TO Cityscapes

Toronto Through My Lens

Month: February 2026

Illuminite 2026

February 24, 2026 / / 2 Comments

Illuminite is a free, annual winter outdoor art festival organized by the Downtown Yonge BIA that transforms the Downtown Yonge area into a public gallery with interactive light installations. This year the event features five main installations focused on the theme of “Play”.

Each site features a playful, interactive experience designed to spark joy, movement, and connection in the heart of winter. Whether you’re a curious explorer or just passing through, Illuminite 2026 invites everyone to pause, play, and light up the city together.

This year the five art installations are located at:

  • Yonge-Dundas Square
  • Trinity Square Park
  • College Park
  • 777 Bay Plaza
  • Granby Parkette

I paid a little visit to each site; here’s what I found (installation descriptions courtesy of the Illuminite 2026 website):

Pop!

Something Fun Is Popping Up
Company: Gentilhomme
Location: Yonge-Dundas Square (1 Dundas Street East)

Something playful is bubbling beneath the surface at Yonge-Dundas Square, and it’s ready to POP! Hidden inside glowing monoliths are five quirky characters – named Popo, Popup, Popli, Popette, and Popotin – just waiting to burst out and start the party.

To set them free, you’ll need to call out, sing, or dance your way into their world. As each figure responds with movement, sound, and colour, the installation transforms into a joyful, collective celebration of music, surprise, and togetherness.

Domino Effect

Sparks In Sequence
Artist: Ingrid Ingrid
Location: Trinity Square Park (19 Trinity Square, behind Eaton Centre)

Get ready to knock down winter blues with a musical chain reaction! Domino Effect invites visitors of all ages to play, collaborate, and co-create a symphony of sound and light using giant pastel-coloured dominos.

Each domino triggers a unique note, from vocals to percussion, and every cascade becomes a playful performance of rhythm, colour, and connection. Work together to build longer sequences, reverse the direction, and unlock new melodies in this interactive orchestra of joy.

Horizon

The Light Is In Sight
Artist: MattCreative
Location: College Park – Yonge Street Entrance (420 Yonge Street)

Step into a glowing field of motion and colour. Horizon is a large-scale 3D LED matrix that visualizes waves of light as they move through space and time. With over 3,000 LEDs and interactive controls, this immersive installation invites you to shape shifting patterns of light in real time, turning College Park into a dynamic playground of sight and sound.

Oval Swings

Coming Full Circle
Company: Prevail Activations
Location: 777 Bay Plaza (777 Bay Street)

Feel the glow and let yourself sway. Oval Swings bring playful energy and luminous charm to 777 Bay Plaza. Designed for all ages, these glowing LED swings invite you to pause, connect, and capture the moment: a joyful blend of movement, light, and pure winter magic.

A delightful, hands-on experience that turns Trinity Square Park into a hub of movement, laughter, and collective creativity.

Hearts At Play

Find The Missing Piece
Artist: Daria Domnikova
Location: Granby Parkette (431 Yonge Street)

Granby Parkette comes alive with Hearts at Play, a vibrant trio of interactive sculptures that celebrate community, creativity, and connection in Downtown Yonge.

Bold in colour and glowing with light, these artworks encourage visitors to pause, play, reflect, and rediscover the heart of the city, and their place within it.

Illuminite runs until March 8, 2026. The event is now in its third year.

Toronto Spring Festival Celebration: The Lunar New Year

February 16, 2026 / / 2 Comments

This past long weekend was a celebration of the Chinese New Year – the Year of the Horse. In recognition of this, a weekend-long event was held at Nathan Philips Square, entitled Toronto Spring Festival Celebration: The Lunar New Year.

This Lunar Festival is a fairly new effort; this was only its second annual. The premiere of this event last year was an enormous success, with over 50,000 people attending.

This weekend there was a Market selling interesting Asian items, plenty of Asian food, and a Main Stage which hosted variety shows and cultural performances. There were also several heated tents where attendees could escape the cold to watch various performances.

Light and fireworks played a large part in the event. In Chinese culture, fireworks are far more than festive lights – they are a profound symbol of courage and hope. Rooted in over 2,000 years of tradition driving away the legendary beast Nian, these lights now shine over Toronto, bridging the past and the future.1

Much of the Festival this year took place on Nathan Phillip Square’s huge ice rink. There was figure skating, showcasing some very talented skaters. The Dragon and Lion Dances also took place on the ice, in addition to a slightly bizarre fashion show.

VIP tickets were available for purchase – this admitted the visitor to reserved seating in the heated tents to experience the robot shows and several other cultural events. The aforementioned robots were brought in from Asia for this event. Apparently one of their main tasks was to dance with performers onstage just before the closing fireworks on Sunday night – I’m not sure how all of that turned out as I didn’t stay long enough to catch the closing event.

Figure Skating

Dragon Dancing

And one of the more oddly-presented fashion shows I’ve ever seen:

Couture on Ice Grand Fashion Show: designer Adam X Atelier presenting

It was a good time, generating positivity and cultural pride; I hope the event continues in the years to come.

1Toronto Spring Festival Website

600 Parliament Street

February 11, 2026 / / 0 Comments

600 Parliament Street in St. James Town is a visual reminder of resistance to the area’s development in the 1960s. Sitting on Parliament Street near Wellesley Street East, I have passed this building hundreds of times; every time I pass by it strikes me as incongruous to the rest of the neighbourhood.

The family of Lucio Casaccio had owned the semi-detached building since 1910, running a tailoring business from the premises. When the St. James Town apartment complex was planned in the 1960s, many of the old row houses along Parliament Street had to be demolished to make way for the new towers. When approached, the owner, Lucio Casaccio, refused to sell his house unless the developers paid him $100,000 – twice the amount paid for neighbouring houses. When negotiations failed, developers tore down the other half of the semi and built a Y-shaped, 32-storey building called The Halifax, which wraps around the former Casaccio home:

Lucio Casaccio continued to fight the building’s developers even after The Halifax was completed. In 1968, he sued Howard Investments Ltd., the firm behind the Halifax’s construction, for $1,000,000. In an unusual legal argument, Casaccio claimed the company violated his property’s air rights by swinging materials over his building during construction. Ultimately, Casaccio was awarded $1,200 by a judge, but also required to pay $60,000 in legal costs.

Today, the building houses New World Laundry, a laundromat run by Korean immigrants, who renovated the building in 2012.

On its upper floors, the building has 4,300 square feet of space which incorporates 10 rental units. Here’s the view around the rear of the building where the apartments are accessed:

If you have some spare change and want to invest in real estate, the building is currently on the market for a cool $5,980,000.00.

References

Heritage Toronto

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