waterfront

Posts Tagged ‘waterfront’

a summer day, a city meander

Posted: September 13, 2022 in construction, people, transportation, waterfront
Tags: Alanna Cavanagh, Cherry St bridge, CN Tower, condos, Corkin Gallery, development, Gardiner Expressway, lake, Lake Ontario, Lakeshore Blvd., parliament st., peppers, Pioneer Tour boats, queens quay east, St. Lawrence market, sugar beach, sunflowers, vegetables, waterfront

Another day, another walk through the city starting at the Distillery District and heading west towards the waterfront and downtown Toronto.

below: Posing under the heart, Distillery District.

below: Posing with the LOVE locks.

below: Flowered Dress Madonna” by Ann Agee, 2021 as seen in the Corkin Gallery in the Distillery District.

below: Looking east on Front Street from Berkeley. Police Division is the old brick building. Both sides of Front are lined with black hoardings as redevelopment of those sites started recently.

below: Berkeley St., south of Front

below: Another hole in the wall; another vacant lot waiting for redevelopment on Parliament Street. More tall buildings coming to the Distillery District.

below: Looking south from the end of Parliament Street and across Lakeshore Blvd to the start of Queens Quay East. Many changes here!

below: The CN Tower peaks through the gap created by one of the onramps for the Gardiner Expressway.

below: No Parkin’, Victory Soya Mills in the background

below: Looking east towards the Port Lands redevelopment. The new Cherry Street bridge is in the background.

below: From the same spot on the waterfront as the above picture, but looking in the other direction.

below: Queens Quay East

below: Relaxing by the lake.

below: Sugar Beach, spectator section, in the shade.

below: On the rocks, Sugar Beach

below: I am not sure who this is or why he’s on the waterfront. He’s made of wood – someone constructed him and left him here.

below: Closed – ramp to the the eastbound Gardiner at Lower Jarvis.

below: Lower Jarvis

below: A bucket full of bright and cheerful sunflowers on the sidewalk by St. Lawrence Market.

below: Market Street closed to traffic at Esplanade.

below: Marvelous peppers and other veggies for sale at St. Lawrence Market

below: Someone’s looking a little distraught. Remember how your parents used to say that if you frowned too much, or you made too many weird faces, your face would freeze in that position? That is what this poor fellow reminded me of. “Frozen” in time on the side of St. Lawrence Hall.

below: In a window. The title of the painting is “Alone” so perhaps she is alone in the city albeit surrounded by flowers. Unfortunately, they are yellow and blue flowers so I suspect that there is Ukrainian symbolism at play here and that ‘alone’ has a much deeper significance.

below: Leader Lane ends at Wellington.

below: Mama elephant and her two little ones are still walking through the courtyard behind Commerce Court. They haven’t reached the pool yet (but at least there’s water in the pool now).

below: This is one of the five Big City Blooms murals found around the city (west side of Commerce Court). The big bold and cheerful flowers in reds and pinks are the work of Alanna Cavanagh.

below: Same Commerce Court building as the above picture but from a slightly different angle.

below: Melinda Street

below: Narrow city alley views, framing the gorgeous stone and brick work on the older building with its arched windows.

below: There appears to be a forest path in the middle of Brookfield Place. It is actually a photograph that is part of an exhibit called, “Take Your Seat With the Group of Seven, Nature the Inspires Us”. (now gone from Brookfield Place).

below: In this exhibit, locations used by the Group of Seven in their paintings were revisited. Photos were taken using a red director’s chair, placing the chair in the artist’s position. In this set of images, two small paintings from Coldwell Harbour are paired with a large photo of present day Coldwell Harbour – the chair is small but you should be able to see it on the rocky outcropping. The harbour is on Lake Superior near the town of Marathon.

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Posted: April 10, 2022 in construction, locations, public art, waterfront
Tags: Aitken Place Park, Alice Aycock, anser, bench, Between the Eyes, billboards, boats, condos, eyes, ferries, fish, John Fung, Lake Ontario, Merchants Wharf, Nbii Dodem, Paul Figueiredo, public art, Que Rock, queens quay east, Redpath Sugar, reflections, Richard Deacon, sculpture, seagull, Sherbourne St., Shore Stories, sugar beach, Sundial Folly, Water Clans, waterfront

Let’s follow the fish! 🐟 It’s pointed east along Queen’s Quay and by coincidence that the direction I’m headed too… 😃

The seagull is not amused.

below: Harbour Square Park with “Sundial Folly” at the water’s edge. This art installation is the work of John Fung and Paul Figueiredo. It has recently been cleaned up. The sphere is hollow and there is a walkway that runs through it. An opening at the south side (water side) acts as a sundial.

below: Looking east from Harbour Square towards the Westin Hotel tower and the park by the ferry docks.

below: Tour boats and ferries still under wraps for the winter months.

below: “Shore Stories” a mosaic located by the Jack Layton Ferry Terminal. It was made in 2012 by youth from the community under the guidance of AFCY (Arts for Children and Youth, an organization that may or may not still exist).

below: The “egg beaters” at 1 Yonge Street are now behind a fence. The installation is actually called “Between the Eyes”, and is by Richard Deacon.

below: It’s 830km to Kapuskasing and even farther to Cochrane, just keep following Yonge Street northwards.

below: “A Series of Whirlpool Field Manoeuvres for Pier 27”. by Alice Aycock

below: The walkway along the waterfront comes to an end where a very high concrete wall separates Redpath Sugar from the public space.

below: Que Rock murals, water theme, “Water Clans (Nbii Dodem)” four panels at Redpath Sugar.

below: Pink umbrellas and sugar filled ships, at Sugar Beach.

below: Queens Quay East at Dockside

below: Sherbourne Commons

below: New construction on Queens Quay East where many parts are being made of wood. A new park, Aitkens Place Park lies between the new building and the waterfront.

below: Vacant lot on the corner of Queens Quay East and Small Street.

below: At the foot of Parliament Street.

below: Anser eyes

below: Sweet and salty at the Distillery

on the waterfront

Posted: February 25, 2022 in public art, waterfront
Tags: art installation, Enter-Face, Introspection, Lake Ontario, One Canada, S'winter Station, waterfront, winter stations, Woodbine Beach

Winter Stations 2022

From late February through to the end of March is Winter Stations on Woodbine Beach along Toronto’s waterfront.

below: “The Hive” by Canadians, Kathleen Dogantzis & Will Cuthbert

below: Designed by a team from Daniels Faculty of Architecture, U of T, “Introspection”.

below: Designed by a Turkish pair, Cemre Önertürk and Ege Çakır is “Enter-Face”.

below: The structure on the left has circular openings on one side and a translucent panel on the other (lakeside) – you can through but the resulting view is slightly distorted. On the taller structure, there is a reflective material.

below: “S’winter Station” was designed by a team from Ryerson University’s Department of Architectural Science. The circular openings on the surface panels were made from beach towels, an object more associated with summer than with winter.

below: “One Canada” by a team from School of Environmental Design and Rural Development at the University of Guelph. The “One” in the title is for the combining of Indigenous and Non-Indigenous together as one. Seven rings representing wisdom, love, respect, bravery, honesty, humility, and truth. Orange (for National Day of Truth and Reconciliation) ropes weave the rings together in a pattern echoing those used to make drums.

humanity and a kraken

Posted: October 31, 2021 in locations, public art
Tags: art installation, ArtworxTO, Camal Pirbhal, Camille Turner, David Rokeby, Entire City Project, House of Baby, Humanity Movement, kraken, lights, Masai Ujiri, Michael Awad, Queens Quay, Sir John A Macdonald Plaza, slavery, street art, Union station, waterfront

The results of a walk on what was probably the last warm evening of the year….

below: In Sir John A. Macdonald Plaza (that’s the space in front of Union Station by Front Street) is an art installation by Masai Ujiri, “Humanity Movement”. There are 35 words that represent what humanity means to Ujiri – words such as compassion, love, selfless, collective that are repeated as they cover the eight foot high installation. A light in the center makes the words appear on the sidewalk and on the structures (and people) around it.

below: Inside the Great Hall at Union Station is an image titled “House of Baby” that is the result of a collaboration between Camille Turner and Camal Pirbhal. It is a image of people in the Great Hall that includes portraits of 18 Indigenous and Black people who were enslaved by the Baby family.

Francois Baby (1768 Detroit – 1852 Windsor Ont) and his brother James (1763 Detroit – 1833 Toronto) were politicians, businessmen and land owners. Francois stayed in what was then the Western District of Upper Canada (around Windsor). His biography is long and I’m not going to go into details here but he did have slaves. James moved to York in 1815 and was part of the establishment – between 1792 and 1830 he held more than 115 appointments or commissions of varying degrees of importance.

In 1793 John Graves Simcoe, then Lieutenant Governor, tried to abolish slavery in Upper Canada but many of the ruling class, including James Baby, were slave owners and outright abolishment failed. Instead there was a compromise made (how Canadian!) and restrictions were put on slave ownership such that by 1833 there were none left. A much more complete history of slavery in Upper Canada can be found in an article at Upper Canada History.

below: On the York Street side of Union Station

below: On the PATH system at 25 York Street there is a mural that is 25 metres long (or 100 feet long); it is “Entire City Project” by Michael Awad, 2009. It is a warped panorama of commuters outside Union Station.

below: The lights hanging from the ceiling are another art piece. “Pixel Matrix”, is a large cube of 30,000 individually controllable LED lights on strings, with constantly changing lighting effects. It was a collaboration between Michael Awad and David Rokeby

below: Making a kraken. One tentacle can be seen in the foreground.

below: The kraken’s eye is a video that plays on a screen bulging from the container that can barely hold its contents. Will the kraken escape? Is Queens Quay safe?

below: Lights in motion

below: The art installations at 10 York Street look much different at night!

below: Lights over the harbour, Queens Quay

after a hot summer day

Posted: July 3, 2021 in people, waterfront
Tags: evening, harbour, Joseph Landau, Lake Ontario, people, Queens Quay West, Simcoe Wave Deck, summer, waterfront

a cooler evening on the waterfront

below: Simcoe Wave Deck

below: Joseph Landau, accordion player

below: Queens Quay traffic – take care! Cyclists (and pedestrians) don’t always see or obey their traffic signals!

evening, harbour, Joseph Landau, Lake Ontario, people, Queens Quay West, Simcoe Wave Deck, summer, waterfront

on the old Leslie Street Spit

Posted: May 18, 2020 in nature, people, waterfront
Tags: bikes, cyclists, Lake Ontario, people, rocks, spring, Tommy Thompson Park, trees, walking, waterfront

A long weekend in May (Two Four Weekend) + the first sunny warm day in a while + two months of “shelter in place” = people out enjoying Tommy Thompson Park’s trails and waterfront.

below: Flow Like a River

below: Keep ur distance

below: Three people, three positions – up tall and straight, flailing legs middle, and collapsing feet at the end. Also notable are the mounds of tangled rebar that dot the shoreline.

below: She’s sitting on some very rounded rocks that have been shaped by the waves and water. Are they chunks of man-made concrete and not the more solid rocks formed by nature?

The park has come a long way since construction of the Leslie Street Spit started in 1959. In the beginning, it was to be an area for “port related activities”. In the early 1970s, it was decided that Toronto didn’t need an expanded port. Since 1973, the focus has been on developing the area as a park but keeping as much “wilderness” as possible. If you are interested in the history of Tommy Thompson Park, they have an excellent website with aerial pictures that show how the park has grown.

below: Nature slowly takes over, and the piles of rubble and construction waste that were used to help build the foundations of the park become grown over and buried.

below: Late afternoon fishermen on their way in.

below: If you look closely, you might see that one of the bikes has a bell in the shape of a skull with red eyes.

below: There were lots of noisy redwing blackbirds as well as many other kinds of birds – orioles, grosbeaks, goldfinches, robins, warblers, swallows, and sparrows. During spring migration, up to 300 different species can be seen here.

below: Construction on the east side of the park. This is the Ashbridges Bay Treatment Plant Landform Project scheduled to be finished in 2025. Three shore connected breakwaters and a headland/beach system are being constructed.

Winter Stations 2020

Posted: February 28, 2020 in events, locations, public art, waterfront
Tags: bells, boxes, chair, Charlie Sutherland, climbing, Cristina Vega, drums, iheartblob, jumping, Kaleidoscope of the Senses, Lake Ontario, lifeguard station, mirage, Noodle Feed, Pablo Losa Fontangordo, people, public art, sand, snow, water, waterfront, winter, winter stations, Woodbine Beach

This is the 6th annual Winter Stations art installation event at Woodbine Beach. It was officially opened on Family Day, February17th.

below: Tying yellow ribbons on the yellow metal frame in “Mirage”, designed by Cristina Vega and Pablo Losa Fontangordo. The orange frame is parallel to the lake and the yellow sections are perpendicular. Depending on where you are standing, you see either a red transparent sun setting or a light and bright rising sun laying on the horizon.

below: “The Beach’s Percussion Ensemble” by Centennial College while under construction.

below: The end product. There is now graffiti on the boxes

below: and cowbells hung from the underside of boxes in a couple of places.

below: “Kaleidoscope of the Senses” is a strong piece designed by Charlie Sutherland of SUHUHA (An architecture studio in Edinburgh). People were lining up to take turns sitting on the lifegusard chair.

below: “Noodle Feed” by iheartblob was very popular on the Sunday before Family Day (the official opening of ‘Winter Stations’). It wasn’t designed to have a jumping feature but that’s what all the kids were doing that day. The fabric tubes are filled with straw.

below: When I returned to the beach a few days later, the installation was gone.

Information about the installations can be found at winterstations.com

January once again.

Posted: January 25, 2020 in waterfront
Tags: art, boats, bus shelter, city, CN Tower, construction, danger, fire rescue boat, Future Retrospectives, H T O beach, Hannah Claus, ice, Lake Ontario, Loop, Power Plant Contemporary Art, public art, Queens Quay, Scotiabank Arena, sea gulls, snow, streetcar, tug boat, Union station, walkway, waterfront, winter stations

It’s been a while since I posted here mostly because I’ve been away. But I’m back in Toronto and back to walking. The other day didn’t start as planned! A locked gate stood in my way.

Shortly after, I saw a sign …. I’m not sure that it references locked gates specifically, but at the minimum it’s a reminder to remain flexible.

As anyone Canadian city dweller knows, winter in the city rarely means white snow – the brown slush quickly takes over. Here, at Spadina and Queens Quay, the road has been painted red to alert drivers to the fact that this is a streetcar lane.

Lake Ontario has only begun to freeze, and only in quiet protected places. The first part of January was warmer than usual. Even as I type this it is raining and all the snow is melting. There probably isn’t much of this ice left this afternoon.

below: A “Danger due to” sign that has blown in from somewhere else but is just as relevant here as it is at any construction site.

below: The Music Garden hibernating for the winter.

below: Kayaks at Harbourfront resting for the winter months.

below: The fire rescue boat was out and about the other afternoon.

Now on at the Harbourfront Centre is “Future Retrospectives” which is a group exhibition of works by artists and designers who use the past as a lens to look at the future (until 29th March).

below: The coloured shapes with the words, are the work of Hannah Claus. They hang on a clear background so the installation on the wall behind shows through (also the work of Hannah Claus). In fact, the two go together. At first I thought the coloured shapes represented tombstones but in fact they are a replica of the plaque on Hochelaga Rock. This rock commemorates the village and people encountered by Jacques Cartier in 1535; it is on the McGill campus in Montreal. It is also featured in the photos on the far wall. The English words (bottom half) start with “Near here was the…”. More information.

below: Will we be able to understand a future time? Also part of Future Retrospectives.

below: Timeless. Eternity. Waiting for the bus.

below: This is ‘Loop’ an interactive “Winter Station” public art installation. In past years, there have been 5 or 6 different art installations along Queens Quay as part of the Winter Station project. This year, there is just this one which is located at York Street Park. The circles are large enough for two people to sit face to face. There is a metal bar which can then be moved back and forth between the pair. This movement makes an inner circle spin and activates some lights. It is the creation of Olivier Girouard ; it is scheduled to remain here until the 9th of February.

below: Harbour Street, looking east towards Yonge Street from the elevated walkway that runs north from WaterPark Place, over the Lakeshore and under the Gardiner.

below: Reflections on the walkway.

below: After passing under the Gardiner, the walkway wraps around the west side of the second floor of the Scotiabank Arena (originally the ACC).

below: The south entrance to Union Station, from the walkway. This is also a good view of the new glass platform over Union Station (train shed roof?) – this is something that I need to check out in more detail.

below: Also under renovation is the Bay Street exit of the Scotiabank Arena. A new walkway between it and the building being constructed across the street is almost complete. It is on the same level as, and immediately beside, the railway tracks. This walkway will connect to the new Union Station bus terminal

below: Exit onto Bay Street and look up! Upward. And to the future…. wherever that leads us.

as the lights come on

Posted: December 8, 2019 in events, locations, waterfront
Tags: beach, boardwalk, Christmas decorations, Christmas lights, Christmas ornaments, dogs, evening, fence, Kew Beach, Lake Ontario, Leuty lifeguard station, Light up the Beach, lights, path, sand, snow, snow fence, trees, waterfront, Woodbine Beach

I’d heard that there were some Christmas lights brightening up the sky at Kew Beach. What I didn’t know then was that this is now an annual tradition; it was started by DeClute Real Estate in 2007. Since there was still some daylight left, I started my walk at Woodbine Beach, a bit west of Kew.

below: Small waves crash over the rocks at the shore.

below: Leuty Lifeguard Station closed up for the winter.

below: Ready to run

below: Once I got to the Kew Beach boardwalk I discovered that there are other reminders that it is now December. And what could be more appropriate than some Christmas decorations to add some cheer ? Pine and poinsettias on a bench.

below: Bright red ribbons tied around a small tree.

below: Shiny Christmas ornaments hanging from branches and a wreath on a tree trunk.

below: More signs that Christmas is soon – Some of the trees along the bike path and boardwalk at Kew Beach have been decorated with Christmas lights. As the daylight begins to fade, the Christmas lights become more noticeable.

below: Looking back towards the city as the sun goes down.

below: The mood and atmosphere of the beach changes as it gets dark outside. The light shining on the Muskoka chairs highlights the pink and green colours and almost makes the chairs look translucent.