Toronto Through My Lens
While in the Bloor Street West and Lansdowne area to photograph some utility box murals, I came across this colourful alley off Lansdowne Avenue, one block north of Bloor Street West. It was good to see a generous hit of colour in such a drab neighbourhood:
Stackt Market is a truly unique concept. Located at 28 Bathurst Street at Front Street West, Stackt Market has been awarded “Public Space of the Year” by Designlines Magazine, and is also the winner of “Retail Innovation for Fast Company’s Innovation by Design”.
Opened in the summer of 2019, Stackt Market is built entirely from 120 reclaimed shipping containers which create 100,000 square feet of art, retail, events and public space. The containers are – wait for it – stacked, with those on the bottom retrofitted and occupied by pop-ups, creative incubators, 30+ retailers and food/beverage vendors. The shipping containers up top act as large canvasses for local and international artists, drawing attention to the site from the many surrounding condo developments and office towers. Stackt Market is also home to 300+ annual events and 7 annual festivals which put community at the forefront.
Designed by LGA Architectural Partners’ Janna Levitt and Danny Bartman with Stackt Market founder Matt Rubinoff, Stackt Market inhabits the site of a former smelting plant. The 2.4-acre-lot is roughly the size of two city blocks.
Stackt Market is strong on community and art. According to their website:
STACKT is on a mission to innovate a new experience where customers, businesses, art and hospitality thrive as one. STACKT is built on the idea that commerce is culture, and culture is community made. The community is made up of innovators, creators, collaborators, and consumers alike.
Toronto Comicon is an annual comic book and pop culture convention held in Toronto at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre since 2001.
When it comes to the worlds of Fantasy, Sci-fi, Cosplay, Roleplay, LARPing, etc., I’m quite out of the loop and couldn’t identify with much of what I saw that day, but it was all quite fascinating nonetheless. I’ve come to the conclusion that people just simply love to dress up no matter the occasion, and this convention gives them a very generous outlet to do just that.
To attend a Comicon to shoot the costumes has been on my photo radar for a number of years, and it was fun to finally do that this past weekend. The sheer mass of people was almost overwhelming and all 3 floors of the Metro Convention Centre, plus the North Building, were jammed with attendees.
This event had it all, including:
In a nutshell, St. Patrick’s Day observes the death of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. The holiday has evolved into a celebration of Irish culture with parades, special foods, music, dancing, drinking (and more drinking, and more drinking) and the wearing of a whole lot of green.
Here’s a few shots of the parade that went down Yonge Street. In true Toronto style it proved to be a fully multi-cultural event:
I love Roncesvalles (aka Little Poland) – it has such a welcoming village-feel to it and exudes a laid-back yet slightly hip vibe. Roncesvalles Avenue itself stretches for 1.8 km, and is filled with gardens and charming, independent shops along the way. About 15,000 people live in Roncesvalles Village’s vintage buildings.
Known as “Roncy” to the locals, Roncesvalles consists of the stretch of Roncesvalles Avenue from Bloor Street south to Queen Street West.
Roncesvalles Avenue was originally owned by Colonel Walter O’Hara who named the street after the Roncesvalles gorge in Spain, where he had won a battle against Napolean’s army circa 1813. British settlers began to arrive in the early 1900’s as residential homes appeared. After WWII large numbers of Polish immigrants arrived and set up all sorts of businesses; that is why this neighbourhood celebrates the Roncesvalles Village Polish Festival every year.
Culturally, the area is known as the centre of the Polish community in Toronto with prominent Polish institutions, businesses and St. Casimir’s Catholic Church located on Roncesvalles Avenue. The businesses along Roncesvalles have formed the Roncesvalles Village Business Improvement Area and hold the largest Polish Festival in North America, which takes place every September.
Roncesvalles is very well known for the large number of small restaurants, cafés and specialty food shops of various cuisines. There are several bakeries and delicatessens found along the full length of Roncesvalles.
I’ll leave you with a couple of sites to explore it you’d like to learn more about Roncesvalles:
From Destination Toronto:
An excellent post on their website
Roncesvalles BIA:
Local info found here
In a beautiful plaza where the avenues of Danforth and Logan intersect lies a statue of Alexander the Great. Built in 1994 by the City of Toronto and largely funded by the Greektown community, the Alexander the Great Parkette is listed on TripAdvisor as a bit of the “local flavour” and personality of the Danforth.
It might seem strange that such a legendary figure, known for his prowess in military command, would be chosen to stand in the peaceful heart of Greektown—but the history of the Greek community in Toronto is not without opposition.
Up until 1918, Greek businesses, restaurants, and residences had formed their own neighbourhood on Yonge Street, in the centre of Toronto. It was at one of these restaurants that Claude Cludernay, a crippled Canadian Army veteran, was expelled for drunkenly assaulting a waiter on August 1st. Unbeknownst to any involved at the time, that would be the trigger to Toronto’s largest race riot, and one of the largest anti-Greek riots in the world.
Many Canadian veterans perceived this event as a personal affront from the Greek community, and on August 2, 1918, thousands of veterans gathered in the Greektown area and set about destroying Greek cafes, restaurants, and businesses. The mayor at the time, Tommy Church, was forced to invoke the Riot Act and call in the military police to back up the overwhelmed police forces already involved. However, their presence was reportedly ineffective at best, and negligent at worst. Victims of the destruction criticized the police for standing by and just watching as the veterans continued their rampage.
The following day, the militia and military police cracked down on veterans and bystanders alike. There were an estimated fifty-thousand people involved in the fights, and the aftermath of the riots totalled over one million dollars in damages by today’s values.
The riots were a result of growing resentments against new immigrants, the misconception that the Greeks did not fight in World War I, as well as a suspicion that the Greeks were pro-German. In fact, Greece was a friendly neutral party to the Allied Forces during World War I and was eventually brought to the side of the Allied Forces in 1916. However, their government’s neutrality did prevent many Greeks from fighting in the early years of the war. This, combined with the appearance of many able-bodied Greek men working public-facing jobs, lead to the misguided belief that they were “lazy” or ungrateful for Canada’s war efforts.
After their businesses and homes were destroyed in the riots, the Greek community moved to Danforth Avenue and built a new Greektown. With this in mind, no better figure than Alexander the Great comes to mind to represent them. Alexander is a figure out of legend and myth. He conquered from India to Egypt and founded around twenty cities that bore his name along the way. He is known for spreading Greek culture, and for his military expertise. All in all, Alexander is a figure who reminds the Greek community of their own fight for inclusion, the dignity of their heritage, and their strength in survival.
In my photos below candles, flowers, notes and other mementos are scattered around the statue of Alexander The Great. These items are in acknowledgement and remembrance of the Danforth shooting on the night of July 22, 2018. On that awful night, a lone gunman killed two people and wounded thirteen others using a Smith & Wesson M&P .40-calibre handgun. It was a totally random and unprovoked attack on innocent people who were on the sidewalk or on restaurant patios.
The Alexander The Great Parkette is currently under redevelopment and, as of March 2024, is completely torn up:
Here are a couple of artist’s sketches depicting the finished Parkette:
Article text & references: On the Danforth website
Currently running until the end of March 2024 is an interesting LED light exhibition called Illuminite. There are 6 installations in total: 2 in Yonge-Dundas Square, 3 in Trinity Square Park behind the Eaton Centre, and 1 at Yonge and Shuter Streets (although this last one I was not able to locate during my visit).
Apparently Illuminite happens every year, but this was the first year I’d personally heard of it. I believe the event has been on hiatus over COVID so that would explain its absence.
At any rate, here’s a sampling of some of the works on display (descriptions courtesy of the Illuminite website):
Artist: Radha Chaddah & RAW Design
Location: Yonge-Dundas Square
Biolumen is by Toronto-based visual artist and scientist Radha Chaddah and architectural firm RAW Design.
Biolumen by Radha Chaddah x RAW Design is an immersive experience with changing light,texture, and sound. The art installation features ten large luminescent structures where art, science, and nature merge. Inspired by deep-sea Radiolaria, Biolumen represents resilience and beauty in harsh environments.
During the evening hours the columns cast patterns of light when spun by participants. During the day, the columns emit ambient sounds when spun.
Click images below for slideshow:
If there were darkness enough in Yonge-Dundas Square, this is how Biolumen would appear:
Artist: MattCreative
Location: HNR Properties 19-21 Dundas Square
Digital Drapes is the crossover between light, motion, and architecture, where all of the windows of a building are covered in grids of programmable LEDs. Dynamic visualizations are created that work together with the unique geometry of the building to activate the entire space, turning the entire building into an interactive canvas.
Unfortunately my shots of Digital Drapes cannot do it justice; the LEDs were constantly changing and pulsating so it was hard to capture this installation at its best:
Artist: Ariel Weiss
Location: Trinity Square Park
Ethera is an interactive and LED based public art installation designed by students from the Department of Architectural Science at Toronto Metropolitan University. Toronto-based lighting design studio Urban Visuals and StrongLED also served as industry partners for the Media Architecture Biennale.
Through its polycarbonate and recycled glass-filled skin and its LED-based lighting system, the installation plays with lighting in both natural and artificial conditions.
The animated Ethera pavilion creates an immersive experience that invites visitors to disengage with the city around them, encouraging a childlike playfulness:
Artist: Sam Hardwicke-Brown
Location: Trinity Square Park
This installation is a response to episodes of negative mental health that we all face throughout our lives. Through the semiotics of structure, and the use of seasonal affective disorder (SAD) light technology, the intention of the installation is to provide support to those within the structure. This noctilucent installation aims to provide temporary comfort to those in need. In the bleakest of darkness, one will find support in the light.
This project acts as a Seasonal Affective Meditation space, and temporary safe haven for those in need:
Artist: Spectrum by Mirari, co-production of Quays Culture and Quartier des spectacles Partnership. Distribution by QDSinternational.
Location: Trinity Square Park
A listening experience, in which you are invited to engage with others in a sound-and-light dialogue. Take some time to listen, in order to see.
This interactive installation sheds light on the phenomenon of communication, by displaying the path taken by the waves generated by voices and other sounds. Here, the fundamental means of interpersonal communication, speech, is disconnected from language. Instead, it becomes a cascade of waves and luminous pulses, illustrating the fascinating trajectories of sound. Watch as your message moves from one end of the circles to the other. You will see how small gestures – invisible reverberations – can have a big impact:
The installations can be enjoyed for free daily until midnight, from March 1-31.
Illuminite has been created and sponsored by the Downtown Yonge BIA, with support from the Government of Canada and the City of Toronto.
This past weekend I visited the latest iteration of Winter Stations at Woodbine Beach. Winter Stations is a single-stage international design competition held annually in Toronto. Participants are tasked with designing temporary winter art installations which incorporate existing lifeguard towers spaced strategically across the city’s Kew and Woodbine beaches. The structures (not in use in the wintertime) are considered visual anchor points for the installations.
Every year Winter Stations has a theme; this year it was entitled Resonance.
As in previous years, Winter Stations intends to build 4-6 winning proposals for a six-week exhibition along the waterfront, funding permitted.
While Toronto beaches are not typically as well visited in the colder seasons, Winter Stations has captured the imagination of the city. Designers can expect their designs to be well-visited and should anticipate public interaction.
This year Winter Stations is spread around a little more to offer more easily accessible locations. There are six installations on Woodbine Beach, which are the ones I’ve covered in this post. There are three more installations that I did not get to: one in Woodbine Park, one in Kew Gardens and one in Ivan Forrest Gardens.
Installation descriptions courtesy of the Winter Stations website.
Bobbin’ invites the visitor to a place where pivotal moments and whimsical memories prompt reflection. It shelters visitors with slats that create an ever-changing threshold between the bobbing zone and the surrounding beach. The seesaws draw from the playground-like Sling Swing and Lifeline projects, while its form within the landscape reflects HotBox and Introspection. Each material has been sourced from previous student projects in addition to salvaged materials from the community of Cambridge. As you navigate through, bobbing up and down, a fresh perspective unfolds, encouraging resonance with the surrounding and past Winter Stations.
We Caught A UFO! builds upon the project In the Belly of a Bear, which utilized the lifeguard chair by lifting the public above ground into a cozy space, transporting them into a new world. We Caught a UFO! re-imagines these qualities by referencing the rumours and whispers of the many UFO sightings across Lake Ontario. However, these rumours can no longer be disputed, as there is now physical proof! Caught under a net, the UFO is wrapped in glued aluminum foil which glimmers in the light, contrasting its surroundings as a foreign object. The public (especially kids!) are encouraged to explore the UFO and can climb up into the main space where pink plexi windows transform the beach into a new tinted landscape or planet! Ultimately, We Caught a UFO! is an installation which stimulates the public’s imagination while also providing a necessary shelter from the wind and cold.
WinterAction is a collaborative installation between the University of Guelph Department of Landscape Architecture and Ashari Architects in Iran. Its physical form is extremely simplistic and frankly underwhelming, but that’s because this iterative installation requires a phone to get the full experience. Through an augmented reality labyrinth journey, participants are provided with the opportunity navigate from confusion to inner peace, symbolized by a virtual tree at the centre that dynamically evolves with interactions. To begin, you need to download an app from the QR code on the installation’s sign.
Beneath the night sky, stars shine and create geometric patterns. Nova is a star that has crashed on top of a lifeguard station and illuminates Woodbine Beach throughout the night. Nova highlights TMU’s past decade of Winter Stations, inspired by the origami, materiality, and form of Snowcone, Lithoform, and S’Winter Station. Nova introduces 3D printing, a textile canopy, and an elegant steel pipe connection to create a pavilion with Resonance. The star pavilion shields users and encourages them to engage with their surroundings, and the lifeguard station makes a beacon for users to access panoramic views of the beach.
Inspired by the airy strands that make up the 2016 installation Floating Ropes, Nimbus’s playful shapes and colours do more than just resonate with its predecessor. Nimbus evolves the concept and materials by adding saturated blue ropes hanging below a bubbly white structure. The station asks visitors to consider the presence and absence of rain in our contemporary world by referencing both severe storms and flooding, as well as concerning trends of lack of rain, drought, and desertification.
A Kaleidoscopic Odyssey invites onlookers to step into an experience where we challenge where reality ends and imagination begins. Explore the limitless depths of perception with this mesmerizing adaptation of Kaleidoscope of the Senses, 2020. In this installation, there are two guiding concepts. The scale of a traditional kaleidoscope is magnified 84 times to a human scale so participants can inhabit the instrument and become a part of its wonder. Where a kaleidoscope is commonly a closed-loop system, this device is deliberately severed into two sculptured equal-and-opposite parts, with purposeful space between them.
Given that my last post was of the Hennick Bridgepoint Hospital, it seems only natural to segue into posting about its next door neighbour – the old Don Jail.
When I first arrived in Toronto many moons ago I remember hearing about the infamous Don Jail from so many different people. To say the place fell into wrack and ruin was an understatement; by all accounts it had all the charm of a medieval dungeon.
The Don Jail was built between 1858 and 1864, with a new wing built in the 1950s. Designed in 1852 by architect William Thomas, who also designed St. Michael’s Cathedral and St. Lawrence Hall, the jail was constructed with a distinctive facade in the Italianate style.
The Don Jail opened in 1864 and closed in 1977. The Jail was state-of-the-art when it was built, and considerably more humane than jails in much of the world at the time. It was certainly a great improvement from earlier Toronto Jails. The cells, though, were tiny – just 86 centimetres wide and there was no electricity or plumbing. A bucket served as a toilet, which was emptied every morning.
Prisoners were not allowed to talk without permission and received only monthly visits from friends and family. Violations frequently resulted in flogging. For about the first 100 years, inmates generally were not allowed to speak unless addressed first by a prison official.
Prisoners spent 23 hours a day in the cell blocks with the remaining hour in the outdoor exercise yard, now a parking lot. They had to keep moving in the yard and were not allowed to sit around and soak up the sun. The inmates did much of the maintenance including painting, carpentry work and other jail repairs. They also worked a jail farm that covered much of the present Riverdale Park.
In later years the Don Jail became extremely overcrowded. Frequently three inmates were held in cells meant for a single prisoner and in other cells inmates went for days without a chance to exercise. The environment was so bad that both prisoners and guards were at risk. The jail did not meet the minimum prison standards of the United Nations.
At one time the jail held 691 prisoners, well over the recommended maximum. It was designed to house 275 prisoners, one per cell, and it was noisy and plagued with mice and cockroaches. Many of the prisoners suffered from mental illness.
Public hanging in Canada wasn’t abolished until 1869, and in Toronto it was moved indoors from the Don Jail yard to its confines in 1905. Before capital punishment was abolished in Canada, the Toronto Jail was the site of a number of hangings. Starting with the execution of John Boyd in January 1908, hangings at the jail took place in an indoor chamber, which was a converted washroom, at the northeast corner of the old building.
Previously, condemned men had been hanged on an outdoor scaffold in the jail yard. The indoor facility was seen as an improvement because outdoor executions were quasi-public (at the hanging of Fred Lee Rice on July 18, 1902, crowds had lined surrounding rooftops to see something of the spectacle), and because the condemned didn’t have to walk as far.
When the Hennick Bridgepoint Hospital demolished the 1950s-era Riverdale Hospital building to replace it with a new 10-storey facility, the historic Don Jail building was extensively renovated to serve as the administrative wing for the hospital, a process which included the removal of “150 years worth of grime” from the exterior. About 20 per cent of the former jail’s heritage interior was preserved, including the centre block’s half-octagonal rotunda featuring clerestory windows, as well as original iron railings and balconies supported by griffin and serpent cast-iron brackets.
In 2012, Bridgepoint Health commissioned a complex restoration project to be carried out on the Don Jail, overseen by several architecture firms. The inflexible floor plan, established for the isolation and separation of prisoners, was transformed into an open, welcoming, and functional administrative space for the new Bridgepoint Active Healthcare Centre.
About 20 per cent of the former jail’s heritage interior was preserved, and the rest of the brickwork cleared out to make way for modern office space. Clear material distinctions were made between new and old and the patina of history. A new partition never meets an old wall, but instead is separated by a glass fin and the marks of history. This work was recognized with the 2016 Built Heritage Award of Excellence.
The east wing was formally decommissioned on January 6, 2014, at which point it too was transferred to Bridgepoint Health and demolished in March and April of that same year. The grounds of the former jail are being landscaped into a city park to be named Hubbard Park after William Peyton Hubbard. The former Don Jail Roadway has been extended and renamed Jack Layton Way after Jack Layton, the late leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada and former Member of Parliament for the area.
Those who know me know I’ll link pop music to anything, and the Don Jail is no exception. Most of us from the music video era know that a certain Canadian pop star who liked to wear sunglasses at night shot his 1984 signature video at the old Don Jail. This was way, waaaaay before its current renovated state of course:
OK, queue the pulsating synths…
Resources:
There are practically hundreds of articles written on the history of the Don Jail. The information above was gleaned from several websites, the City of Toronto and the Ontario Heritage Foundation by the Toronto Historical Board.
For an interesting 2011 article from The Globe & Mail regarding the Don Jail, click here. The piece highlights much of the harrowing and inhumane conditions in the jail during its prime.
Now the puppies are nice and warm. Love this fountain.
Pretty sad but it’s time had come
What would be also nice is Ottawa's Remembrance Day Ceremony on November 11. Was there in 2024 and quite loved…
Well done Marv! I walk by this area so often and really take these for granted, but when you highlight…
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This is such a lovely part of the city. I love how they fixed up that square and the fountain…