TO Cityscapes

Hearn Generating Station

May 13, 2025 / Marvin Job / 1 Comment

Watching a suggested video on YouTube a few days ago reminded me of a fascinating urban relic in Toronto: the Hearn Generating Station:

The Hearn Generating Station (named after Richard Lankaster Hearn) is a vast decommissioned electrical generating station down in the docklands. The plant was originally fired by coal, but later converted to burn natural gas. Everything about the plant is on a massive scale and, according to sources, encompasses 650 thousand cubic metres of space. The plant opened in 1951 and closed in 1983.

The R. L. Hearn Generating Station was the site of Canada’s first 100 MW steam turbo-generator set. The station sits in what was once Ashbridge’s Bay, a shallow marsh that was filled in with rubble from downtown construction sites from 1911 to 1950s.

Located in the Toronto Docklands, the Hearn’s surrounding area has not been gentrified whatsoever. You would not know you are still within the boundaries of the City of Toronto; the location feels remote and desolate:

The Hearn Generating Station is located at 440 Unwin Avenue. Once reachable only by car or on foot, a TTC bus now has a route down Cherry Street which will take you to Unwin Avenue after passing over two of the dockland shipping channels. There are no sidewalks down Unwin Avenue, and it’s a long and dusty trek past industrial warehouses and landfill mess to get out to the Hearn.

Not the most uplifting neighbourhood…

Is this where old City Sightseeing buses go to die?

Approaching the Hearn

At any rate, my goal is now in sight:

The architecture and former use of the structure of the Hearn reminds of the Battersea Power Station in London, UK. The Battersea, though, has been restored and transformed into a very hip and modern venue with a mixture of over 150 shops, bars, restaurants, leisure and entertainment venues. The Battersea has thrived but the Hearn currently remains decayed and abandoned.

BlogTO recently called the Hearn Generating Station the most dangerous site in the City of Toronto… with good reason. The site is a favourite with urban explorers and photographers, and there has been more than one death of these intrepid people on the site:

I was able to get these shots by sticking my camera lens through the fence (security is quite serious here, and the rolled barbed wire at the top proves a point). I was being closely watched by the Security there, but had no nefarious or illegal intent other than grabbing a few shots for the blog:

Taken through the steel webbing of the gates

Here is the excellent YouTube video which triggered my interest in the Hearn Generating Station:

A Rebirth… Sort of

On June 5, 2014, the building was partially cleaned up and used for the Toronto Luminato Festival Big Bang Bash, their 2nd annual fundraising gala. It also featured the Yves Saint Laurent Opening Night Party later that evening. In 2015 the building was used for UNSOUND hosted by Luminato Festival. In 2016 Luminato Festival used the building for its festival.

There is Hope for its Future, Though…

There are future plans, though, for this behemoth and the portlands area in general. According to the development site:

A massive redevelopment proposal is planned for the historic Richard L. Hearn Generating Station in Toronto’s Port Lands. Dubbed The Hearn District, the redevelopment would incorporate the shuttered power station into a multi-use district to be built over 30 acres by the Cortel Group. With the conceptual design for the masterplan by PARTISANS, SvN, and public realm design by CCxA, the proposal envisions thousands of residential units and extensive cultural and commercial spaces.

Click here to read the full details of this redevelopment proposal.

Let’s hope this comes to pass. It would be wonderful to see this amazing building and the desolate area of Toronto come alive.

Museum Subway Station

May 9, 2025 / Marvin Job / 3 Comments

In a city of drab subway stations, the Museum station on Line 1 is currently a welcome exception.

Museum station opened to the public on February 28, 1963 as a stop on the University subway line. Located south of the intersection of Queen’s Park and Charles Street West it served, as its name implies, the Royal Ontario Museum.

Fast Forward…

In April 2008, a major renovation by Diamond and Schmitt Architects and Jeviso Construction Corporation transformed the platform level to mirror exhibits in the Royal Ontario Museum.

This renovation replaced the original tile scheme. Supporting columns were redesigned to evoke various historical and cultural figures, including the Egyptian deity Osiris, Toltec warriors, Doric columns, Forbidden City columns, and Indigenous Northwest Coast house posts.

The walls were re-clad with mauve aluminum panels by Ontario Panelization. This incorporated painted 1/4″ fire-rated Lexan into the panels composing the large MUSEUM lettering on the walls with a historical hieroglyphic inscription from the ROM. The walls and ceiling colours were also updated to complement the new look, making the space feel more like a museum exhibit than a transit stop:

On an interesting footnote, the Museum subway station has been named among the ten most beautiful metro stations in the world by The Guardian newspaper.

Stock Yards Village

May 7, 2025 / Marvin Job / 4 Comments

History

In decades past, “the stockyards” at Keele Street and St. Clair Avenue West were just as the name implies: stock yards where cattle, sheep and pigs were slaughtered and sold for human consumption.

The property began as a 30-acre lot but eventually expanded to be nearly 200 acres. A fire in 1908 burnt down most of the timber structures; they were quickly replaced by concrete ones. As the stockyards expanded, more and more packing houses began popping up along St. Clair Avenue West. Famously, Maple Leaf Foods opened in the neighbourhood in 1927.

Given all the animals and meat-packaging companies, the area had a rather unpleasant smell, which only further reinforced Toronto’s “Hogtown” nickname (I’ve always wondered why Toronto is still sometimes referred to as Hogtown… now I know):

The Stockyards were called “Canada’s Greatest Livestock Market”
Photo: BlogTO

In 1944, the Ontario government took ownership of the stockyards, renaming them the Ontario Public Stockyards and later the Ontario Stockyards. This site was one of the largest in all of North America:

The Canada Packers stockyards, located at the southwest corner of Keele Street and St. Clair Avenue, 1950. The Junction was home to a large manufacturing community for the first half of the 20th century. Photo: City of Toronto Archives

Redevelopment

In January 1994, the Ontario government closed the yards; demolitions were mostly complete by March. The horse exchange was demolished in December 1994. An administrative building, erected in 1904/05, was demolished in 1995. The last manager of the stockyards moved to the CNE in 1995.

The area was redeveloped and the current mall opened in March 2014. The Stock Yards Village mall is anchored by several major stores, including SportChek, Winners, and HomeSense. The mall formerly had a Target from March 2014 to April 2015. That space remained vacant from April 2015 to November 2017, when Nations Fresh Foods opened:

Corner of Keele Street and St. Clair Avenue West

The architecture of the outdoor mall is rather odd: the small streets twist and wind around the shops, and the shops themselves are located on 3 different levels which can only be reached by going to the parking lots or the suspended pedestrian bridges. The site is part-pedestrian mall, part-vehicle throughway, and part-parking lot. Music blares from loudspeakers situated throughout the entire site, sidewalks are wide, and benches are scattered throughout the outdoor mall. Clearly, the architects were striving to achieve a “village feel” to the place:

Shot from one of the pedestrian walkways

Nations Fresh Foods

Nations Fresh Foods is an independently owned grocery store chain, founded in August 2012 in Woodbridge. According to the company, Nations are considered “a new, higher-end, banner store”. In total, the parent company owns 8 stores: 5 Nations Fresh Foods stores, 2 Oceans Fresh Foods Market stores, and 1 Grant’s Foodmart store, which is another affiliate chain. Two of the stores are located in Brampton, three in Mississauga, one in Vaughan, one in Hamilton, and one in Toronto.

Going up the escalator to Nations Fresh Foods

Tornado-like sculpture outside Nations Fresh Foods

Nations Experience

A ride up the escalator will bring you to the Nations Experience, a vast, noisy and chaotic gaming spot/playground for kids:

Food Court

Nations Fresh Foods

And yes, there is actually a bona fide grocery store amidst the chaos:

Over the decades, the neighbourhood has almost completely transformed. Since the closing of the original stockyards the land has been redeveloped, mainly for big-box stores.

New townhouses down Weston Road, across from Stock Yards Village

New townhomes lining Weston Road, opposite Stockyards Village

These days the Ontario Stockyards are found further north, in Cookstown.

Reference: BlogTO, The History of the Stock Yards District

Toronto’s Half-House

May 4, 2025 / Marvin Job / 0 Comments

The lone row home at 54 1/2 Saint Patrick Street dates back to Toronto’s slums in the late 19th century. Built somewhere between 1890 and 1893, this bay-and-gable relic from a bygone era once was one of six identical, structurally intertwined homes on what was then known as Dummer Street.

Time passed, the street names changed, and a particularly sharky land holdings company began buying up property throughout the neighbourhood in the middle of the 20th century. Eventually, the owners of the row houses caved, but not as a unit. Each half of the row houses’ wholes were torn down at an excruciatingly slow pace… until 54 1/2 remained the only one left.

This begs the question: how does half a building cleave away so cleanly only to leave the rest of it standing? Very carefully. In a miraculous feat performed with clumsy and powerful machinery, a demolition crew managed to tear down 54 1/2’s neighbour to the north with such precision as to not disturb any of the original facade on the building that was to remain. The white, exterior wall had once been a load-bearing wall hidden internally to divide the neighbours’ bedrooms and living rooms from each other. One slip with an excavator and the half-house would have come tumbling down.

By 1975, The Village by the Grange Housing Project opened just next to the Half House, giving it another odd appearance – a half of a house next to a full housing project. And that’s the way it has stayed for decades.

As of 2013, the house was reported to be privately owned and vacant. The current assessed value, according to city officials, is $648,000. As it begins to show signs of wear, its status as last bastion of the neighbourhood’s less pleasant days are beginning to show on its craggy, half-face. Then again, if any house has earned its character, it’s this one.

Text source: Atlas Obscura – Toronto’s Half-House

Ohyo Spree

May 2, 2025 / Marvin Job / 0 Comments

Passing through the busy area of Yonge and Dundas last week, I encountered a new claw machine arcade called Ohyo Spree at 340 Yonge Street.

Apparently Ohyo Spree has a twinned store in Empress Walk in North York called Ohyo Fun. These Asian claw machine arcades seem to be all the rage at the moment, and there’s another nearby one called Octo Zone at 247 Yonge Street (I covered that one briefly in this prior post).

If you’d like to see what BlogTO says about the new arcade, their review is here.

These arcade interiors are an explosion of colour with their vibrant neon lighting:

From the arcade’s website:

Looking for a unique and exciting experience in the Toronto GTA? Our arcade is not just for kids—it’s the perfect place for adults to unwind, relive your childhood, and compete for exclusive toys! With a variety of claw machines and fun challenges, it’s an ideal place for date nights, group outings, or just a casual hangout with friends.

Aura Concourse Shopping Mall

April 29, 2025 / Marvin Job / 2 Comments

Continuing on the “dead mall” theme (see my earlier post on the deserted Cumberland Terrace), we’ll take a little look at another urban mall that just didn’t make it: the Aura Concourse Shopping Mall (alternately, The Shops at Aura).

The mall is located under the magnificent Aura tower on the corner of Yonge Street and Gerrard Street East. Standing at 80 storeys high, Aura is Canada’s tallest residential condominium and is a remarkable structure:

One would think that such an impressive building would yield a world-class shopping mall at its base, but that is not the case. Although IKEA, Marshalls and a couple of other stores on the upper-platform levels are doing fine, it’s another story below ground.

Prior to my visit, I’d never been down to these shops under Aura; I’d heard a lot about them but had never witnessed them first hand. When I visited, it was the middle of a busy Saturday afternoon on Yonge Street – you’d think the mall would be hopping, but…. not so much.

Let’s Take a Look…

Outside, on Yonge Street. Doesn’t look so bad from here…

One of the doors leading to the Concourse Shopping Mall

Arrival

Prior to the below-ground mall opening, there were promises from the developers of extending the PATH up to College Park along with a new premier shopping mall and experience. None of that happened. Apparently, in the pre-planning days, the mall merchants were presented with an inflated picture, by the planning commission, of how active and successful the mall would become. Of course this is not the reality and I’ve read that the merchants are now suing the developers for false presentation.

The Food Court

BlogTO has described The Shops at Aura as “Toronto’s Worst Mall”. This is largely in reaction to the half-vacant retail space, limited offerings at the food court, and atmosphere (at present, only 3 of the 12 fast food units are occupied):

The Only Sign of Life…

“Banana Games” in store #39. This appeared to be the only place in the mall where there was some sign of life.

Get Me Out of Here!

BlogTO describes my feelings to a T while I was in this mall: “the whole place feels like an anxiety-inducing maze in which the more turns you take, the further you get from an exit”. In the half-hour or so I walked around the mall I became increasingly depressed. This gave way to a feeling of claustrophobia, like I had to get out of the place; I felt very trapped down there:

The elevators leading to College Park… maybe I can escape this way and get out of here!

I’m the last person who should be making fun of other people’s web design, but – COME ON Aura!! – their website is pure embarrassment! It looks like something a 4th grade html class might have come up with on a bad day. The site is ugly as sin, full of useless information, and most links take the viewer to the dreaded “404 Not Found” page.

Wrapping Up

So much is wrong with this mall, I don’t know where to start. There’s absolutely no street level indication that these shops exist, and without a PATH connection, people have no reason to make a detour into the Shops at Aura. There’s just not much demand these days for 30 variety shops selling cheap phone cases and snacks.

We’ll see what the future holds for this space…

Richmond Street East

April 23, 2025 / Marvin Job / 0 Comments

The sun was actually shining for more than three minutes last weekend, so I set out for another photowalk in the city. It had been a few years since I’d walked along Richmond Street East, so I thought I’d give that street a try with my trusty camera in tow.

Richmond Street East runs from Yonge Street to just east of Parliament Street, where it crosses the Don River and becomes known as Eastern Avenue. As you walk along Richmond Street East, you can tell its had a long history of hard labour and warehouses. In the 20th century, the area saw the rise of large-scale warehouses, factories, and office buildings, many of which replaced earlier low-rise structures.

These days Richmond Street East is definitely – and literally – on the rise: there are condo projects everywhere you look. The street is a vibrant part of Toronto’s downtown core, with a mix of commercial, residential, and entertainment spaces.

Walking from the start of the street at Yonge, and finishing at Parliament, here’s a bit of what I encountered:

The Confederation Life Building, a seven-floor Romanesque Revival office building, is a historic structure in Toronto. Completed in 1892, it was designated a historic property by the City of Toronto under the Ontario Heritage Act on November 26, 1975.

Condos everywhere! Looking upwards from the corner of Richmond Street East and Yonge Street.

This is currently a fully tenanted office building owned by the City of Toronto. In future it may be required for the Toronto Parking Authority.

Toronto EMS Station #40, located at 58 Richmond Street East

This is a housing co-op located at 60 Richmond Street East. It was designed by Teeple Architects and completed in March 2010. This 11-story, 85-unit mixed use building is among the first new housing co-ops to be built in Toronto in recent years. It won the Ontario Association of Architects Design Excellence Award (2010) and the Canadian Architect Award of Excellence (2007).

Another Wild Wing location meets a sad end. Located at 107 Church Street, northeast corner of Richmond Street East and Church Street.

Dwarfed and surrounded by highrise condos, McVeigh’s Irish Pub looks very out of place. The pub was founded in 1962.

The Canadian Venture Building, 82 Richmond Street East. This company provides outfitted office spaces for daily, weekly, monthly or long-term occupancy.

Mural in Green P parking lot #219, at 99 Richmond Street East

Lots of colour on the Tangerine bikes, 99 Richmond Street East

The George Street Diner, 129 George Street, northeast corner of George Street and Richmond Street East. Comfort food at a classic diner.

At 121 George Street, Alterra’s Celeste Condominiums are currently under construction. That company recently collaborated with J. Hutton, a Toronto-based multimedia artist and musician, who has brought the construction hoarding to life. Inspired by vintage cinematography and live music, his mural “Ballet & Granite”, invites the viewer to appreciate the beauty of movement, the skill of the performers, and the ephemeral nature of artistic expression. It celebrates the universal language of dance and encourages viewers to reflect on the fleeting moments that make up the tapestry of life and art.

354 Richmond Street East is the former home of the Downtown Ford Service Centre. It looks like it’s now slated for condo conversion.

384 Richmond Street East. The City of Toronto has passed a by-law designating this building as being of cultural heritage value or interest. This is the site of a future, massive condo development. The upcoming project will retain facades from the buildings at 263-265 Queen Street East, 90 Ontario Street, 410 Richmond Street, and 384 Richmond Street. All of these buildings are listed on the City of Toronto’s Heritage Registry.

The Turco-Persian Rug Co. at 354 Richmond Street East looks quite out of place amongst all the upcoming condos in the area.

These painted curbs are a nice diversion from the somewhat dreary neighbourhood. The painted curbs, seen in several areas of downtown Toronto, are an initiative of the City of Toronto’s StreetARToronto program. The program aims to make streets more vibrant, animate the paths, and showcase the work of diverse Toronto Artists.

The end of Richmond Street East. Beyond this Parliament Street intersection, the one-way Richmond Street East passes over the Don River and becomes Eastern Avenue.

Good Friday Procession

April 18, 2025 / Marvin Job / 0 Comments

OK, I cheated a little on this post. I just wasn’t up to shooting the Good Friday Procession in today’s rain, so I’ve brought forward my shots of the event from a few year’s ago.

For those unfamiliar, the Good Friday Procession is a long standing tradition taking place every Good Friday in Toronto. The mile-long procession is a three-hour event reenacting the fourteen stations of the cross, symbolizing what Christians believe to be the path Jesus took before he was crucified.

The Procession got its start in 1962. These days, thousands turn out for the Good Friday procession as it winds its way through the streets of Toronto’s Little Italy. The sombre event is organized and performed primarily by the parish of St. Francis of Assisi Church at the corner of Mansfield Avenue and Grace Street.

Getting ready for the procession outside the St. Francis of Assisi Church

The Procession along College Street

Click here to see the entire photo gallery of this event

Berczy Park Dog Fountain

March 18, 2025 / Marvin Job / 2 Comments

Springtime has come to Berczy Park.

Someone put little red and green scarves on the pups in the Berczy Park dog fountain… very cute!

Mall, Deserted

March 13, 2025 / Marvin Job / 2 Comments

TO Cityscapes has returned from hiatus!

Last weekend, while in the Bay-Bloor area, I suddenly had an idea to check on the state of the Cumberland Terrace mall. I knew it had fallen from grace lately, but I just wanted to see how far down it had gone – way down, as I found out.

For those not familiar, Cumberland Terrance is a two-story mall running from Bay Street to Yonge Street – a considerable distance. The lower level host(ed) a huge food court, and the street level contains shops and services (or what’s left of them…).

It was mid-day Saturday – peak time for people to be out and about, I should think. As I walked through the lower level food court area, it gave off a creepy vibe: there was no one around, other than a homeless person or two, and everything was shuttered. What little sound there was bounced off the barren walls and floors. I went up to the street level portion of the mall to see if it was in a similar state; it had fared a little better as it didn’t look quite as deserted as the lower level.

The Nicest Way From Yonge to Bay...

“The nicest way from Yonge to Bay” was Cumberland Terrace’s slogan when it opened on October 14, 1974:

Described in an ad as “three glass-enclosed levels of intriguing shops and restaurants,” it utilized fashionable hues of red and orange brick and flooring to enhance its landscaped interior. Initial tenants included a mix of chains (Black’s, Classic Book Shops, Dack’s Shoes, LCBO), and independent retailers with odd names like “Mr. Eat ’Em”.

Highlights of the opening on day one included a steam calliope playing at the northwest corner of Yonge and Bloor, and a display of classic cars sponsored by a cigarette maker. Within a month, DeBoer’s opened a two-floor furniture store. The mall’s location above a busy subway junction and across the street from a new parking lot seemed to bode well for its future.

Decline

The mall slowly decayed over the following decades, as its higher-end retailers moved elsewhere and its upper levels emptied. As the owners failed to upgrade the premises, Cumberland Terrace became an unofficial monument to 1970s shopping design. Despite providing a home for independent businesses, it was increasingly viewed as a blight on the increasingly aspirational neighbourhood streetscape. **

In Toronto, Cumberland Terrance is one of the last barely-altered examples of 1970s retail architecture. It never did bounce back after COVID wrecked havoc on the world; it’s a pity the mall has come to such a sad state.