demolition | as I walk Toronto

Posts Tagged ‘demolition’

Bayview intensification

Posted: January 21, 2023 in construction, locations, old buildings
Tags: Bayview Ave., bungalows, demolition, development notices, fence, houses, North York, residential, vacant lots

The temperatures this January have been warmer than usual but that means more grey skies and dreary weather days. I spent one of those grey afternoons in the fog on a stretch of Bayview Avenue near York Mills Road. It seemed like an appropriate time to see how many abandoned houses I could find.

Once upon a time, and not that long ago, Bayview Avenue in this part of the city was lined with large houses on big lots, often hidden behind trees. Slowly, each house is being replaced with 4 to 6 townhouses in line with a revised city plan. Toronto has many housing issues including a shortage of family homes.

below: Five years ago I posted a photo of this house in a post about empty Bayview houses. It was empty at the time too.

below: This house appeared in the same 2017 post. At that time it still had a red front door.

below: Development is rarely a quick process and things can often get convoluted – the sign on this property is for one of the newest plans – it was filed in 2022. There are websites advertising the 4 townhouses at 2621 Bayview for sale preconstruction. There is also a website that claims that 2621 Bayview is included in a block, 2617-21 Bayview that is/was for sale for $14,800,000. (MLS number C5438385).

below: This is 2019 Bayview, included in the 2017-21 block. At 14.8 million just for the land to get 11 units….. Toronto may have a shortage of units but it also has a shortage of affordable housing. What price is affordable these days? A quick search of properties for sale on Bayview shows that a vacant lot is priced above $4,000,000 (1/2 an acre) and that a newly built townhouse with 3000+ square feet is above $2,000,000.

below: Another house that has sat empty.

below: With an application filed in 2017. Five years. Is the process that slow? The city wants this intensification to happen and there doesn’t seem to be a lack of potential developers circling like vultures. Does a backlog of files that are 5, 6, or more years in the making suggest a flaw in the system somewhere?

below: Preparations for a new access road/driveway have begun where 2673 and 2675 Bayview once stood.

early morning Parkdale

Posted: January 11, 2023 in alleys, graffiti and street art, history, old buildings, windows and walls
Tags: alley, architecture, buildings, changes, Christina Mazzulla, Christmas, demolition, development, gables, globe, graffiti, Heather & Little, Jim Bravo, Jimmy Chiale, lanes, Lula Lumaj, mural, murals, Peter Dykhuis, Queen St. West, sculpture, stickers, storefronts, street scene, T-bonez, tibetan, Tsampa, urban ninja squadron, World Peace Monument

below: Pink faced, orange leopard spotted blast of colour…. A mural by Christina Mazzulla.

Settlement in what is now Parkdale began before 1850. In 1879 it was incorporated as a village and ten years later it became part of the city of Toronto.

below: Mural by Jim Bravo and Lula Lumaj from 2015, celebrating the history of Sunnyside Park. In the early years, part of the attraction of living in Parkdale was its proximity to Lake Ontario and such features as Sunnyside Beach and Sunnyside Amusement Park.

below: Christmas wreath on the globe outside Parkdale Library. This is the World Peace Monument, a globe surrounding a fountain. It was designed by Peter Dykhuis and fabricated in copper and bronze by Heather & Little in 2005. The metal sculpture has aged well but as we should all know by now, the city does not do water features well (i.e. I’ve never seen a fountain there; have you?)

In July 2022, City council adopted the Parkdale Main Street Historic District Plan. It covers Queen Street from Dufferin west to Jameson/Macdonell including this block of three buildings. It hopes to preserve many of the two and three storey brick buildings that line Queen Street and in turn, the character of the area.

below: Map of proposed Parkdale Main Street HDP. This map was found on a City website where you can also find other information about the project if you want.

below: Southeast corner of Queen and Dunn

below: A happy black and white bear to greet you

below: And a cow in a tea cup

below: Looking south on Lansdowne. Note the car blocking the bus stop.

below: Someone’s happy this morning

below: Looking south on Noble towards Queen

below: Northeast corner of Brock and Queen

below: “No Justice No Development” in the window of this former store.

below: Row houses. Each house shares a gable, or a peak, with one beside. Gables were very common in Toronto architecture, especially in the Victorian era, but in those houses each had its own gable. As people have decorated their houses, the resulting mix of colours, materials, and textures forms its own picture. This is not unique to this street – there are many other places in Toronto where homes with shared gables (both semis and rows) have been renovated such that the two halves look very different.

below: Bay and gable houses

below: Parkdale has always had a mix of many different building styles, both commercial and residential. The Tsampa Tibetan restaurant has an octagonal turret.

below: From rows of two storey houses to walls of glass and steel (on the other side of Dufferin, and the other side of the railway corridor).

below: Until a few years ago, this was Designer Fabrics store. The block of buildings was built in 1881 by J.C. Mussen, a Parkdale businessman. It was originally six storefronts. In 2020 there was a plan to build a nine storey condo on this site.

below: Like the building beside it, this grey building at 1354-356 Queen West may be demolished to make way for a condo development. There has been a long line of retail businesses in this space, from John Wanless’s hardware store in 1881 to Designer Fabrics (1950s to 2018). For more information about the building, see the website of Architectural Conservancy Ontario.

looking across Queen Street West, small tree and bus shelter on the south side, older buildings on the north side including a two storey brick building with front windows papered over

below: One person’s trash is another person’s treasure…. I had to double check just to make sure that it wasn’t real!

below: The bottom right section of a black and white mural by Jimmy Chiale.

below: “Danger – Restricted Area” says the sign

below: Nothing changes

below:Another demolition – this one is on Noble, immediately north of Queen Street West. An 8 storey condo has been proposed for this site.

below: Another building, another blue and white sign, another condo. As it turns out, this is immediately behind 1354-13656 Queen West (that grey building a few images above) which means that the 9 storey condo here will front on three streets: Queen St, Brock Ave, and Abbs St..

below: The struggle against colonialism continues

below: After a while there are just too many of these. It can get a bit disheartening. This sign sits in front of 1488 Queen Street West which is already empty and looking derelict at street level. The snails pace of development doesn’t help – neglected properties are a liability. They look horrid and contribute nothing to the neighbourhood.

below: Scan for nonsense

With thanks to @designwallah for helping to identify the artists of some of the murals in this post.

another day, another demolition

Posted: September 21, 2021 in construction, locations
Tags: apartment buildings, Canadian Dry Cleaners, demolition, Eastern Ave., fence, Lower Coxwell, McDonalds, parking meters, Queen St. East, redevelopment, rubble

McDonalds drive-thru with demolition…. yes, I’ll have fries with that.

The demolition hasn’t really started yet but the buildings are empty and the grounds interiors are being cleared out.

below: Sidewalk along Eastern Avenue, looking east towards Lower Coxwell

below: At Lower Coxwell and Eastern there is a gap in the old fence and overgrown bushes that leads to what once was a parking lot. The building in the background is one the ones being torn down.

below: There are some cool old parking meters still standing

below: The old parking lot is behind a row of businesses on Queen East

below: Looking northeast towards Queen East and Coxwell

remnants of our industrial past

Posted: February 23, 2021 in construction, history, locations, old buildings, waterfront
Tags: A.J. Maldo, Canary Distict, construction, demolition, dog, Dominion Wheel & Foundry, Eastern Avenue, Gardiner Expressway, graffiti, King Street East, Lakeshore, Lower Sherbourne, Old Foundry building, Pam Lostracco, protest, queens quay east, silo, stickers, underpass park, Victory Soya Mills

I first started walking the streets with a camera sometime in 2011. At that time Instagram was still a baby; the photo sharing platform of choice at the time was flickr. Flickr still exists but there are many more choices now. Back in the day there was a Toronto flickr group that had meetups once a month. The meetup, there’s another concept that has exploded with the internet. There are now meetup groups for any photography genre that tickles your fancy. Ten years ago, you met through flickr and that is how I found Toronto Photo Walks. They walk (or walked pre-COVID) on alternate Saturdays, rain or shine, somewhere in the city. My first walk with them was February 2012, almost exactly 9 years ago. If you check their website, you”ll see that COVID-19 has played havoc with their group and there haven’t been any walks for a year now. I miss my phellow photogs so the other day I walked with one and this is where we ended up.

below: If you’ve been in the Distillery District this winter (or any of the past few winters), you might recognize this cheerful fellow.

below: At Mill and Trinity, the omnipresent blue and white Notice sign. Apparently a developer has applied to build a 31 storey building (on top of the existing old brick structure) with 392 hotel rooms. I wonder if they are happy that they didn’t just finish this a year ago? Ontario hotel occupancy rate hit a low of 15.3% in April 2020 and had barely started to recover when the second lockdown hit. As an aside – if you like stats, you’ll like the Ministry of Tourism, Culture, and Sport research pages!

below: One industry that is booming is the film business. Often you can see movie trucks at the corner of Mill and Cherry. This land is owned by the province and is awaiting an affordable housing development of some sort.

below: The old Foundry site, actually a group of heritage buildings at the former Dominion Wheel and Foundries Company on Eastern Avenue that are more than 100 years old.

The problem? It sits on provincially owned land. The province can pull stunts like changing the zoning without city approval (or knowledge). It can turn one foundry building into 3 towers of max 141m high (30 storeys is approx. 100m so 141 m is TALL!). One of them has to be rental apartments but can’t have parking – there’s to be a commercial parking structure instead. Hey let’s build affordable housing by making them pay for parking! Here is the government website with the proof – Ontario Regulation 595/20

Fast forward to late January. Demolition of the foundry begins with no warning to the neighbourhood. There is a rezoning order but no actual plans drawn up or developer named. As far we know, the province still owns the land but refuses to say exactly the plan is because, well, probably because there is no plan or because the province is selling out to a developer. Name your poison. The province just says “affordable housing” and we’re supposed to go oooh and ahhh.

Just around the corner (on Mill Street) three towers of 761 rental units are being built at the moment (no photo, it’s all behind hoardings so far).

below: Heritage Toronto plaque, 2012, Dominion Wheel & Foundries Ltd., Manufacturing Complex

plaque at former Dominion Wheel and Foundries Company on Eastern Avenue

These four buildings were once part of a larger Dominion Wheel & Foundries Ltd. complex. By 1913, the company had constructed its first building, 169 Eastern Ave. on this site. As a manufacturer of railway equipment, rolling stock, and foundry and machinery supplies, Dominion Wheel & Foundries expanded with the growth of the nearby railway companies. By the 1940s, the buildings stretched from this location to Cherry Street, replacing two former residential streets. The firm’s remaining warehouse (#169)m foundry building (#153, built 1951), office building (#171, built 1930), and machine shop (#185, built about 1935) are now among the few remaining reminders of the extensive impact the railway industry had on this area.

Anyhow, lots of protest, lots of noise. Demolition was halted. An Ontario Divisional Court justice temporarily stopped the province from demolishing the heritage buildings.

below: Just behind the Foundry, an almost completed condo.

below: Workers remove the protective layer from the mirror-like panels on the underside of the overhang (see yellow area near the bottom of the condo in the above photo). This feature parallels the mirrors on the “ceiling” of Underpass Park which is close by.

below: Poster paste up graffiti at Underpass Park (you can see the new condo I mentioned above in the upper right corner). Good advice whether you take it literally or as a metaphor.

below: Looking northwest at the corner of King and Sumach

below: A few metres further west along King. Traffic passes under Richmond and Adelaide streets.

below: Looking northwest from Sackville Park.

below: ghost sign

below: Waiting for the streetcar.

below: Architectural detail on a corner of St. Lawrence Hall. That’s quite the expression on the poor fellow’s face. The harrowed look of someone who has spent too much time in lockdown?

below: In contrast, this guy looks like he’s having a great time!

Did you ever think that we’d still be mired in this pandemic a year later?

below: A reminder that this pandemic has been hard on a lot of businesses – sign on a window, “Dear Customers”

Dear customers, We have decided to close this weekend to re-assess for the future…

below: Lining up to buy groceries, masked and keeping distanced.

On a storefront window, something positive: hearts for the things we love – “my dog”, “mac & cheese”, “movie popcorn”, etc.

below: Pam Lostracco artwork on hoardings.

below: View of the CN Tower from Lower Sherbourne, just north of Lakeshore/Gardiner and immediately south of Hydro One’s Esplanade Transformer Station. Unfortunately, that is not a public path; it is behind a locked gate.

below: Chairs in the median.

below: Queens Quay at Lower Sherbourne, looking west towards downtown.

below: Queens Quay at Lower Sherbourne, looking east towards the old Victory Soya Mills Silos. They were built for Canadian Breweries’ soya bean processing plant in 1944. Ten years later the site was sold to Proctor and Gamble who renamed them the Victory Soya Mills Silos. One last change of ownership occurred in 1980 when Central Soya Mills purchased them. They have been empty since 1991. Other buildings on the site have been demolished but the silos remain, now a heritage building but surrounded by a large vacant lot.

below: The mill with its three silos before it closed in the early 1990s. The silo that still stands is the one in the back, not the two closest to the water. In this picture, you are looking southeast; the Port Lands are in the background and the Cherry Street bridge is on the left at the very edge. There isn’t much traffic on the Gardiner Expressway!

below: Sugar Beach

My thanks to Vicki for walking with me that day. We’ve walked many miles together in the past but I don’t think that we’ve ever walked alone (maybe?)

below: As an aside, after walking with Vicki, I looped back around to my car. This construction site is on Adelaide where the brick facade of the old building is being preserved. More to explore another day!

a long time lingering

Posted: December 15, 2020 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: defaced, demolition, empty, falling down, graffiti, John Brown, Spadina, staircase, street art, tag

This view was captured while walking north up Spadina towards Baldwin. It’s a much quieter street these days and looking a little forlorn.

At the southwest corner of Baldwin & Spadina the hoardings around 374 Spadina are still there. They seem to have been there forever now. Once again the site has been sold, if the internet is to be believed. Apparently, there is an OMB (Ontario Municipal Board) approved plan for a two storey restaurant there. I wondered how long that has been on the books so I googled it – early 2007.

Last spring this wall was painted as a tribute to Andre Alexander, aka Hip Pop Art who died in October 2018. Small pieces remain.

The hoardings around that site, along with the covered sidewalk along the south side of Baldwin have been tje canvas for an ever changing selection of posters and artwork. The other day it was this circular piece by John Brown that was tacked to one section of the wall.

In case you’ve always wondered what was behind those hoardings…. Some demolition has occurred as the fire damaged, water damaged, and destroyed just through neglect parts have mostly been removed.

the new Cherry Street bridge

Posted: November 13, 2020 in construction, locations, public art
Tags: bridge, Cherry Street bridge, Commissioners Street, construction, CONTACT, demolition, dirt, ESSROC, Framework, photography, Port Lands, Ryan Walker, silos, soil, spike, tbonez, urban ninja squadron, Vid Ingelevis

The latest attraction is the new Cherry Street bridge pictured here just after its arrival by barge from Nova Scotia where it was manufactured by Cherubini Group. It’s a shiny white steel bridge with a red racing stripe. It is 57 metres long and wide enough to carry LRT tracks and a pedestrian walkway. Another identical bridge to go beside it for road traffic comes later.

below: Digging up the city. Sometimes it seems like we are living in one big construction zone.

The bridge is not the only “sight” at the Port Lands. There is also a photography exhibit of pictures taken of the buildings before they were demolished. ‘Framework’ by Vid Ingelevis and Ryan Walker. This is part of the CONTACT Photography Festival that was originally scheduled for May.

below: Interior, 130 Commissioners Street (Coopers Iron and Metal, an old metal recycling facility). The photograph is mounted on the roll-up door of one of the ESSROC cement plant silos – now a heritage site.

below: Cleaning the streets. The ESSROC silos dominate the streetscape here on Cherry Street (looking north towards the condos in the Distillery District).

below: The back of one of the few remaining buildings as seen from Cherry Street. It fronts onto Munitions Street.

below: Cherry Street bascule bridge in the upright position. Most of the Framework exhibit is down the center of Villiers Street on top of the remains of the old railway line. There are five panels like this one, each with a picture on both sides.

below: Most of the Port Lands redevelopment is occurring behind fences.

below: A very large spike!

below: 130 Commissioners Street, September 2019

below: Abandoned gas station with its rusting gas pump.

below: 99 Commissioners Street, July 2019

below: 97 Commissioners Street, August 2019

below: Commissioners Street closed to traffic.

below: Control room, Cherry Street bridge, July 2019

below: 130 Commissioners Street, September 2019

below: An old Urban ninja squadron sticker on a TTC bus stop sign

below: Dump truck on Villiers Street

Later: Just before sunset, the new bridge in the Keating Channel. It has since been rotated ninety degrees into the proper alignment for the new segment of Cherry Street. This job was made it easy by the fact that the bridge was mounted on a large turntable on the barge. It now has to be welded into place. The old bastule (lift) bridge now in place is slated for demolition in late 2021.

‘Framework’ will be on display until August 2021.

Wynford and vicinity

Posted: April 20, 2020 in construction, locations, transportation, windows and walls
Tags: buildings, chair, construction, Crosstown, Crosstown Community, demolition, development, Don Mlls, IBM, lights, LRT, machinery, parking lot, railway

I’ve been keeping an eye on the old IBM building at the corner of Don Mills and Eglinton. It was built in 1951 as IBM’s Canadian manufacturing plant and head office.

It’s been empty for a long time but recently work has begun on the site.

The IBM complex sits on 60 acres and the whole site will be redeveloped in the coming months. The white tower in the background is also on the site, right beside the CPR tracks that mark the northern boundary.

below: A Canada goose struts near one of the entrances to the old IBM building that is being demolished.

below: 1954

an old black and white photo of the IBM building on Don Mills Road in 1954

photo credit – taken from ‘Urban Toronto’ online article about this development

below: Apparently the plan is to build a mix of residential and commercial buildings on the site ranging from 3 to 44 storeys. A new community centre and park are also included in the planned Crosstown Community.

In terms of construction and development, this intersection is very busy as it is also the location of the future Science Centre LRT station. It has been a mess for so long that I can’t remember how long it’s been. There are signs of progress starting to emerge from the chaos so perhaps there is hope for a 2021 opening of the Crosstown LRT.

below: The new bus bays on the northeast corner are starting to take shape.

below: More of the NE corner.

below: Looking across Eglinton towards the Mormon church and other buildings on the south east corner.

below: A sign of the times. Covid-19 dos and don’ts.

below: New tracks being laid where the LRT comes back to the surface east of Don Mills Road (looking east towards the DVP). The Science Centre station is underground even though the tracks on both the east and west side are above ground.

below: From the NE corner (black building is/was the Ontario Federation of Labour) looking south. All buildings are on the east side of Don Mills Road.

below: A sidewalk, temporary, lined with cones, along Eglinton.

There are other buildings being torn down. The building in the background is 1200 Eglinton Ave East. It was an office building with a parking structure beside it. This is the view from Wynford Drive.

The same building a few days later when I went back to check on the demolition’s progress. The parking structure is now just piles of rubble and more of the exterior walls of the other building are gone.

below: The large, almost empty, parking lot behind the Bell building on Wynford.

below: With a few exceptions, most of the buildings around Wynford are products of the 1960s and 1970s.

below: Another empty parking lot. This picture was taken on a Saturday afternoon which might explain the lack of cars but as I drive around the city I see lots of empty parking lots even during the work week. A sign of the times.

below: Looking across the Don Valley Parkway

below: CPR tracks behind Wynford.

below: Rusty metal spirals, tightly wound, found amongst the gravel along the train tracks.

below: Looking east along the tracks just before they cross the DVP. If you follow the tracks, they lead you to the CPR marshaling yard at McCowan and Sheppard. So, that’s where I went next…. (scroll down!)

a little part of Willowdale

Posted: March 21, 2020 in construction, locations, old buildings
Tags: buildings, demolition, development proposal, Dudley Court, offices, pizza pizza, Sheppard Ave East, stores, Willowdale

Another walking day, another part of the city to explore. Sometimes I find new places to wander around but the other day I went back to Sheppard Ave East to see what other changes are happening. This is a section of Sheppard Ave that is living in the shadow of Yonge Street developments. It’s an area of mixed residential and commercial.

below: Sheppard Ave East looking west towards Yonge Street from Willowdale Ave.

below: A smaller bungalow, and architectural “style” that was common along here.

below: Some of the bungalows are being replaced by much larger houses, especially in the side streets behind Sheppard.

below: More signs of the times, no kids playing outside in the playgrounds of the schools and day care centres.

below: A CTR rabbit trying to run away.

below: This front door with it’s clean and ornate door frame has always fascinated me.

below: 176 Sheppard Avenue East has been empty for a while. I found information about the development here on different websites. One of the sites stated that the new building would be ready to move into in 2019.

below: A vacant lot

below: This is the same vacant lot as there was nothing to prevent me from wandering in.

below: The front of Dudley Court at 166 Sheppard Ave East. I have driven past here a few times this year and I keep thinking that I should check it out before it disappears. The orange “tree protection” fence was a more recent addition. Maybe part of the reason why there is no development proposal sign here is that it’s been about 20 years since the owners started “negotiating” with the city about what was going to be built here.

below: The back of Dudley Court from the vacant lot mentioned above.

below: What surprised me is that there are actually 3 apartment buildings that are empty. The plywood is there to protect the trees that are between the apartments and a ditch. The “ditch” continues underground under Sheppard and then south through a small park towards the 401.

below: There is a pedestrian walkway on the west side that continues north a couple of blocks.

below: Sheppard Ave looking east

below: Sheppard Ave looking west. An evolution of sorts… at first there were small houses that became offices; now they are being torn down.

below: Some of the mid-sized buildings that were developed in the 1970s and 1980s are also “moving upward”. In this case, to 11 storeys with 55 residential units and lower floor retail. It is currently home to medical offices.

below: Once upon a time this was a Pizza Pizza. Then it was for sale. Next, it provided headquarters for an election campaign. And now? Possibly in limbo? All that I could find is a 2017 rejection from the city for a 10 storey development on this lot and the one adjacent (where The Beer Store is now). The official plan calls for lower buildings as you move away from Yonge Street. In the meantime you can call it an eyesore.

below: But not everything is ugly!

***

Port Lands update

Posted: September 6, 2019 in construction, landmarks, locations, old buildings
Tags: abandoned buildings, cement trucks, Cherry Street, Commissioners Street, construction, demolition, DOn River, Don ROadway, flood protection, Keating channel, Lake Ontario, Port Lands, skyline, T and T, Toronto Harbour, Villiers Street

Work on the Port Land redevelopment continues. The area is changing fast enough that I thought another visit would be a good idea.

below: Cherry Lifeguard Station, calm and peaceful in the early morning. On a weekday in September all is quiet here.

below: A new red lifeguard chair sits on a freshly raked beach. In the distance, a tug pushes a barge out of the harbour and onto Lake Ontario.

below: A family of Canada geese rest on the embankment of the Keating Channel. The white concrete supports of the Gardiner Expressway are reflected in the water.

below: Looking west along the Keating Channel. The Don River empties to the bottom right, just out of the picture. At the moment, the Keating Channel is the only route to Lake Ontario but this is about to change.

below: The Cherry Street bridge, a lift bridge, was broken in the open position for about a month at the end of the summer. It was fixed in time for Labour Day weekend so it is down now (can it go back up? It will soon be demolished so maybe that doesn’t matter)

below: From above, the Keating Channel is in the foreground and it is here that construction on a new Cherry Street bridge is just beginning. This is west of the present bridge because Cherry Street is going to be straightened as it passes under the Gardiner. There is another small channel behind the Keating Channel but it ends at the T&T store… for now. Cherry Beach and Lake Ontario are in the background.

below: Reflections of the T&T sign. Soon this store will be gone. The path of one of the new waterways for the Don River goes right through the middle of their property to join with the channel that is already there (picture above).

below: Villiers Street, looking west from the Don Roadway. The new path of the Don River is going to make an island of this part of the Port Lands as it runs parallel to, and immediately west of, the Don Roadway.

below: Villiers Street is actually two streets running parallel, both of which have two-way traffic. This is left over from the days when the railway ran down the middle of the street.

below: Remaining fragments of railway track can be found all over the Port Lands. This is Villiers Street at the Don Roadway. The Gardiner Expressway is in the background.

below: Old gas pump on Villiers.

below: The northwest corner of Commissioners and the Don Roadway. The green mound is the beginnings of the flood protection work there. Flood protection means work on the re-routing of the mouth of the Don River.

below: Looking west on Commissioners Street from east of the Don Roadway (at the traffic lights). This is one of several large hydro structures that run from the Portlands Energy Centre (a natural gas burning electrical plant). Hydro infrastructure changes are part of the Port Lands redevelopment.

below: Work on the south side of Commissioners.

Soon Commissioners Street will be closed between the Don Roadway and Cherry Street. All of the buildings there will be demolished. At the moment, most of them are empty.

below: Old abandoned buildings on Commissioners

below: United Rentals on Commissioners Street, now empty. Soon gone.

below: Chained and locked.

below: North side of Commissioners, east of the Don Roadway. You can see the Gardiner Expressway and the old Lever Brothers factory.

below: South end of the Don Roadway.

below: Looking west towards downtown from the Don Roadway

below: Back in July the demolition of the GFL (Green For life) buildings was well underway.

below: This is the GFL recycling transfer station during the demolition process. At the same time, the shoreline was being reconfigured and “naturalized”. The trees in the water in the foreground have since died but this is part of the plan – they are to become part of a new fish and wildlife habitat.

below: Access to the northwestern part of the Port Lands has been very limited. Cherry Street and the T&T parking lot are as far as you can go … if you obey all the signs. (photo from July)

below: September

below: The sea gulls have the parking lot to themselves, between Lafarge and the lake at the west end of the Port Lands. There are no plans (that I can find) to remove or relocate Lafarge.

below: If you stand looking at the view above, and then turn around, you get the image below. Polson Pier view of the Toronto skyline.

below: Map of the area. As you can see, I have only covered a small part of the Port Lands. There is so much more to explore!

rants in the alley

Posted: May 25, 2019 in alleys, graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: alley, demolition, filming, graffiti, Graffiti Alley, lane, memorial, Nipsey Hussle, rants, Rick Mercer, smile, street art, students, video

Today’s wander down Graffiti Alley yielded more than just a few new paintings and bits of graffiti. I also came across a group of students from da Vinci school who were there doing an assignment that involved filming each other giving rants in the alley.

below: Nipsey Hussle memorial mural by Sum Artist

below: Smile!

Today’s encounter reminded me that I once encountered Rick Mercer in the alley as he filmed a rant for his TV program – photo from October 2011.

One last thing that I want to address here – maybe you could call it a rant of my own. Except that it will be in pictures not words. There’s something new in Graffiti Alley; it’s not unexpected but that doesn’t make it any easier, or better. The old Stephenson Rental building is on its way down.

In fact, it’s mostly down.

and mostly sad

as I walk Toronto

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