Posts Tagged ‘construction’

it used to be Kromer Radio

Posted: November 27, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
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 In February 2014, plans to build a large Walmart store on the site of Kromer Radio (420 Bathurst St., just south of College) were shelved.   Kromer Radio was an electronics store and they occupied the building between 1974 and June 2012.

The alley behind the building has been a graffiti site for a number of years.

looking north up an alley. On the right side is a large 3 storey building that has graffiti along the lower part of it. On the left are garages with graffiti on them.

There is graffiti on the building

words written in white paint - "Don't make this building a Walmart"

including this anti-Walmart statement.

 

graffiti on a wall

graffiti on a wall - a chaos of tags and colours on a brick wall

graffiti on a wall - a man with a red face and hat, painted under a metal staircase.

graffiti on a wall - painting of a 'boom box'' or ghetto blaster'

There is graffiti on the garages on the other side of the alley as well.

graffiti on a garage door - a blue tag plus some purple creatures with faces and little skinny black legs. There are also words painted on the garage that say no Walmart

Again, there is anti-Walmart graffiti including this one that says “Need no Walmart”.

graffiti face, white on black, on one half of a garage door. The number 251 is painted in oranges and yellows as well.

 

Tower Automotive building

Posted: November 17, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
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The Tower Automotive building is on Sterling Ave. in the Junction.  This ten storey building was built in the 1920s.  Tower Automotive went bankrupt in 2005 and the building has been empty ever since.  A number of years ago there was talk of turning it into studio space but for a temporary art installation or two, nothing has been done with this heritage building.

 

Chainlink fence in front of the building.

A chainlink fence surrounds the north part of the site.

….. but part of the fence was down and nobody was working on the site, so in we went.

Some of the graffiti on the west side of the building: 

graffiti on the back of the Tower Automotive building, a tall brick building - looking along the side of the building, the head of the reclining woman is in the foreground. Construction equipment is also in the picture.

graffiti on the back of the Tower Automotive building, a tall brick building - the backside of a naked woman who is lying on the ground. Much larger than lifesize, painted by Jarus.

graffiti on the back of the Tower Automotive building, a tall brick building - a large light blue face with tags on either side of it.

graffiti on the back of the Tower Automotive building, a tall brick building - the words cant hold me back are written in black on top of yellow and turquoise.
graffiti on the back of the Tower Automotive building, a tall brick building - a woman with purple hair wearing a brown and red hat. She is holding a blue watering can. She has an anchor tattoo on her upper arm.

moving around the building

On a concrete telephone pole, a black and white drawing of a man's head. The word Others is coming out of his mouth.

on the east side of the building

wall of a building with a wheatpaste lovebot and a standard city of Toronto development proposal sign. Some tags are also on the building.

The sign says “Draft of Subdivision Proposal, 158 Sterling Rd. – Castlepoint Studio Partners Limited has made an application to subdivide the property at 158 Sterling Road into 7 blocks in order to create a mixed use development that will have building heights ranging between 2 – 17 storeys.

a large gameboy lovebot on the side of a concrete wall.
lovebot and an anser black, white and grey face on a conrete wall.
a tag over old graffiti
blue construction fence is in focus in the foreground with a construction site behind it. A tall brick building stands in the construction site.

from pork to park

Posted: August 9, 2014 in history, locations
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Corktown Common

One of Toronto’s newest parks

In one corner of the park there is a plaque that commemorates the William Davies Company, once the owners of the land and buildings in this part of the city.

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“From 1874 to 1927, this site was home to the William Davies Company, reputed to be the largest pork packing plant in the British Empire. Established in 1857 by William Davies (1831-1921), the company made its fortune preparing and exporting cured sides of pork to England. Later, its products were sold through William Davies Company shops, one of Canada’s first store chains. In its buildings here, the innovative company controlled the entire process from slaughter to shipment. Processing nearly 500,000 hogs annually by 1900, the company contributed to the city’s nickname “Hogtown”.
In 1892, Joseph Flavelle (1858-1939) became a partner and managing director of the company. Under Flavelle, the business flourished until the 1920’s when it was hurt by falling markets. The William Davies Company merged with three other packing firms to create Canada Packers, which continued to operate from this site until 1932. The last of the company’s buildings here were demolished in the 1990’s.”

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An old coloured map of the area now called the West Don Lands. This illustration also appeared in a blogTO post about the William Davies Company. http://www.blogto.com/city/2013/10/how_toronto_got_the_nickname_hogtown/

An old illustrated map of the area now called the West Don Lands. The red letters are as follows:
A – Gooderham & Worts, now the Distillery District
B – William Davies Company, now Corktown Common
C – CNR tracks
D – the Don River
A version of this illustration also appeared in a blogTO post about the William Davies Company.

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The last remains of the pork processing business disappeared long ago. After remaining vacant for a number of years, the site was developed into a park as part of the West Don Lands rebuilding.

 

small trees and other greenery , with a path and bench in the middle, in the foreground and the Toronto skyline is in the background.

The park is starting to look a lot greener as the plants and trees grow. This photo was taken from on top of one of the man made hills in the park. August 2014

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A black, grey, white and orange butterfly on a pink flower

There are now lots of butterflies….

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A bee and a butterfly on a tall upright light purple flower.

… and bees

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a metal and wood structure

A pavilion made of steel and wood sits atop a small hill in the middle of the play area. The pavilion was designed by by Maryann Thompson Architects of Boston The blue and green ovals are where there are fountains for warm weather water play.

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a woman is sitting on a bench, looking at her phone. Behind her there are a number of buildings under construction

Looking west, and slightly north, from the pavilion towards the downtown area.  West Don Lands redevelopment in the immediate background.  Autumn 2013 (the building under construction is now almost complete – see above)

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Part of a large red metal sculpture is in the foreground, looking past it you can see the pavillaion on top of a small hill that is part of Corktown Common park

Looking northeast through the wood and red metal sculpture,  ‘No Shoes’, by Mark di Suvero.  May 2014

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Newly planted trees surroounded by grass.

The trees are starting to grow. They don’t look like much at the moment but give them time!

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raspberries, not quite ripe, on a raspberry canes

There is even a large raspberry bush but by the looks of it, only the birds and insects have found it!

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A map, screenshot from google maps, of West Don Lands and vicinity.

A map of the area today. The red X marks the spot of the new park.

When the park opened in 2013, urbantoronto.ca had an article about it.  You can read  about it  here

Some wonderful aerial views of the area can be seen in another wordpress blog

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windows and other bits

Posted: December 4, 2013 in graffiti and street art, locations
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A few things that I saw today as I walked from Richmond and Spadina, southwestward to King and Shaw.  A beautiful sunny Tuesday afternoon.

An old metal sign saying No Authorized Parking has rusted badly. It is on a yellow brick building. Beside it is a blue coloured metal screen covering a window.

rusted and authorized

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A graffiti painting of a blue and white bird on a grey concrete block wall. It is painted to look like it's perched on the top corner of a window.

Happily perched above it all with a birds eye view of Richmond Street West.

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the backs of a few lowrise brick buildings. One of the buildings is painted an olive green coloutr. There is graffiti above one of the buildings, of 2 dog heads, one of which has a cigarette in its mouth.

Smoking on the roof.

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Stop Rob Ford at the western end of a one way Richmond street.

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A brick wall that is painted a pinkish colour. There is an old window with the lower half barred. A light is mounted on the wall to the right of the window. The wall is dirty.

window and light, Palace Hotel, at King and Strachan.

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A red brick wall with an old door that has been bricked over. A large new window has been added. You can see the lights on inside.

Afternoon light.

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A paper sticker showing three beer bottle shaped bottles with labels that say fish piss.

fish piss in the alley

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Three small windows arranged vertically beside a rusted metal grille covering an air vent. Black and white splotches have been painted around the window.

Black and white and speckled all over.  This was one in a series of five or six windows of various sizes along the same wall.  The black and white painting gave the wall an interesting look although I am not sure of pictures of the individual windows are all that interesting!

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gold coloured poster on a dirty light grey garage door. The poster says 2013 Lovebot Loveinvasion. It has a picture of a light grey robot on it, with a red heart.

The alley I was walking down turned, but as I turned the corner I realized that I had come to a dead end. I spotted this poster on one of the garage doors that was there. According to the man standing inside one of the other garages, lots of people end up doing U-turns in front of his garage – including cars that come zooming around the corner, only to have to hit their brakes.

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A sticker of a black hearted, square headed, yellow robot on a blue dumpster.

for more information about the lovebots, http://lovebot.com/about

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This photo was taken while standing in a parking lot near the southeast corner of Adelaide and Bathurst streets.

The graffiti across the lower part of the building is by homebase.  Their website: http://www.homebasetoronto.com

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