construction | as I walk Toronto

Posts Tagged ‘construction’

Royal York to Kipling

Posted: July 11, 2025 in construction, graffiti and street art, locations, transportation
Tags: Alfio Bartoletti, Bloor st. west, construction, fountain, graffiti, history, islington, Kingsway, Mimico Creek, Moises Frank, murals, Nate Galbraith, new buildings, parks, reflections, residential, sketchnate, street art, subway, TTC, workmen

This walk started from Royal York subway station. In general, I walked westward first along Bloor Street (to Islington) and then on Dundas West. The stretch of Bloor West at Royal York is part of The Kingsway neighbourhood.

below: Squares of yarn, some crocheted and some knit, cover a red frame heart similar to others that ShowLoveTO have placed around the city.

below: There are more yarn decorations around the metal frame protecting this tree on Bloor Street West.

below: Also, a little Zen Garden Planter to support the CNIB since June was Deafblind Awareness Month – the planter accessories were provided by The Gardener, a local flower store.

below: Bloor West – bike lanes, sidewalk patios, and construction. Welcome to summer in the city!

below: Bloor West glass towers

below: One wall of Brentwood Library and the small garden on the north side of the building.

below: Old gnarly tree with Kingsway Baptist church in the background

below: Just west of Royal York, at Montgomery Road, the subway emerges from underground.

The Mimico Creek passes under Bloor between Royal York and Islington. Tom Riley Park follows the creek on both sides north of Bloor until it then passes under Islington close to the intersection of Islington & Dundas West.

below: Another angle of the subway at ground level. Here is looking east as it runs through Tom Riley Park (and if you could see further, you could see where it goes back underground at Montgomery)

below: Islington subway station and bus bays. A very large parcel of land on the northwest corner of Islington and Bloor is taken up. Opened May 1968.

below: A messy corner, at Aberfoyle & Islington (just north of Bloor)

below: Just north of Bloor, Islington passes under railway tracks.

below: Islington Towers with a fountain in front. The parts of the fountain that are brown were once blue. It was designed and constructed by Alfio Bartoletti in the 1960s.

below: Across the street from the Islington Towers, a highrise with a more modern design (for better or worse, your decision!).

below: Corner of Cordova and Central Park Blvd with new condo development

In this part of Toronto, Dundas is north of Bloor.

Now you are in Islington village, home to over 20 murals depicting scenes from the history of the neighbourhood. I documented these back in 2014 in a blog post, Islington Heritage Murals. The murals are still there and are in good shape.

Are cars always getting in the way of public transit?

below: Not a heritage mural, but painted by Moises Frank for a collaborative project between Arts Etobicoke and the City of Toronto, the Dundas West #NoVacancy project.

below: On the same building as the above mural, is this painting. Once it was the Chinese Food Gallery, now it is vacant and surrounded by a fence. A development notice sign on the fence says that a permit for a five storey mixed use building has been applied for.

As you walk west on Dundas, you approach the intersections of Dundas, Bloor, and Kipling. There is a lot of construction, happening here, mostly condos.

below: A park, Dunkip Park, is also being created. Dun as in Dundas plus kip as in Kipling.

below: A very big hole in the ground.

below: Kipling Street bridge over the railway tracks

below: Looking east along the railway tracks from on top of the bridge at Kipling (back towards Islington).

below: Kipling subway station is the west terminus of the TTC Line 2 and was opened in November 1980. It connected Line 2 of the subway with GO service to the west. Pictured here is part of the south side showing three of its twenty concrete arches. These are similar to the arches at Islington station, but not identical to them.

below: North side of Kipling station, back in 1980 when it first opened, north side bus bays

below: Graffiti stickers in the parking lot. A well-suited duck in a hurry by giacco.ca and a boxy snail by Sketch Nate (aka Nate Galbraith)

below: Eastbound out of Kipling station. The older Line 2 subway trains still have a window that you can look out.

Ontario Line – north end of Pape

Posted: June 22, 2025 in construction, locations, stores, transportation
Tags: catchoo, construction, Cosburn, Donlands, graffiti, hoardings, lemon bucket orchestra, Metrolinx, Ontario line, Pape, people, Ritz restaurant, stickers, subway, trp 613, TTC

On a hillside along the Don Valley Parkway (DVP), there is a large construction project underway. This is where the new Ontario Line subway will go underground after crossing the DVP by bridge.

From this angle it’s difficult to see the work that has been done on the north side of the DVP but the ground has been cleared for construction of the support pillars for the large bridge that will take the LRT from Don Mills Road to this point at the top of Pape.

It has altered the quiet East York neighbourhood at the north end of Pape.

Ontario Line construction has also affected Pape Avenue. Here at Cosburn, a long stretch of what used to be stores and restaurants are now behind plywood hoardings. The main entrance to the station will be on the northwest corner of Pape and Cosburn. The final decision on the look of the station is not yet made (according to the Metrolinx website) but at least some of the renderings show that Infrastructure Ontario is involved and maybe the site will include other uses such as housing or offices.

Demolition has started but it looks like this project is going to take a while. The subway is going to run just west of Pape, under these buildings. Construction will kill (has killed?) street life but traffic shouldn’t be affected as much. Someone somewhere made that decision.

below: Some of the buildings from the back side, behind the plywood

below: There is a large Coca-Cola advert on the side of the building that is about to be demolished.

below: Bethany Baptist Church

below: There are little semi circular “ears” at the top of this building. I doubt that they had a function but along with the 3-D pattern across the top of the building, it adds a little bit of interest to the street scene.

below: Cat and dog at Floyd … while the crossing guard takes a break.

Back in November 2024, I posted some photos of the changes around Pape station (at Danforth). I ended that post just north of Danforth with the comment, “There is another station under construction at Cosburn, a few more blocks north but that’s for another day.” I guess that you could say that now is that day.

below: The top sticker is for the Lemon Bucket Orchestra and on the bottom it’s something about Kirby and Zaku and if you are into such things you might understand the reference.

from Bay to Christie

Posted: May 20, 2025 in construction, locations, old buildings, people, stores, transportation
Tags: AGO, Art Gallery of Ontario, Bloor Fruit Market, Bloor Street, concrete, construction, Cumberland Terrace, cyclists, Gold Leaf Fruit Market, Heart Garden, Katherena Vermette, mailbox, Markham St., monkey, OISE, pedestrians, red dress, reflections, renovations, ROM, Royal Ontario Museum, Tartu College

… a walk along Bloor Street on one of the rare warm days in May.

With respect to the weather, it’s been a crazy May – first cold, then warm, then cold again. As I write this, my windows are closed and the furnace is on. These are the coldest days in May since 1967 they say. I was going to make jokes about Hell freezing over but the Leafs didn’t win.

One of the Bay station exits is at Cumberland Terrace.

The lower level of Cumberland Terrace, especially along the north side, sits mostly empty.

From Cumberland Terrace, I headed to the corner of Bay & Bloor Streets and then westward from there. This is some of what I saw (and, for a change, I managed to keep the photos in the order that I took them).

below: Cladding changes at Bay and Bloor. The older concrete window frames are disappearing. Does anyone know if this type of recessed window feature has a name?

below: People watching from behind glass

below: From Avenue Road, looking west, where the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) dominates the south side of Bloor.

below: Renovations now underway on part of the “crystal” structure at the front of the AGO.

below: Red car….

below: … and red maple leaves

below: The OISE building (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education) was controversial when it was built in the late 1960s but it has aged into a good example of classic late modern concrete architecture. As an extra note – if you are interested in Toronto’s concrete architecture of this period, check out “Concrete Toronto: A Guidebook to Concrete Architecture from the Fifties to the Seventies”, edited by Michael McClelland and Graeme Stewart (many people contributed chapters to the book).

below: Reflections in the windows of the Bata Shoe Museum at Bloor and St. George.

below: Looking west on Bloor at Huron Street where the old church on the northwest corner is being renovated and expanded. Bloor Street United church was built in 1880 and was originally a Presbyterian church. In 1925 it was one of about 70% of the Presbyterian churches that merged with the Methodists to form the United Church of Canada.

below: The Bloor street facade of the church is being retained and updated while maintaining the church itself intact. A new condo tower is being built on the site, set back from the church building.

below: Looking east on Bloor Street. This view also shows the new building to the west of the church that is also part of the same project.

below: Tartu College building – another example of concrete architecture; it was designed by Elmar Tampold. Tartu College is a not for profit student residence and was named after the city Tartu in Estonia.

below: Red dress to symbolize missing and murdered Indigenous women.

below: Heart Garden at Trinity St. Pauls church at Bloor and Major. There are many of these gardens across the country and they are all dedicated to victims of the residential school system.

poetry, on wood, on a wood wall in a garden, heart garden,

Words on the first panel – by Katherena Vermette An other story this country has an other story one that is not mine or yours but ours

below: Colourful Annex mural by Planta Muisca

below: Bloor at Bathurst, southwest corner. This is what replaced Honest Eds – one had character and the other doesn’t and I think you know which one is which.

below: Markham Street is still closed as it is part of the large construction site on the old Mirvish property.

below: Little wavy curled features on the roof

below: From Sammie’s to Jimmy’s, with Real Nails in between. Square buildings, flat rooflines.

below: Gold Leaf Fruit Market at Palmerston and Bloor

below: Northwest corner of Palmerston and Bloor

below: Todays Specials

below: Bloor Fruit Market

below: Table for two

below: Just a little monkey sunbathing in the window!

below: Koreatown, mailbox

below: Waiting for the green light.

below: Christie subway station

And last, a shout out to Alternity Cafe where my smoothie was a fabulous pale bluish turquoise colour, thanks to the addition of “blue magic”.

another downtown loop

Posted: May 12, 2025 in construction, locations, people, public art, transportation
Tags: boats, Carlton, construction, Destinie Adelakun, downtown, Gardiner Expressway, glass, harbour, Harbourfront, Heritier Bilaka, Jordan Sook, June Clark, Laura Donefer, Love Park, Maple Leafs, owl, Queens Quay, reflections, Segun Caezar, steetcars, Transit Through Time, TTC, Union station, York Street

Good morning! The weather forecast said that there was a chance of drizzly rain and they were right but it wasn’t that much and it didn’t last for long. Not the best day for sunny blue sky photos of the city, but since when has that held us back?

below: You probably don’t recognize where this photo was taken (unless you are familiar with the Victoria Hotel). This is Yonge Street, just south of King subway station, and it is also where I started walking the other day….

below: Contrasts of old and new at the corner of Yonge and Wellingon. Architectural trends as well as the material used are a product of their time.

below: The old stone entrance with a large circular window over the door and an arch that matches those over the other windows. There are also little details in the stonework that you just don’t see in modern buildings.

below: The more recent development to all glass buildings with oversized (i.e. extra tall) ground floor levels.

below: But such extensive use of glass is not entirely new. Downtown skyscrapers have been built using steel frames and glass since the 1960s. I think that the TD bank tower was one of the first, if not the first, in 1967. But that’s not this building… this is part of the large RBC complex on Bay Street between Wellington and Front. The bright pink plants along the sidewalk are wonderful!

below: The south part of the RBC building is very photogenic! Its gold coloured glass as well as its angles and nooks make for some interesting pictures. The older stone Union Station is hiding in the bottom left corner.

below: A recent addition to the streetscape in front of Union Station are these bland blocks of concrete. Such imagination! So much thought went into their design! Really? That’s what someone thought would be a great addition to Front Street?

below: There were some complaints about the older ones… the Jersey barriers that were meant to be temporary but then never went away…. in fact, many of them are still here….

There are 2 art installations in the West Wing at Union Station. The first is a group exhibit, “A Transit Through Time” featuring six Black artists – Destinie Adélakun, Pixel Heller, Segun Caezar, Heritier Bilaka, Rico Poku and Camille Kiffin. Each artist is responsible for one panel…

below: The picture in the foreground, the woman with a red head scarf and blue blouse, is the work of Segun Caezar.

below: “Gelede Queens” by Destinie Adelakun – people in ornate costumes pose in front of a large fireplace and mirror. According to UNESCO, “Gelede is performed by the Yoruba-Nago community that is spread over Benin, Nigeria and Togo. For more than a century, this ceremony has been performed to pay tribute to the primordial mother Iyà Nlà and to the role women play in the process of social organization and development of Yoruba society. “

below: “Self Knowledge” by Heritier Bilaka

below: This large butterfly, by Jordan Sook, is part of another installation called, “Nothing More, Nothing Less”. Apparently there are more butterflies around Union Station. Have you seen any?

below: Ontario Square between Queen’s Quay and the waterfront where a large image from Alex McLeod’s “Liquid, Gold” can still be seen. I wrote a blog past about this picture and others from this series a year ago, “Liquid, Gold and other matters“

below: This “Carnavale Amulet” basket is made of glass and was created by Laura Donefer. It is on display at Harbourfront along with several other of her pieces.

below: A few boats are docked in the harbour. The bridge over the harbour is no longer just blocked, but is now severed.

below: Protecting the young trees

below: Dead and not alive; dead and dead. Patio season on the waterfront hasn’t begun yet.

below: On the south wall of the Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery a very large photograph by June Clark still hangs. This is left over from last year’s CONTACT Photography Festiva.

below: Getting ready to clean up the city?!

below: Still quiet now, but getting ready for summer…. water taxis to take people to Centre Island.

below: Patriotic red and white, but a very sad Canadian flag.

below: Love Park on the southeast corner of York and Harbour is now complete. This public space was created when the exit ramp from the Gardiner to York Street was removed. It is difficult to see from ground level photos, but the pond is heart shaped.

below: A beaver has made its home in the pond.

below: There is also an owl that has a great birds eye view of the park. Someone else has a great view too!

below: Looking north on York from Harbour Street towards the Gardiner Expressway and beyond. Love Park was behind me to the right when I took this photo.

The old multi level parking garage at Lower Simcoe and the Lakeshore is on its way down. Demolition is well underway.

below: Dwarfed by the new condos around it, the stairwell and elevator shaft from the garage stands on its own. Whose picture is at the top? Someone blowing a giant bubble – must be quite the wad of gum!

below: The other stairwell.

below: “Don’t trespassing”!

below: The demolition as view from the other side of Lakeshore Blvd.

below: A lot of concrete! Under the ramp to the Gardiner

below: The northeast corner of York and Lakeshore

below:

below: York Street at Lakeshore Blvd where the old green Gardiner Expressway travels directly above the Lakeshore

below: Just after taking the above photo, there was much noise from the honking of horns, as this black car decided to take a short cut to the ramp by going north in the southbound lane on York Street.

And last, a shout out to the Toronto Maple Leafs as I walk through the Scotiabank Centre back to the subway. As I write this, the Leafs tied at two games apiece with the Florida Panthers in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Go Leafs Go!

below: Carlton in his regular blue and white attire as well as in his St. Pats costume. Love the curly wig and the clover leaf shaped glasses! You can catch Carlton in the store at Scotiabank arena (along with a lot of other Toronto team paraphernalia!).

behind Dundas, near Dufferin

Posted: February 5, 2025 in alleys, construction, graffiti and street art
Tags: alley, aner, Anna Urra, Christina Mazzulla, construction, Dufferin, Dundas West, Fabian Lopez, garages, graffiti, lanes, Mony Zakhour, murals, Paula Tikay, redevelopment, Supermalo5, three sisters, tikay, vacant

below: View from a lane that runs behind the north side of Dundas West, walking west of Dufferin. The alley also runs east of Dufferin but that will have to wait for another day. The large brick building on Dufferin is St. Annes parish hall. St. Annes church is behind, facing Gladstone Ave. The vacant lot on left was a parking lot not long ago but now it is now a construction site.

below: It looks like changes are coming on the Dundas West side of the lane as well. A concrete wall/fence has been partially demolished and there are construction fences behind some of the buildings. According to the Urban Toronto website, two 8 storey developments have been proposed – one fronting on Dundas and the other on Dufferin, with the alley remaining between them.

below: Behind Dundas West… but not for much longer.

below: Artwork by Cuban artist Supermalo5, aka Fabian Lopez who always includes a little question mark in his work along with the incorrect equation 2 + 2 = 5

below: Two big round black eyes

below: Street art painting, abstract, by Mony Zakhour

below: Screenshot from Google street view, captured in 2019. The houses on the left are now gone – you can see the blue and white development notice sign in front of them. They are now part of the vacant lot/construction site pictured above. You can also see that the lane here is Boland Lane. It runs perpendicular to Dundas West.

below: A quick look at what else is in Boland Lane

below: “Embrace what makes you unique even if it makes others uncomfortable”

below: “Perfection is the enemy of greatness”

Continuing behind Dundas….

below: Layers, old and new as well as wood, brick, and glass.

below: Rooftop decks and terraces above and street art covered garages below including a flaming hot kitty painted by Christina Mazzulla.

below: A trio of grey masked foxes (wolves? dogs?) covering two doors. This painting goes back to at least 2017 and possibly 2015 and before.

below: The lane meets Awde Street, with a teal colored garage door. Awde is only a block long, and is not the original Awde Street. Apparently what is now Croatia Street was once Awde (1908) and there is a plaque to prove it.

below: That brownish wall in above picture (where there is now a stack of firewood), was once covered with a painting. This is it in 2015.

below: Awde Street, streetview from 2019.

At this point, the lane makes a 90 degree turn towards Dundas – and lo and behold, there is even more artwork to see ( also by Mony Zakhour?)

below: On the north side of Dundas West, there is a large mural titled, “Three Sisters” painted by Paula Tikay and Aner Urra. I discussed it in a blog post from 2019 (Three Sisters, Tikay and Aner)

… and that’s the end of the alley!

Small bit of trivia: I once found my great-great-grandfather, John Marshall, and his family in a Toronto phone book from about 1910 (I can’t remember the exact year). They were on Gladstone Ave. When I went to see if I could find the house, I discovered that the number corresponded with a vacant lot (parking lot?) adjacent to St. Annes church.

intersections – King & Bathurst

Posted: January 20, 2025 in construction, history
Tags: Bank of Montreal, Banknote Bar, bathurst st., clock tower, construction, facade, King St., Metrolinx, pianos, redevelopment, streetcars, TTC, Wheatsheaf Tavern

below: 504 King streetcar on a snowy January afternoon

As you all know, Toronto is being demolished and redeveloped. Almost every part of the city is affected by the construction of new condo buildings or the upgrading of public transit. It can be difficult to keep up documenting the changes! A few weeks ago I posted some pictures from Queen & Spadina where Metrolinx is building a new subway station for the Ontario Line. The next stop west from there is at King and Bathurst.

Infrastructure Ontario wants to build what they call a Transit-Oriented Community (TOC) at King and Bathurst. The gist of the plan is that these sites will feature high density development around transit hubs. Some of the plans for condo and office may still be at the concept level but the new subway station work is well underway.

below: Looking south on Bathurst from King. On the southwest corner is the Wheatsheaf Tavern which has been here since 1849. The exterior of the building hasn’t changed much in 170 years! It remains untouched by today’s construction.

below: The Banknote Bar on the southeast corner is now gone, or at least most of it has been demolished. The north facade will be incorporated into the new station, the King-Bathurst station (Are they really going to call it that? So Dull. So Bland.).

This 4 storey brick building was previously a Bank of Montreal. It was built in 1901/02 for the Canadian Biscuit Company. It then had a series of tenants until 1923 when Bank of Montreal moved in.

Previously, a mixed use development rising above the old brick structure had been proposed for the site (prior to Metrolinx). Cancelled. At this point there is no other development on this corner.

below: Looking east on King

You can see that the corner (above picture) is now covered by a very big white temporary structure where construction of another station underway. What will be revealed? Plans suggest a mixed office/residential tower above with rebuilding of most portions of the TD bank that was on the corner, as well as the building directly east of it. No car parking spots, bikes only. Concept stage? Or further along? One day we might find out!

Last, the northeast corner –

below: Clock Tower lofts dominates the corner. There really are two clocks on the side of the building, both of which are difficult to see. But that doesn’t matter since they don’t work anyhow.

below: 1919 photo of the Clocktower Building. It was in bad shape in 1980 and was demolished. The Clock Tower Lofts (above) replaced it. In 1919 it was home to Otto Higel Piano Company. The church in the background is St. Marys Roman Catholic church at Bathurst and Adelaide.

1919 black and white photo of a brick building on northwest corner of king and bathurst. 4 storeys, with small clock tower on one corner, church in the background

photo credit: City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1244, Item 3008

The building dates from 1895; it was built for the Toronto Lithographing Company who used it until 1901. Next, the Newell & Higel Co. Ltd take over the building where they manufacture piano actions, keys and hammers, and organ keys, reeds, and reedboards. By 1912 they employed 450 people. They developed a Player Piano that became famous around the world and business boomed. They expanded the building north to the corner of Adelaide Street West.

By the way, a Player Piano is one that plays itself. The 1920’s were their heyday but advances in technology, especially the introduction of radios and record players, helped kill the Player Piano. By the 1930s production ceased.

below: A 1970s view of the northwest corner.

1970s black and white photo of Otto Higel Piano Company, now a furniture factory

photo credit: City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1526, File 7, Item 5,

below: Looking out the window of the Wheatsheaf Tavern. How many people have sat here and looked out this window? What did they think about?

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!

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…

intersections – Queen and Spadina

Posted: November 20, 2024 in construction, history, old buildings, people, public art
Tags: buses, construction, hoardings, Metrolinx, Ontario line, people, Stephen Cruise, streetcars, subway

Subtitle: More Ontario Line mess

below: Spadina and Richmond…. A giant thimble (by Stephen Cruise) sits on a stack of buttons. Behind it, a building is shrouded in blue netting.

below: Blue, blue, my world is blue… walking north on Spadina under blue netting that protects the sidewalk from work being done on the southwest corner of Queen and Spadina. The whole block between Richmond and Queen is under wraps. This is a future subway station with the imaginative name of Queen-Spadina.

below: Southwest corner of Queen and Spadina

below: A look at what’s happening behind the hoardings….

below: Mcdonalds on the northwest corner is unaffected by the changes around it.

below: Looking south on Spadina with a good view of the southeast corner of the intersection with Queen West.

below: There is a lot happening in the northeast quadrant, all by Metrolinx. the yellow framework that protects and stabilizes a facade is becoming a common sight in Toronto.

below: In case you can’t remember what was on that corner, this is a photo taken back when they were laying streetcar tracks in 1912. Most recently there was a CIBC bank on the corner.

black and white photo from 1912 of brick building on the northeast corner of Queen and Spadina.

Photo taken from WIkipedia Commons, in public domain. Originally from City of Toronto Archives.

below: A couple of the old houses/stores on Queen beside the old brick building seem remarkably unchanged since 1912. (As a light grey car partially blocks the pedestrian crossing at the intersection).