Previous posts have “focused” on pictures of the forest. (pun intended) This post focuses on the concrete forest of Toronto. You may know it as the concrete jungle.
The modern growth is becoming more of glass and steel. Would you consider that an invasive species? Occasionally the glass panels become unglued and in high wind conditions come crashing down to the street below. This has been more common in the panels that enclose the lower parts of balconies in high-rise apartment buildings.
There is still a lot of older architecture in the city. Some notable ones are the old bank and life insurance buildings like the Canada Life Building in the picture above. Others are the Toronto City hall (the fourth) which was completed in 1965 to a design by the winner of an international design competition. One of 520 designs received from 42 different countries. (Finnish architect, Viljo Revell.) The Old City Hall, (the third) is still in use as courtrooms and other municipal offices. It was designed by Toronto architect Edward James Lennox whose later projects included Casa Loma and the King Edward Hotel. The Royal York Hotel is ninety years old and is now part of the Fairmont chain. It has recently been internally refurbished to serve for another hundred years. Across from this prestigious hotel is an equally renowned building for the Union Station rail and bus transportation hub for the city. This year it has integrated a new bus terminal to compliment the rework of the rail section that has disrupted traffic in that part of the city for about ten years.
Toronto has a thriving entertainment district. Places like the Roy Thompson hall opened in 1982 to augment the venue space of Massey Hall opened in 1894. Across the street, where I was standing to take the picture above, is the Toronto Walk of Fame. Like Hollywood, sidewalk tiles acknowledge the achievements and accomplishments of Canadians who have excelled in their respective fields. The first to be acknowledged was Ed Mirvish who developed many of the theatres along King Street in the Theatre District of Toronto. Unless you are looking for them, you would probably miss them. Once you have seen one, you will be looking for more to see how many people you recognize. That is if you have the time and are not rushing off to be somewhere else.
If you are rushing to be somewhere else, travel within and beyond the city is made easier with a network of subway stations and a network of tunnels and rails. These access points are marked by red and white TTC signs. There is also a bus and street car service above ground.
The city has a very extensive city below the city. The mall below the street is 30 kilometres of restaurants, shopping, services and entertainment. The walkway facilitates pedestrian linkages to public transit, accommodating more than 200,000 business-day commuters as well as tourists and residents. This is a great feature when the weather outside is too hot or too cold or raining or snowing. Besides, on the street, you are not going to see much of the sky anyway.
While this is quite different from your relaxing trails and tree line forest hikes, these buildings are amazing! Glad to see you back in the challenge!
Thanks Martha, I will have to visit a few more times to get some pictures of the other interesting buildings and neighbourhoods.
Some of those buildings are very interesting in their architecture. Still…that much concrete and glass makes me feel claustrophobic even just looking at them! I am so out of place in the heart of the city! I much prefer the softer lines and gentler sounds of the real forest and jungle surroundings!
But the photos are really cool!
Visiting from the UBC
Blessings,
Laurie
Hi Laurie, Toronto is a great city to visit to take advantage of all there is to see and do but living outside of the hussle and bussle and noise is also great. The compromise is to live close enough to be able to visit on occasion and to not have to travel to the city to work every day. There is always the balance and benefit of concentration versus distribution.
I hope that architects creating for in town will go back to making buildings visually interesting and not so much ‘cookie-cutter’ like you see in housing developments. All that glass makes things much warmer too. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Angel, I think the towers are like the package of cookies in the cellophane trays, just more cookies stacked side by side and one on top of the other. 😉
I know they have tried to do a lot to make buildings more energy-efficient, but glass is a very poor insulator and a lot of heat is lost through it as well unless the panels are triple glazed and the seal between panes remains intact. As for gathering heat from the sun, if they get less than an hour of sunlight before they are in the shade of their neighbour, maybe the engineer’s calculations could be off. However, it is a better work environment to be able to look out a window than to look at a block concrete wall.
I the residential neighbourhood I live in, smaller side-split, back split and bungalows are being torn down and replaced with custom-built four and five thousand square foot houses leaving almost no yard to care for or enjoy. Ususally the family size in these grand homes is small.
Doug, it’s lovely to have you back in the UBC! I have had a growing desire to know more about/of Toronto. So your pictures today really hit the spot for me. Now what is that shiny round building in your header photo? I can read Something Something Hall on its sign. Thanks for the Toronto images! Please keep posting!
Hi Kebba
Toronto is a great city to visit because there is so much to see and do.
The round structure reminds me of a cooling tower from a nuclear power reactor.
Actually, there is a lot of cool music coming from there.
Here is a link to Roy Thomson Hall. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Thomson_Hall
Roy Thomson Hall
It is home to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, and the Toronto Defiant
Toronto is a great city to visit, and it’s been a long time since I’ve been there. One of these days, I should go on a Toronto adventure. I love architecture and you have enticed me with these great pictures of beautiful architecture!