Posts Tagged ‘construction’

kids and community, around Woodbine

Posted: June 7, 2016 in graffiti and street art, locations
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This post is about community involvement and the murals that result.  They aren’t great art and they weren’t meant to be.  They are about the stories we tell about ourselves and our communities.  They brighten our public spaces and enrich our neighbourhoods.

The first is a series of murals painted by Gledhill Public School students. There are murals by the graduating classes of 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 in a lane near the school.

Part of a mural in an alley painted by students from Gledhill Public school, graduating class of 2008, black silhouettes under tree branches, hand prints too

Part of a mural in an alley painted by students from Gledhill Public school, graduating class of 2009, black silhouette of the Toronto skyline with big colourful footprints, some roughly drawn people too , an airplane flies overhead

Part of a mural in an alley painted by students from Gledhill Public school, graduating class of 2009, black silhouette of the Toronto skyline with big colourful footprints, some roughly drawn people too

Part of a mural in an alley painted by students from Gledhill Public school, graduating class of 2010. A blue semi-circle

Part of a mural in an alley painted by students from Gledhill Public school, graduating class of 2011. 2011 in large numbers across the bottom with grey silhouettes of people, brightly coloured squares with faces across the top

Part of a mural in an alley painted by students from Gledhill Public school, graduating class of 2011. 2011 in large numbers across the bottom with grey silhouettes of people, brightly coloured squares with faces across the top

Just to the east, Woodbine subway station is undergoing much needed renovations and expansion.  Some of the hoardings around the construction site have been covered with three murals.   They were painted by:  Haley G., Sasha K.S., Francis H., Melika W., Tristan C., Savannah P., Adrina P. and Anna-Lisa A as well as Jim Bravo and Andrenne Finnikin as part of the ‘City on the Move, Young Artists in Transit’ mural project.

Looking across a street to a construction site around which a fence has been erected. There are three murals painted on the hoardings.

The first mural is a juxtaposition of past and present, people playing beside the creek. The creek, trees, and birds are all the same.  There is now a city in the distance and clothing we wear has changed, but we still enjoy the outdoors like our ancestors did.

1910 to 2013, mural of past and present along the creek. Kids playing on either side, the past on the left, the present on the right, bird watching, standing in the grass,

Above ground, a fair, an amusement on a summer day.   Below ground, the subway is being built.

mural depicting people at a fair. A child is licking a giant round lollipop, a girl is holding a doll, a ferris wheel is in the background.

And last, woodpeckers in the trees as well as a poem by George Elliott Clarke who was the Poet Laureate of Toronto 2012-15.  It describes the murals and is transcribed below.

mural painted on TTC construction hoardings, trees and birch trees with no leaves on them, with a couple of woodpeckers

The poem on the last mural:

Seeing Beauty, at Woodbine
 
Citizens, let’s pasture ourselves in parks
And gardens, so skyscrapers mingle with trees,
And we recover Native faith, Settler
Hope, to savour birds’ trills and swoops, fording
Creek and times past, to touch us, where we stand.
 
Once was pleasure in a street fair – ice cream
And lollipop, but also in strolling
Or rolling down to work, shirt-sleeves rolled up,
Dawn light unfolding, That’s what’s visible.
(Underground, a steel vein branches, roots, and throbs.)
 
Torrential leaves stacked up towers, now fallen,
Last Fall, Birds tap into the standing logs
Winter planted.  Spring rain well refreshes
The city.  Now, young artists tap dreams –
Drafting Beauty – to which all say, “Bravo!”
 
by George Elliott Clarke

from The Esplanade to Union

Posted: May 13, 2016 in events, locations, public art
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On Friday morning, my original goal was to find ‘Residents of the Esplanade’, a CONTACT Photography Festival outdoor exhibit at David Crombie Park but it was such a beautiful morning that I didn’t stop there. I found more than just the ‘Residents’.

Forty years ago, May 1976, the site plan for The Esplanade neighbourhood was approved. Since then, it has become home to a very diverse group of people. And it is those people that this installation celebrates on the 40th anniversary of the founding of the neighbourhood.

Crombie Park runs along the south side of The Esplanade between Berkeley street and Lower Jarvis.  The installation consists of a number of small white rectangular pillars with the picture and story of person on either side.

A photo from the CONTACT photography festival, installation called 'Residents of The Esplanade' - story of Mysha from Pakistan

A photo from the CONTACT photography festival, installation called 'Residents of The Esplanade' - photo of Solomon from on top of a basketball hoop

A photo from the CONTACT photography festival, installation called 'Residents of The Esplanade' - photo of Alan working at a desk, tulips and a woman sitting in the park are in the background

People were out enjoying the morning; school kids were playing basketball at recess.

kids playing basketball on an outdoor court. The wall behind the basketball hoop has been painted with a mural of hands making a heart shape with the fingers, by Bruno Smokey and Shalak Attack.

Flowers were blooming.

close up photo of red tulips in full bloom on a sunny day

tulips in a garden in a park, orange and yellow tulips, with some greenery. Grassy area with trees behind, and people walking on a sidewalk in the background.

below: Looking towards Lower Jarvis Street and downtown Toronto.

at the corner of The Esplanade and George Street, looking west towards downtown and St. Lawrence market. Playground on the left with children playing.

below:  One street beyond Lower Jarvis is Market Street.  It dead ends at the railway tracks.  The long structure on the right is a parking garage.

looking west towards the CN Tower, with the railway tracks to the left (but they are elevated and behind maintenance buildings so you can't see the tracks). Parking structure to the right, with city buildings behind it.

below: After a small backtrack up Market Street, I went through Conger Coal Lane to Church Street.  I don’t think I have walked this way before.  The lane was named in commemoration of the Conger Coal Company whose yard and wharf was nearby.   It was one of the many companies that provided Toronto with coal back in the day when coal fueled the city.  It was started in 1870 by Mr. P.D. Conger.   In 1913, Sterling Coal company bought Conger and the name was changed to Conger Lehigh Coal Co.

a downtown Toronto lane, very clean, no graffiti, taller, newer buildings on either side of the lane. CN tower in the distance,

below: A very old photo of the Conger Coal Company dock at the foot of Church Street, back when Church street ended at Lake Ontario

historical picture of the old COnger COal Co wharf at the bottom of Church street.

below: Tucked into a corner on Church street immediately south of Front Street, is an art installation by Paul Raff called ‘Shoreline Commemorative’.  A topography of limestone forms the base of the work.  A glass ball representing the line between sky and water sits on top of a tripod that tries to evoke a land surveyor’s tripod.  The words on the wall say “For 10,000 years this was the location of Lake Ontario’s shoreline.  This brick wall stands where water and land met, with a vista horizon”

Shoreline Commemorative by Paul Raff, an art installation on Church St., south of King, that marks where the shoreline of Lake Ontario used to be. It involves words on a brick wall and a model of the shoreline of Toronto showing the different elevations of the land.

below: Continuing the lake theme, a little fish out of water, jumping over the entrance to a condo.

bas relief sculpture of a fish, square stone on a brick wall above the entrance way to a condo building.

below: From the lake theme to another common theme in the city, construction. Spring is the beginning of construction season and here Berczy Park is being upgraded. In the background a new condo is being built but as we all know condo construction ‘season’ never ends. In fact, the challenge might be to find a place in this city where there isn’t a condo being built.

workmen redoing a park, Berczy Park in Toronto, with a digger and another piece of equipment, cityscape behind with a tall condo building under construction. A red and white crane is on top.

below: I walked past the never ending Front Street construction.  Construction in front of Union station seems to be finished, but this stretch of Front Street just west of the station is still being worked on.   There have been fences here so long that I can’t remember a time when they weren’t here.

Front street constrcution, behind a greenwire fence is a rd truck and piles of construction materials. Between the fence and a stone building is the sidewalk on which some people are walking.

a shirtless man in sitting on a stool at the corner of Front and Union streets. He has four signs (behind, above, in front, and beside him) asking for spare change or for you to buy his novel that is well rated on both Amazon and Goodreads.

A man is selling Black History newspaper to another man in front of the TTC subwayentrance at Union station.

 

 

weaving a trail

Posted: May 4, 2016 in general Toronto, locations, old buildings
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There is no theme to this blog post.  I never really had a purpose in mind as I walked yesterday.  I walked to enjoy the spring day.  I walked wherever my feet took me…  and they took me on a route that wove between Bay Street and University Avenue and from Grenville south to Dundas.

two women dressed up and walking down the street. One is in a puffy black dress, black tights and black shoes. The other woman has long red hair and a polka dot sweater on.

below: “Jimmy Mount Rushmore” mural on the side of Jimmy’s Coffee featuring four famous musical Jimmys: Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Jimmy Buffet and Jim Morrison.

mural on the side of Jimmys coffee, monochromatic in rust, pictures of what Mount Jimmy Rushmore would like, four famous Jimmys, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Jimmy Buffett and Jim Morrison

below: ‘Inner City Gate’ by Kosso Eloul.  1978.  A balancing act of stainless steel boxes on the lawn of the R. Fraser Elliott building (part of the old Toronto General Hospital), Elizabeth Street.

black metal sculpture of three boxes precariously balanced, the upper box is almost horizontal and it is being supported by the other two who are falling down but still balancing

below:  A blight on the sidewalk, so-called information pillars that are really just a sell-out to Astral Media.  They needlessly obstruct the sidewalk and obstruct the view of  cyclists and motorists.  Unfortunately they are part of a 20 year contract that the city has with Astral Media which doesn’t expire until 2027.

cyclists ride by an information pillar that has a large ad jutting out towards the street.

below: Incised into limestone blocks on the Edward Street side of McClelland House (originally the McLean Hunter building) is half of an artwork by Elizabeth Wynn Wood (1903 – 1966) called “Communication”.  The woman is sending a message to a man who is apparently shown on the other side of the building.  Sadly, I missed the man so there is no photograph of him here.  When the work was completed in 1958, the incised lines were inlayed with gold colour.

outline drawing of a woman floating in the sky, incised into limestone facade of a building. She is releasing a bird.

below: Across the street from the ‘floating woman’, 480 University Avenue is getting a facelift.

lower part of building have its facade upgraded to glass panels
below:  This picture shows most of the front of 480 University and you can see the different stages of the recladding process.  At the top of the building, the precast concrete grille that was part of the original 1968 Global House office tower is still in place while new glass panels have already been installed on the lower floors.   It is interesting to watch the metamorphosis of an 18 storey office building into a 55 storey condo tower.   Four levels of underground parking have also been added to the site and a new indoor entrance to St. Patrick subway station is in the works.

Tall office building is having its concrete facade replaced with glass. The upper floors are still concrete, the middle floors are bare and the lower floors have new glass

below: Abstract in blues and greys

very close detail shot of glass and reflections that make diamond shaped abstract in blue and grey

There is a lot of building and redevelopment in the area where I walked.

below: Womens College Hospital is totally new.

a lone man walks by the new Womens College Hospital building with its light grey stone facade, large glass section, and large pink glass section.

below: The corner of College and Bay, looking southeast, is now a wall of glass.

cyclist rides through the intersection of College and Bay streets. A wall of glass condos in the background.

below: The new wing of Sick Kids Hospital dwarfs the older buildings on Elm Street.

view from a parking lot, a row of the back of older two storey brick buildings with some mature trees, then taller modern glass buildings.

below:  The old and the new integrated into one building, Princess Margaret Hospital.

Princess Margaret Hospital, with the older stone building at the bottom, and the new modern addition above and beside it.

below: Even the street is being redone.  The center of Bay Street from Dundas to Elm is torn up because of  TTC streetcar track replacement.

A digger and other equipment working on a torn up section of Bay street.

below: Little quirky details:  First, the cross shapes made of contrasting brick on the back of the Red Cross building.  Second, the workings (or barrier?) of the compressed gas tanks that have been made to look like ice.

part of the addition that was added to the Red Cross building, two cross shaped features in contrasting brick on the upper levels. In front of that building are large compressed gas tanks.

below:  Another piece of public art, ‘Liquid Echo’ by Catherine Widgery, 1999, is in front of 750 Bay Street.  They look like stiff and lifeless frozen metallic fountains… or maybe just 12 pencils 🙂 .   Circular vent shafts for the underground parking have been incorporated into the artwork.

public art installation outside 750 Bay street

below: A  lovebot watches over the people passing through the bus station, unaware that he is there.

large lovebot wheatepaste paste up above the downtown Toronto bus terminal. A white bus is parked in one of the bus bays. Condos in the background.

below: And last, a colourful collection of squares and rectangles. Blue and green.  Red and white.

green and blue glass of a building's facade, with a storefront below. The windows of the store are filled with red and white pillows arranged in a grid.

danger, open edges

Posted: December 2, 2015 in locations, old buildings
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Sometimes when I walk I find a view or a photo that suggests a theme for the day; something that summarizes the area that I’ve been walking through.  On Saturday, this was the photo, a construction site on Wellesley Street -a massive hole in the ground amongst a growing number of high rise buildings.

red and white danger sign on a makeshift wooden fence that says danger due to open edge. Beyond it is a very large hole for a construction site. A bulldozer is in the hole, downtown Toronto is in the background.

a large number of new high rise buildings just beyond a large hole in the ground where another condo is being built

This piece of property, between Wellesley and Breadalbane streets, had been vacant for a number of years.  It was once owned by the province; back in the 1980s there were plans to build a ballet and opera house there.  Those plans fell through and the land remained vacant while community groups lobbied for a park to be developed there.

When I first walked the area in April 2013, there was a blue fence around the site.

A wood plywood fence painted blue. Someone has painted three large white dollar signs on as well as the word ka-ching.

The blue fence is gone. According to the development proposal sign, two towers are being built here with a combined height of 99 floors.  A nine or ten storey L-shaped podium will run along St. Luke Lane and Wellesley Street to join the towers.    The plan also allows for park land on Breadalbane.  When I checked the website for the development, 11 Wellesley aka Wellesley on the Park, there is only one tower pictured and it doesn’t look like the description on the sign.

Ah, a little light bulb goes on.  The sign describes the developers’ original plan.  A change in the plan doesn’t mean a change in the sign.   So…  this seems to be the future home of one 60 storey condo tower on one third of the land and a 1.6 acre park on the remainder.

two bicycles parked on a sidealk in front of a fence that has a development proposal sign on it. Building site behind that, thena wall of skyscrapers in the background.

My Saturday walk had actually started close to Yonge and College.   I was drawn to the nondescript block of stores that are now boarded up in preparation to be demolished.

A block of two storey stores on Yonge street has been boarded up in preparation for demolition.

I’m wishing that I had taken pictures previously of these stores just to document the history of that part of Yonge Street.  I had many chances to do so, but the building never seemed interesting enough.

a man is walking past a row of boarded up stores that are about to be demolished.

development proposal sign above a large number 501, with an office/retail for lease sign above it.

Whether or not you think that two 58 storey towers with a shared 7 storey podium is an improvement is an entirely different question. It will contain 960 condo units and 5 storeys of above grade parking (because the subway runs underneath) with 320 parking spots.  Lobby access for the buildings will be from Maitland and Alexander Streets on the north and south sides of the property.  Or at least that’s what’s on the sign.   But fool me once, so I checked the  website for the condo (TeaHouse Condos in this case) and once again the information doesn’t match.  According to the website there will be two towers but the north one will be 25 storeys and the south one will be 53 storeys.  Whatever the end result, it will be different from what’s there now!

 

At least one person had an objection.

development proposal sign on a yellow wall that someone has written enuf on in big pink letters

A walk around the back of the building shows that we aren’t losing much there either.

two stroey building boarded up and ready for demolition, with a parking lot, behind a chain link fence.

 

The next site that I explored is just to the south where a hole is already in progress on the SW corner of Yonge and Grenville.

A hole in the ground on Yonge Street for construction of a building.

Photo taken from St. Lukes Lane

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below: This hole has exposed the north wall of the brown brick Oddfellows’ Hall as this view shows.  This is looking south, with College Park in the background (built by the T. Eaton Co. and opened as a 6 storey Eatons store on 30 October 1930).  Behind the chain link fence is St. Luke Lane.

back of a large four storey brick building behind an open hole construction site, taller buildings in the background (College Park)

Now you see it… soon you won’t.  The condo tower here will be 66 storeys high.

open hole at construction site surround by fence, brick building in the background.

Oddfellow’s Hall was built in 1891 and 1892 by architects Norman B. Dick and Frank W. Wickson for the Independent Order of Oddfellows.  It has two octagonal turrets and is a playful mix of Romanesque and Gothic styles.   The building had a 20’ x 46’ long grand hall for IOOF private meetings as well as offices and storefronts.

below: Looking north up Yonge Street at College Street, about 1970.  The Bank of Commerce (later Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and now CIBC) was an early tenant of the building.  Also in the picture is the old fire hall tower but more about that later.

old photo from about 1970 looking north up Yonge Street from College Street. Oddfellows Hall is on one corner with main tenant as Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. Old fire hall tower is in the distance.

Photo found online, original source was City of Toronto Archives

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below: Most people will recognize the building as Starbucks.

Oddfellows Hall, a large brick building with two hexagonal turrets, brick, now a Starbucks on the ground floor.

starbucks at the corner of Yonge and College

Back to Grenville Street where there is yet another development.  On the west side of St. Luke Lane is a partially completed condo that has incorporated the facade of what is known as the John Irwin house.  It is one of the oldest surviving residential buildings in the area;  in 1873 it was recorded as being owned by a John Irwin.

An old three storey brick house, the John Irwin house has been restored and incorporated into a new condo development that is in the process of being built, cement mixer in front, men working.

This house wasn’t always in this location though.  It was moved a few metres east along Grenville, from one side of the condo development to the other.  I found a photo that I took in April 2013, just after the house had been moved.  Here you can see the back of the house as well as St. Luke Lane to the right.

back of an old house from the 1870s, the John Irwin House, a three storey brick building, that was moved from one site to another. It is sitting on supports at the edge of a construction site.

Does your head hurt yet?  Because there is more…..
But first, a break.  A few other pictures from the area.

below:  No Parking in St. Luke Lane, twice.

A red sign on a red wall. In yellow letter that are peeling off, the sign says Private Parking Only, mcdonalds.

A light yellowish grey wall with a yellow sign that says no parking. Old sign, looking worse for wear. A piece of flat scrap metal is leaning against the wall
  below:  And a man (Van Gogh? someone else?) with a red umbrella but more remarkably, a white picket fence almost hidden under vines by Wellesley Street.

A drawing of a man on white paper pasted to a concrete wall. A red stenciled umbrella is on top of his face. A white picket fence is beside the wall.

below: Also in St. Luke Lane, a mural commemorating the Highway of Heroes.

A mural commemorating the Highway of Heroes

And back to the program….

So far we have two holes in the ground, a partially finished condo, and a block that has just begun to be demolished.  The last development that I saw in the area was one that is still in the planning stages.  The development proposal sign posted beside Currys Art Supplies (the blue awning) is a clue that changes are imminent at 480-494 Yonge Street.  This building is on the SW corner of Yonge and Grosvenor.   The sign says one 45 storey tower but by now I don’t believe the signs!

development proposal sign at 490 Yonge street

480 Yonge Street is a heritage building as is the old fire hall (1872).   The top corner of 480 Yonge is just visible in the bottom left of this picture.  It is to be incorporated into the new development if it goes ahead.  The fire hall tower is going to be preserved but the building in front of it will be removed.  The sidewalk will also be widened as a result.  That’s the opening act of this story; there may be changes before the final curtain.  The developers applied for a zoning amendment (increased height and density) earlier this year but I do not know the results of that.

old fire hall tower above a newer building, or a newwer facade on an older building, red dump trunk on the street, large new condo being built in the background, Yonge St.

below:  On the NW corner of Yonge and Grosvenor is this building.   I don’t know if there are any plans in the works to redo this stretch of Yonge Street but after seeing all the new developments, I’m starting to get a bit sentimental about the old buildings.  So here is documentation of what remains, starting with  A & W Home of the Burger Family at 496 Yonge.

Three storey older grey building on a downtown corner.

below: between Grosvenor and Breadalbane – Cuban cigars and Persian food

Three three storey buildings in a row, old brick buildings, on Yonge St in downtown toronto, 502, 504 and 506. Yonge Market, Persian restaurant, a Cuban cigar store.

below: SW corner of Yonge & Breadalbane – old and new, short and tall

sw corner of yonge and breadalbane streets showing older stores in the foreground and taller condos in the background.

below: SW corner of Yonge & Wellesley – tattoos, massages, and payday loans.

southwest corner of Yonge and Wellesley, a row of old buildings, now storefronts. A Massage parlor and a tattoo place, a convenience store and a Money Mart. Gass condos in the background.

below: NW corner of Yonge & Wellesley – Not just noodles

not just noodles restaurant on the corner of Yonge and Wellesley as well as more stores going north up Yonge Street.

art and fashion on Dundas

Posted: August 13, 2015 in public art
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“Art Loves Fashion! Fashion Loves Art!” 
Retailer H&M is presently renovating the southwest corner of Yonge & Dundas.  On the Dundas St. side of the development, the hoardings have provided a space for an art exhibit. It is an outdoor digital gallery of images produced by students in OCAD’s Digital Painting/Expanded Animation (DPXA) program.

People walk by the hoardings beside the sidewalk on Dundas St. near Yonge, part of the new H & M store being built there. There are pictures on the wall.

below: ‘Nude Collage’ by Arshia Salesi

colourful image with slices of watermelon, purple hyacinth flowers, and a parrot

 below: Resting against ‘Indeterminate Peony’ by Trudy Erin Elmore.
To the left is ‘Nonscape V’ by Monica Moraru

A man in a white shirt and wearing a backpack leans against a white wall that has a picture printed on it.

below:  A woman walks past ‘Streetcar Style’ by Avery Kua.

A woman walks by a wall that has a picture on it os people getting off a streetcar. The woman is looking at the picture

below: ‘Blocked!’ by Ghazaleh Baniahmad

Artwork in grey tones using pieces of photographs of two women, mother and daughter, It is printed on white and displayed outdoors on a wall. It is called Blocked! and the artist is Ghazaleh Baniahmad

below: ‘Ascend’ by Niya Vaillancourt

A woman walks around a corner and is approaching a wall with a picture on it called 'Ascend'

 below: ‘The New Patronage’ by Cat Bluemke

A picture of two people, man and woman, both drawn with black lines, the man has pink highlights and the woman has blue. Both are from the shoulders up and they are looking at each other.

below: Sign making below ‘ Cloth and Jewels’ by Samet Choudhury

A man is sitting on the sidewalk. He is making a sign on a piece of brown cardboard. The wall behind him has a large picture on it that is part of an exhibit

hanging around Union Station

Posted: April 20, 2015 in locations, public art
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If you have recently stood on the platform at Union subway station, northbound to Finch side, you will have seen the new artwork being installed there.   The platform is still under construction and not all the art panels have been installed but this is what it looked like this past weekend.

new art, pictures of people on the subway, on glass panels installed at Union Station platform - a seated woman picture on the left. The panel on the right has not yet been installed, there is a space and the construction behind it is easily visible

There are 166 glass panels, each just over 2m high (7 feet) and when it’s finished it will cover the length of the subway platform, a length of 170m (about 500 feet).

new art, pictures of people on the subway, on glass panels installed at Union Station platform

At the moment they are installed in such a way that they act as mirrors as well as pictures.

new art, pictures of people on the subway, on glass panels installed at Union Station platform - several panels with pictures of people but it is highly reflective so you can see the people waiting on the platform as well

The piece is titled ‘zones of immersion’ and it is the work of Canadian stained glass artist Stuart Reid.  The people on these panels are based on drawings that Reid made as he rode on the TTC.

new art, pictures of people on the subway, on glass panels installed at Union Station platform - a sitting woman and a standing woman. An exit sign is reflected in the glass

I’m not sure they will be so highly reflective once the installation is complete and the construction behind them finished.  But in the meantime, a little fun can be had!

new art, pictures of people on the subway, on glass panels installed at Union Station platform several panels with pictures of people but it is highly reflective so you can see the people waiting on the platform as well

new art, pictures of people on the subway, on glass panels installed at Union Station platform - two blue glass panels, one with a woman's face

new art, pictures of people on the subway, on glass panels installed at Union Station platform - 3 men sitting on the subway, all facing the viewer

new art, pictures of people on the subway, on glass panels installed at Union Station platform, a woman's face in profile. You can see traces of the construction behind her.

Dufferin skeins

Posted: April 16, 2015 in graffiti and street art
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On Dufferin St., just north of Eglinton there is a bridge under the Beltline Pathway.
The old railway bridge crosses the road and metal culverts provide passageways for the sidewalks on both sides of the street.  It was painted  in November 2014.

One of the sidewalks is closed because of construction on the north side.
In fact, the area looks a bit messy at the moment.

looking north up Dufferin street towards an old railway bridge. 4 orange construction signs in the photo as well as a lot of traffic on the street.
This was a  project by STEPS (Sustainable Thinking and Expression on Public Spaces) in collaboration with artists Alexa Hatanaka and Patrick Thompson, local residents,  Friends of the York Beltline and local Eglinton-Lawrence Councillor Josh Colle.

culvert passageway over a sidewalk that has been painted in stripes except that the sidewalk is closed - a sign, a pole barrier and 2 orange cones to prevent people from crossing under.

A Dufferin street TTC bus passes under an old railway bridge. The concrete support on the far side has been painted with a brightly coloured skein of wool on a yellow background. In the foreground is a culvert that is used as a bridge over a sidewalk. It has been painted in bright vertical stripes.

The mural was funded by the City of Toronto’s StreetARToronto program with support from area businesses and associations.

Mural of a skein of wool in bright colours on the underpass of a bridge

Close up of part of the mural of a skein of brightly coloured, multicoloured, wool on a bridge underpass, also the yellow part of a culvert that provides a passageway (tunnel) for the sidewalk. Some houses are in the background.

Close up of the brightly coloured strands of wool in the mural under the beltline on Dufferin Street

Link to a video on the making of this mural.

yet another proposal

Posted: February 2, 2015 in locations
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Development proposal sign

Bathurst and Robinson

an older two storey brick semidetached house at the corner of Bathurst and Robinson. No other houses are next to it.

the sign says:
“…to permit the development of a nine storey mixed use building…..
….. consisting of ground and 2nd floors with commercial….
…. 28 residential units….
… zero parking spaces ….”

standing alone

Posted: February 1, 2015 in locations
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at the corner of Redpath and Roehampton

A single family, two storey house stands alone in an otherwise vacant lot. The houses around it have been demolished. This last house has just begun to be demolished. There are many apartment buildings in the background.

city under siege

Posted: January 2, 2015 in general Toronto
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Construction, it’s everywhere.
I’m not sure if it’s my imagination but 2014 seemed to be the year that the city was torn apart in the name of changes, development and/or improvements.

A white hard hat sits on the end of a large wooden spool. Blue gas cylinders are behind it.

on break

How many cranes are in the sky?

downtown cityscape with tall buildings as well as the CN Tower. Lots of construction cranes in the picture.

looking towards the CN Tower from Soho St., just north of Queen West.

Men on a crane working above a hole in the ground where a new condo is being built.

Yet another crane at work, on Adelaide West.

How many kilometres of road have been dug up or blocked off?

Yonge street is closed by a large crane that is parked in the middle of the street.

Yonge north of Davisville one summer day.  Removing a crane that was used in condo construction.

Near Eglinton West subway station. Construction of the Eglinton LRT impacts traffic on Eglinton Ave.

Near Eglinton West subway station. Construction of the Eglinton LRT affects traffic on Eglinton Ave.

Cars trying to merge from three lanes to one. Large sign with arrow pointing left. Tall buildings on either side of the street. Yellow leaves on the trees because it is October.

Adelaide St. West

a section of city street is being renovated. The pavement has been removed, construction equipment and vehicles are in the picture. There is a 'road closed' sign.

Another street under repair.  York St., looking south towards Queen St. and Richmond St.

How many holes have been dug?

A construction site, hole in the ground, large yellow crane, red dump trunk and a large fence around the site. A church is in the background.

Dufferin and Adelaide

How many orange and black cones adorn our streets?

Black and orange traffic cones along with a yellow fence block traffic from entering a construction site at an intersection where new street car tracks are being laid.

New streetcar tracks at King and Sumach.

How many kilometres of fencing have been erected?

construction site surrounded by both metal fence and blue mesh fence

double fenced

How many years will it take to finish Union Station?

looking west on Front St. towards Union Station. Construction equipment is in the foreground of the photo. The CN tower is in the background.

Looking west on Front St.  The renovation and upgrade of Union Station and it’s impact on Front Street has been ongoing for a long time now. Maybe one day it will be finished!

What construction will 2015 bring? 

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