered with murals by Shalak Attack, Bruno Smoky, and Clandestinos,

below: An owl and a woman’s face at the two south entrances.

below: There is a lot of street art along Wilson Avenue but most of it is under the Allen Expressway and is not well lit. Some of it is also looking very dirty.

below: Pink flowers inside the station

below: Circular “Kiss ‘n Ride” still exists.

below: Exit at Wilson Heights

below: Northeast side of the station, along with the Allen Expressway

I took most of these pictures back in the summer but I hadn’t taken the time to blog about what I had seen. When I drove past Wilson again recently, I noticed that the parking lot on the east side (towards Wilson Heights) is now fenced off. Now it is a snow covered vacant lot.

below: Parking lot before

below: … and after. You can still park your bikes here, but no more cars.

below: There is a City of Toronto development notice sign on the side of Wilson station. It looks like the city may be serious about affordable housing at this site. Apparently this has been in the works for a number of years but faced some opposition form those who wanted to keep the parking lot. Just shy of 1500 units in six buildings are planned on the site along with community space and a public park. The percent allotted to affordable housing varies from 35 to 48 percent, depending on the source of the information.

To the west of the station, on the north side of Wilson, is the remains of the Downsview Airport lands.

below: One of the four winners of the ‘XOXO Downsview, Talking Fences’ competition of 2023, is “Aandi wenjibaayan?” which translates to “Where are you from?” It was suggested by Lakhvir Sandhar. The other three winners have their words displayed elsewhere on the Downsview property.

vintage photo taken from low flying airplane of bishop-barker airplane limited,

Photo credit: Toronto Public Library online digital image archive

The south side of Wilson is retail and is now Wilson Village. It is also where you will find Billy Bishop Way named for Canadian pilot. It is nowhere near Billy Bishop Airport (that’s WAAAAY south, on the island, or the other one in Owen Sound) but is a nod to Downsview’s history as an airfield and its role in airplane manufacturing.

William Avery Bishop was born in Owen Sound in 1894. He was a Canadian flying ace during WW1.

below: Looking southeast past the old metal fence that surrounds the parking on the northwest side of Wilson station. Big box retail on the other side of Wilson, and newer midrise to highrise residential development on the other side of the Allen.

Very close to the planned “affordable housing” but on the south side of Wilson, there is already a new community being built.

There are many older single family homes to the east, in a quiet neighbourhood squeezed in between Wilson and the 401.

I even discovered an old moose hiding in the bushes! The “Moose in the City” project goes way back to 2000 when 326 life-sized moose sculptures found homes around the city. Each one was decorated by a local artist. I am not sure how many still exist but it can’t be more than a fraction of the original.

Other moose: Scarborough moose near Kennedy and 401, moose at St. Clair and Bayview. Any others?

To the east, Wilson is becoming a canyon of midrise buildings, replacing the older residences, often fourplexes and sixplexes.

The development is more intensive as you get closer to the Allen and the subway line…

… on both the north and south side of Wilson

True Love fades

Posted: January 3, 2025 in construction, locations, old buildings
Tags: birdo, condos, construction, digger, drills, Dundas East, glass and steel, hair, houses, King Place Curry, Lahore Hakka chinese restaurant, machinery, Mutual St., redevelopment, reflections, Sherbourne St., TMU, True Love Cafe, windows

and other little observations along Dundas Street East – a street that has seen intensive redevelopment in the central core. These changes are slowly moving east with the consequent mixing of old and new.

Once there were large red hearts on the sign, as well as on the building, but they have disappeared.

The True Love Cafe opened at the corner of Dundas East & Sherbourne back in 2004. The outside was purple and apparently so was the inside. Before that (since the 1950s), the space was George’s Spaghetti and Jazz Bar.

Once there were messages like, “I love you” on the walls as well as menu items written inside heart shapes, but these too are no more.

below: South side of Dundas at Sherbourne.

below: Also at Dundas and Sherbourne are the most famous telephone boxes in the city – or at least most photographed

West of Sherbourne, some of the original large old brick houses still stand. Some converted to commercial uses long ago; some are still residences.

below: (Dundas and Pembroke) Another blue and white development notice – with another very tall condo. Yet again, all these residences but only 6 car parking spots compared to parking for bikes; Doug Ford screams about closing bike lanes while the city actively discourages car parking. Great for the developer as car parking costs more money to build than bike spaces. The sign says 49 storeys, the latest Toronto paperwork on the site says 55 storeys). The facades of the 4 heritage houses that the condo replaces will be saved.

below: Nearby, another closed restaurant.

below: North side of Dundas, just east of George Street. It’s looked shabby for years but it’s still in one piece. George’s Pizza, George’s BBQ, and Piassa Injera and Takeout (Ethiopian). The sign in the window of the pizza restaurant says “open” but the whole building is for sale. No price given on the realtors’ website, but its 6000 SF with 3 retail units and 10 residential apartments. It’s probably a candidate for demolition?

below: Looking westward at Dundas and George

below: King Place BBQ and Curry stands its ground

below: The Filmore Hotel still stands at George and Dundas East

below: Looking east along Dundas

below: Southeast corner of Dundas and Mutual

below: Dundas and Mutual, northeast corner

below: Old City of Toronto Archives photo from 1978 showing the northeast corner of Dundas and Mutual back when the building was pale bluish grey and not yellow; it was home to Denys Barbecue and not a cannabis store. The Warwick Hotel (built 1910) is long gone.

below: Where the Warwick Hotel once stood is now part vacant lot and part parking lot. This concrete building (partially seen in the photo above too) was built for Sears Canada, completed in 1971. It features cantilevered blocks to form an upside down ziggurat. What is a ziggurat? It is a building where each subsequent floor is smaller than the one below it with the result being a pyramidal shape.

below: Reflections at Dundas and Jarvis

below: Dundas and Dalhousie

below: Church and Dundas – closing in on Yonge Street and TMU

below: Birdo mural on Church Street.

below: A squirrel with a nut (or other edible) on the ramp to one of TMU’s buildings on Church Street. He’s not waving goodbye, but perhaps he’s thinking “Gotta run!”

As this has turned into the first post of January 2025… Wishing everyone a healthy and prosperous New Year with many walking and/or photographic opportunities! Have a good one!

signs of change

Posted: December 12, 2024 in construction, graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: condos, derelict, development, Eglinton LRT, GO station, Guildwood, Nigel Smith, parking lot, signs, street art, tire, vacant lot

…. from a walk on Kingston Road near Guildwood GO station.

below: First sign. Sign of distress, of times gone by.

Bob Johnston Chevrolet was on Kingston Road until it went out of business in 2007. The property became a used car lot. It backs onto the parking lot for the Guildwood GO station

below: A sign with no relevance. A sign that says “vehicles protected by security systems” but it’s been a long time since anyone parked back there.

below: Other, much newer, signs have appeared on the property. They are a street art installation by Nigel Smith that appeared a few months ago.

Funnily Enough

and Joking Apart

And last, a sign that tells another story – a Development Notice sign that dates from 2021. It suggests that 996 residences in 4 towers all with large podiums, will be built. Some will be rentals. Back in 2008, the original change of zoning from commercial to mixed commercial/residential allowed for buildings up to 8 storeys. The process limps along as the property changes owner and the height limits are appealed.

The process is also slow because of the people and organizations that get a say. Traffic studies, Urban Forestry opinions, as well as TTC and Metrolinx. Apparently there is a Line 7, the Eglinton East LRT that will (might?) run here. It has been proposed, accepted, and….. don’t hold your breath. The Eglinton LRT is 14+ years old and still not operational. If it gets off the ground in its present plan, it will run east from Kennedy (& Eglinton) to Kingston Road, then northeast on Kingston Road to Morningside. Finally, north to Sheppard (via UTSC) where it will loop back to join the Sheppard line. On that cheery note, I will leave you with a few images from around the property taken on a snowy December day.

College to Elm

Posted: December 9, 2024 in construction, graffiti and street art, locations, public art, stores, windows and walls
Tags: Adrian Hayles, arch, Aura, buildings, College St., condos, construction, Elm St., History of Music on Yonge St., hoardings, Joseph Sheard parkette, lights, McGill St., mural, redevelopment, Steps Art, trees, Yonge St., Zanzibar tavern

…. A short distance but with a lot happening.

An early morning walk with a weak winter sun low in the sky. Tall buildings that cast shadows, or reflect light. Patterns of light and shadow.

below: Crossing Yonge from Carlton to College

below: North on Yonge. The facade above Shoppers remains. “….has design value and technological merit as a representative of the 1950s Toronto School of ‘Picturesque Modernism’ in its expressive use of concrete seen in the cantilevered canopy and decorative piercings of the concrete screen for the above-ground parking, in the ‘egg-crate’ elevations designed to reduce solar gain, and in the predominant white aesthetic of glazed white brick and concrete surfaces.” (form City of Toronto report on heritage inclusion)

below: Rising above Yonge and College

below: Looking north, up the canyon that Yonge has become. The very tall building that is obviously under construction in the distance is at Yonge and Bloor.

below: Empty, boarded up and waiting its turn. Southeast corner of College & Yonge. I have vague memories of a candy store on this corner although I think that there were a number of businesses that passed through here.

below: The east half of Yonge street in front of College Park is now a construction zone. An additional entrance on the east side of Yonge along with more elevator service between street and track levels, is being built for College subway station. Are there any streets in the downtown area that don’t have partial closures for construction?

below: Sunspots, reflected light on the side of College Park

below: More emptiness, more waiting.

below: Granby and McGill are two streets that run parallel to College but don’t actually meet Yonge Street, pedestrians only here

below: Looking back at Yonge Street from the same spot. When the area was pedestrianized back in the 1980s, the city purchased added the arch. The arch came from St. Andrews United Church at Bloor and Park Road (not on this site, moved here). The mural on the wall, right hand side …

… is The ‘History of Music on Yonge’ mural that covers two large walls on the same building. This is the south side of that building. It was painted by Adrian Hayles and features music legends who played in Toronto in the 1950s and 1960s.

On the north side of building, the mural shows Ronnie Hawkins, Glenn Gould, Dianne Brooks, Jackie Shane, Muddy Waters, Shirley Matthews, B.B. King, Gordon Lightfoot, and Oscar Peterson.

below: Behind Yonge street, between Granby and McGill (Joseph Sheard parkette)

below: Looking north up Yonge from Granby

below: Aura

below: People on a corner… To the woman in the brown coat – A penny for your thoughts (Does anyone use that expression anymore?)

below: The southeast corner of Yonge and Gerrard is still a construction site….

below: …. but now it is on its way up!

below: On the northeast corner, also Yonge and Gerrard is an older building that is still standing… for now. An almost obscene 76 storeys with 828 residences. No car parking; parking for 828 bikes only. May I recommend the elevator repair business as a career prospect for those who are looking for ideas? Also, we could have quite the discussion about bikes and bike lanes……

below: Looking south on Yonge from Elm

below: The Zanzibar Tavern glows in the morning light

below: Hoardings around the construction site on the northwest corner of Yonge and Elm

below: Orange! Even more construction on Yonge, this time the southwest corner of Yonge and Elm

below: No more pizzas here.

below: Looking west on Elm

below: A quick stop at the Cong Caphe. That’s an iced coconut coffee!!

searching for the end of the trail

Posted: December 5, 2024 in construction, history, locations, nature, transportation
Tags: autumn, bridge, condos, construction, Eglinton, Inn on the Park, leaves, Leslie St., LRT, redevelopment condos, Thorncliffe trestle, tracks, trails, Wilket Creek Park

… but finding many other things instead.

This is a follow-up to my last post about the Don Mills trail. Remember that I mentioned that it came to a dead end just north of Eglinton? I thought that surely someone somewhere in the city government would have looked into options re connecting the Don Mills trail to a street or another multi-use path. The dead end is just east of Leslie, so off I went to check it out (and I wasn’t going to walk all the way to a dead end just to turn around again) .

Hey look! There is a vacant lot at approximately where the trail ends.

Did I wander back there? Sadly not….. I didn’t have any lock cutters with me…. This was once a Sony Music building but it was demolished in 2016. There was no development notice sign at the site (9 acres).

below: This is the Sony Music (or CBS) building, built in 1959. They don’t make them like this any more – so spread out and only one storey high. Land must have been much cheaper back then!

older colour photo of sony music building on leslie street (demolished in 2016)

Photo credit: by Bob Krawczyk, found on ACO Toronto website (Architectural Conservancy Ontario)

When I was researching the Sony Music building online, I came across the Phoenix Centre. That’s the name of the planned private club being developed at the old Wrigleys site next door to the now vacant lot. If I had realized that when I was out walking, I would have taken more photos. As it is, this is the best I’ve got:

southwest corner of old Wrigleys building on Leslie street, now OTT, low rise modern building

This building, built 1962, was included in North York’s Modernist Architecture, first published in 1997. In addition, The former Wrigley property has cultural heritage value as it is historically associated with the 1950s planning and development of Don Mills by E. P. Taylor and Don Mills Developments Ltd. (if interested, more info at ACO website). The Phoenix Centre plan retains most of the office space architecture but completely remakes the factory space.

There is also talk of a bridge (pedestrian & bikes?) over the CPR tracks to the Crosstown developments. Makes sense to connect the Don Mills trail, Crosstown, and Leslie Street!

Part of the reason I didn’t take any photos of the old Wrigley building is that I had chose to walk south the day…. just south is a fire station as well as some condos.

And there is a well worn path that accesses the back of the properties.

This road doesn’t actually lead to those new condo towers. The CPR railway tracks are in the way. Those towers are part of the Crosstown development on the old IBM and Celestica property (access from both Eglinton & Don Mills)

The road didn’t lead to the end of the Don Mills trail either… but it did lead to the back of a parking garage. No dogs allowed and no trespassing. No luck here.

I got a better view of the neighbourhood though….

Black and white on a grey day.

As I walked back out the path, I noticed this sign. I took it to mean the property behind the blue fence, not the property the path is on… probably?

It stopped munching and stared at me, trying to decide to sit and watch or to run away…. it scampered away before I could get any closer (I don’t pretend to take good pictures of animals but it looked so cute, all puffed up to stay warm).

A very short walk farther south on Leslie brings us to the Inn on the Park site on the northeast corner of Leslie and Eglinton.

below: Inn on the Park as it once was (about 1969) I have ‘borrowed’ this photo from another website – Jamie Bradburn’s Tales of Toronto. Follow the link if you are interested in the story of the hotel – it’s an interesting read. Did you know that in 1962 North York had a ban on cocktail lounges?

below: The site today. It’s now a Toyota/Lexus dealership and home to a few new condos.

But there are more changes coming….. (surprised?)…. more glass and steel towers by the looks of it. The notice also states that parking is planned for 845 cars and 1860 bikes. Does Doug Ford approve?

below: A sad sight, Sunnybrook Park LRT station all ready to go but no trains running. One of the Toronto mysteries, when will the Eglinton LRT open?

Standing by the LRT tracks and looking south. Wilket Creek park and the Thorncliffe trestle railway bridge can be seen. I crossed the road because I had seen stairs down to the park….

A big new set of stairs!…. But. Not shown – the locked gate that blocked the entrance. There is still no entry to Wilket Creek/Sunnybrook Park from this side of Eglinton.

It’s getting to be crowded….

below: Crossing Eglinton and looking westward

New pedestrian and bike paths that provide access to the park from the north side of Eglinton have been built but they too are locked closed. It’s very frustrating to see this infrastructure built and then left unusable. The signs says construction danger but there doesn’t seem to be any construction happening…..

Just in case I have confused anyone, here is a map of the area that Google maps created. Near the top left it even says Don Valley Bike Trailhead… which is very wrong. No trailhead here of any kind as we’ve just learned. Also it was the Don Mills trail not the Don Valley trail (the latter is somewhere else!)

New benches! Wilket Creek Park is one section of the string of parks that parallel the branches of the Don River in Toronto’s ravine system. I’ll leave you with a few pictures that I took the other day while I was in the area…

booming Bessarion

Posted: June 23, 2024 in construction, locations, public art
Tags: apartments, condos, construction, Demakersvan, development, Ethennonnhawahstihnen, Inges Idee, Jax, Joep and Jeroen Verhoeven, Leaping Lamp, park, Pierre Poussin, subway, TTC

Bessarion subway station has always had the reputation of being one of the least used stations in Toronto. I haven’t seen any recent numbers, but I suspect that a lot more people are now using the station. There are a lot of development changes happening in the area so the numbers will only increase in the future.

below: South entrance to Bessarion station

below: A Stop sign sits in the middle of one of the entrances to the new development on Sheppard Ave East beside Bessarion subway station. If you follow the left fork in the road, you will end up in the parking lot of the Canadian Tire store. This store is all that is left from the original 50 acre site that was home to a Canadian Tire warehouse and distribution centre. In 2000 Canadian Tire filed a plan to re-develop the whole site, including a new head office tower for the company. Although the plan was approved, it never came to be. Instead, most of the land was sold to Concord who is now in the process of redeveloping it.

below: Concord has filled this community with a lot of public art including these colourful creations, “Jax” (2021) by Pierre Poussin

below: A few maple leaves forming a canopy – “Maple Leaf Trellis” by Demakersvan (aka brothers Joep and Jeroen Verhoeven)

below: Leaping Lamp by Inges Idee (a German artist collective)

below: There is also a rabbit (title: “Rabbit”), another artwork by Inges Idee. It’s made to look like a folded ribbon of highway; it sits next to the 401 highway.

below: Birds hanging out together between Bessarion station and the new community centre. They won’t be flying anywhere any time soon!

below: A small bird, a continuation of the tree full of birds, sits outside Ethennonnhawahstihnen’ Community Centre (it’s pronounced Etta-nonna wasti-nuh and it means ‘where they had a good, beautiful life”)

below: Real trees ready to plant.

below: A line of towers with row houses on the lower level marks the south side. The 401 highway is behind. A new park, also Ethennonnhawahstihnen’, lies in front of the new residences.

below: Water feature in the summer, outdoor skating rink in the winter

below: The view from the southeast corner of the property – the back of IKEA and the 401!

below: At least there have been a lot of trees planted back here and some thought has been put into using the landscaping to mitigate the noise from the 401. But the fact that thousands of cars and trucks pass her every day can never be downplayed. I hope that the units are well sound proofed. Having stood on balconies on other buildings that overlook a major road, I can imagine how noisy it is here too.

below: Looking southeast from Burbank

below: South side of Sheppard

below: The north side of Sheppard Ave looks like this – a row of lowrise apartment buildings from the 1960s or 1970s.

below: There are 2 major redevelopments proposed along here, 680-688 Sheppard and 690-720 Sheppard. Both involve condo towers.

Just west of Bessarion station is Greenbriar Road. There was a small community of single family homes, duplexes, and small apartment buildings back here. Almost all of it is gone or on the way out

below: A single, lonely, holdout surrounded by newer residences.

below: No sign?!

below: Southeast corner of Sheppard and Greenbriar (12 storeys, 145 residences)

below: There is a development notice sign on the front yard of 25 Greenbriar (23, 25, 27 and 29 to be replaced with 10 storeys, 169 residences).

below: A little farther south on Greenbriar the fences are already up (22-36 Greenbriar, 24 storeys, 351 residences).

Extra note: The northeast corner of the old Canadian Tire acreage, at 1181 Sheppard Ave East, remains undeveloped. It is the last piece once owned by Canadian Tire. It is adjacent to the Metrolinx rail corridor, about 100 m from the new Oriole GO station. [ed note: Prime real estate by the sound of it!]. Two towers will probably get built here, once the heights are finalized.

Never tired of walking Yonge Street.

Posted: January 2, 2024 in construction, graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: 33wallflower33, Albert Paley, be a hero, Bloor, Christmas, Church of Scientology, condos, decorations, development, graffiti, Kenneth Lavallee, Lillian McGregor Park, reflections, Rocky Zenyk, Ryerson, slaps, stickers, tips it up, towers, Yonge, Zanzibar tavern

This is a walk that started with the Sherlock Holmes wall behind the Toronto Reference Library that I noted in a prior post. After a brief stop at Balzacs, we continued south on Yonge to Dundas. With all the new development on Yonge there was a lot to see. For the most part this is a documentation of the changes on Yonge Street and perhaps one day it will be part of “A history of” the area.

below: Asquith Ave, looking towards Yonge with the Toronto Reference Library on the right. New condos rise above the old brick facades from the 1880s.

below: Looking south on Yonge Street from just north of Bloor. Bloor Street West now gets lost in the canyon between tall towers. The one on the southwest corner of Bloor and Yonge is planned 91 storeys but is now between 1.2 and 1.6 billion dollars in debt. The ONE. Now with an uncertain future. The project was taken over by a court-appointed receiver back in October.

below: Looking east on Bloor from Yonge.

below: What was once new is now old.

below: The old Church of Scientology building remains empty and derelict. It’s boarded up at street level and many of the windows are cracked. The building has been empty since 2010. Back in 2014/5 there was talk that the organization was going to totally renovate the interior and exterior of the building; there are renderings online of the proposed changes. At that time they owed the city close to $100,000 in back taxes. “This building is designed in the International Style, with a clean facade and balanced proportions ” is the beginning of a description of the property on the ACO (Architectural Conservancy Ontario) website as it apparently has a heritage designation.

below: Vapes, vibes, and cannabis. A brief summary of downtown Yonge Street?

below: The northwest corner of Yonge and St. Joseph Street. Bake Code, Sacred Seed, and Pay2Day. Richmond Hill’s number one cake store is coming to the store on the south end. The pictures look yummy!

below: Southwest corner of Yonge & Wellesley

below: Same corner as the photo above, but from a slightly different angle to show the new curvy condo on the south side of Wellesley.

below: More condo development. This time on the north side Wellesley just west of Yonge. Centre Court.

below: A new park on Wellesley, Lillian McGregor Park, named for Dr. Lillian McGregor (1924-2012), of Whitefish River First Nation, who was a nurse and a community leader. She received many awards including the Order of Ontario and she was the first Indigenous woman to be awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Toronto.

below: Artwork by Winnipeg artist, a crane by Kenneth Lavallee in Lillian McGregor park.

below: Spotted along the way, two shiny small pieces of graffiti – shine shoes sir. By Rocky Zenyk.

below: But does it work?

below: Kiokii And, Unicorn Beauty, and ABC Books.

below: Menu in the window – potato noodles and ramen and more.

below: If Chinese cuisine is not your thing, there is always tandoori chicken or palak paneer nearby. “Come and enjoy your festive season with our specials”.

below: And then for something different…. for dessert you can try ‘chilled mango sago cream with pomelo’ or ‘the bath teddy bear’, or many other different taste sensations. I think that I need to start stopping at more of these places and actually sample some of these foods!

below: Kobi Korean restaurant and Metro Cigar along with one industry that is booming along with Toronto’s construction craze, the toilet rental business!

below: At the intersection of Gloucester Street and Yonge is this new red creation, a sculpture by Albert Paley

below: 33wallflower33 graffiti

below: Available…. one shiny red Christmas elf costume complete with silly hat. She doesn’t look very happy having to wear it!

below: A cheerful little bear welcoming you to College Park

below: Construction, and one lane blocked, near College

below: Looking north on Yonge towards College Street.

below: Different architectural styles.

below: .. with a closer look at some of the brick and stone details

below: More old architectural details seen on exterior walls along Yonge Street

below: Southeast corner of Yonge & Gerrard, now an empty shell surrounding a hole in the ground.

below: Reflection of the old Charles Tavern tower, now part of a new condo development.

below: More construction, northwest corner of Yonge & Elm where the facade of a building on Elm is being preserved.

below: The Zanzibar remains standing amid all the changes happening around it.

below: Reflections at Yonge and Gould (looking north)

below: Another view from Yonge and Gould, this time looking south to Dundas Street.

below: If you look closely at the photo above, there is a store on very right that looks like the name starts with Fun. This is Funduk, and if you look in the window, this is what you might see… Top row closest to the window is Special pomegranate with hazelnuts. Beside it is almond paste with raspberry. What choices!!