After years of planning to attend and then never going (hearing reports of the crush from massive crowds had turned me off), I ventured down to the Distillery District’s Winter Village last night. Luckily (for me, anyway) we’d had the big “storm” last night and the weather was not great; this kept a lot of people away. The event has become so popular and crowded over the years that the Distillery’s Winter Village is now a ticketed, timed event – at least during the evening hours on the weekends.
I’ve always wanted to photograph this event during a white Christmas, so last night’s storm worked in my favour. Also, the temperature kept a lot of people away: it was -12°, with the “feels like” wind chill dropping the temp to a balmy, breezy -27°. I bundled up and was good to go, although my hands were turning into blocks of ice while hanging on to the camera… talk about suffering for your art.
This year’s 51-foot tall white spruce Christmas tree has been designed by Parfums Christian Dior. It features 70,000 twinkling lights, 400 custom midnight blue ornaments, 1,700 shiny and matte gold balls, and 1,000 custom DIOR star charms. Over 500 hours of labour went into creating this sparkling, one-of-a-kind tree.
The historic Distillery District has 65+ local shops, restaurants and cafés. Many of these were in full operation for the Winter Village event, plus vendor cabins offered specially curated seasonal items and gifts. Several food cabins also lined the cobblestone streets.
Distillery Winter Village, shot with a fogged-up lens & six-point star filter
As it is every Christmas, the Allan Gardens conservatory is decorated and filled with thousands of flowering plants, over 30 varieties of poinsettia and seasonal topiary masterpieces made entirely of plant material.
There are floral scenes with thousands of colourful blooms, vines and lush plants from around the world. The Flower Show is a welcome respite from the cold and grey of December, and has a nice festive feel to it.
This year Holiday Fair joined together with the annual Cavalcade of Lights event at Nathan Phillips Square. I checked things out this past weekend at the heavily-attended event.
Games & Midway for the Kids…
Lots Of Lights…
This year’s naturally grown spruce tree (55 ft. high) came from Baldwin, Ontario and is decorated with more than 300,000 energy-efficient lights and 500 ornaments. It will remain on display throughout the holiday season and will then be recycled into mulch for tree planting in the spring. The Christmas tree lighting is sponsored by Toronto Hydro-Electric System.
The Cavalcade of Lights will run until January 7, showcasing light displays and festive decor alongside public skating on Nathan Phillips Square. This year the event takes inspiration from light festivals and cultural celebrations around the world and features elements from a variety of holiday traditions associated with light, lantern and fire for new lighting installations.
The skaters returned to the ice after the Zamboni run-through…
Lots Of Vendors…
Mobile ATMs conveniently on hand beside the vendor tents
Food!
And of course, no event is complete without BeaverTails <so good…>
The Hudson’s Bay flagship store at Queen and Yonge Streets traditionally have superb Christmas windows, filled with a lot of intricate detail. I ventured down to the store last night with camera in hand and great expectations of a warm and fuzzy experience. As a Christmas traditionalist, though, I was incredibly disappointed: instead of the traditional cheerful Christmas vignettes, the window displays this year are all about the commercialism and automation of Christmas gift giving. The emphasis this year is on providing an interactive “virtual experience” which involves the spectator via their phone.
Since Saks Fifth Avenue moved into the eastern side of the building a few years ago, The Bay Christmas windows have never been the same. Anyone who’s lived in the city for a while and gone down to The Bay to check these out will see that now there are only five Bay windows remaining on the Queen Street side, near the west end. I remember when those fantastically-dressed windows stretched all the way across Queen Street and down Yonge to Richmond Street, utilizing all the Bay windows. At one time, The Bay’s Christmas windows were easily on par with Macy’s or Bloomingdale’s in New York; it was an awesome site, but is no more.
The Windows Theme This Year
For the first time ever, the digital extension will now transport Canadians inside the windows from anywhere across the country. To immerse themselves in the whimsy and wonder of the windows, customers just scan the QR code, point the camera at a surface and click to be transported into the augmented reality. Once ‘inside,’ device motion and screen interactions let people explore elements from all five of the holiday windows using both the front and rear cameras on their smartphones. An added bonus: Holiday enthusiasts can share a photo or video using the AR experience on Instagram or Facebook Story, tagging @hudsonsbay and using the hashtag #MyBayHolidayWindow for a chance to win one of five $1,000 gift cards to shop in-store and on TheBay.com*.
The unique QR code can be found at select Hudson’s Bay stores, on The Bay’s social media channels, on The Bay gift cards, and on packages ordered on TheBay.com throughout the holiday season.
“For more than 100 years, these holiday windows have been quintessential to the Toronto experience,” says Alexander Meyer, Chief Customer Officer at The Bay. “With the digital transcendence of this year’s windows, we are creating a whole new level of connectivity for our customers, not only in Toronto but throughout Canada.”1
The Bay’s Christmas Windows: 2022
The windows this year did not really lend themselves to still images as all the objects were in motion; instead I’ve captured a little video of each of the five window vignettes:
Mail Room The inner workings of the technology used to scan, sort and process all of Santa’s letters. A giant computer spits out a list of names while a map of the globe gives Santa directions to find all the boys and girls around the world:
Ornament-Making Department A snapshot of how some signature ornaments are painted and detailed with precision and care. A giant mechanical hand carefully selects each colour to be applied before the finished crafts are sent out for people to decorate their homes:
Gifting Department A glimpse into all of the parcels being wrapped, sorted and packed by robots working in sync to keep up with the flow of presents coming down the conveyor belt. Plus, new technology allows onlookers to press a button on the glass and one very friendly robot will want to give you a high-five and take a selfie:
Candy Cane Department A look at how the magical treats are made and gently packaged with a robotic arm before being dropped into queue to be sent in Santa’s sleigh and delivered to the children of the globe:
Snow-Making Department Ever wonder how snow is actually made? A bounty of magical frozen flakes come to life in this winter wonderland. Passersby can snap photos in adult and kid-sized cutouts on the exterior of the windows and join in with the snow angels:
A Few Christmas’s Ago…
Christmas 2018 was a great year for The Bay’s Christmas windows. Here’s a few of the windows from that season:
Located at the busy intersection of Yonge and Queen Streets, the Toronto Eaton Centre Bridge is a dramatic public landmark that replaces the previous pedestrian bridge, which was completed in 1978. The bridge spans Queen Street West and links the Toronto Eaton Centre with The Bay/Saks Fifth Avenue on the south side of Queen Street West.
The design challenge involved carefully merging the contrasting buildings the bridge links – on one side the historic 1896 sandstone Hudson’s Bay/Saks Fifth Avenue (formerly Simpsons – anyone remember that?) with Romanesque revival features, and on the other, the contemporary glass and steel forms of the 1977 Toronto Eaton Centre.
From the architect’s website:
The new bridge was designed as a beautiful, sustainable addition to Toronto’s streetscape and pedestrian infrastructure. Conceptualized as a metaphorical handshake between these two seemingly opposing architectural styles, the geometry of the bridge transitions from the circular arches found on the historic Hudson Bay facade into the rectangular forms of the Eaton Centre. In addition to its steel, bronze and glass appearance echoing the materials and iconography of the historic buildings it links, the Bridge maintains the original ethos of the Eaton Centre in its honest use of simple materials. In total, the structure is comprised of 190 patinated bronze panels and 210 double, curved glass panels, each unique in shape and curvature. The Bridge has transformed the link between the historic buildings it sits aside. It enhances, rather than overshadows, the architectural features of each building.
In order to minimize disruption to the busy intersection of Yonge and Queen Streets, the bridge’s main structural components were assembled on nearby James Street and moved into place in one piece. I took these shots on May 28, 2017 while the bridge was still very much a work in progress on James Street:
Moving the 218 metric tonne bridge in place required a highly specialized hydraulic lift system given the minimal clearances on both the Eaton Centre and Hudson’s Bay sides. The entire process took several hours in the early morning hours on a weekend, shutting down this section of Queen Street. The remainder of work was done in place allowing the street to remain operable.
After The Move
The new bridge opened in late 2017. I took these shots of the completed pedestrian bridge on April 10, 2021:
On the east side of the Parkside Student Residence on the corner of Jarvis and Carlton Streets, there resides a colourful multi-storey-high mural entitled Equilibrium. Created by Spanish street artist Okuda San Miguel in 2018, the mural was produced by the PATCH project, which works to strengthen communities through producing public art projects which transform public spaces into opportunities for civic engagement.
From the plaque on the mural:
A culmination of a multi-year international collaboration aimed at celebrating the diverse communities that host the work, this mural was painted in 2018.
Equilibrium references the universal balance between nature, humanity and knowledge. Spanish artist, Okuda San Miguel has incorporated a totem-style as used across a diversity of cultures throughout history. It is the artist’s intention that individual viewers should find their own meaning and personal connection with the work, but has thoughtfully selected colours and imagery that conjure feelings of positivity and unity.
A signature element in the artist’s work, the Kaos star at the base symbolizes each individual’s internal compass. Regardless of origin each person must find their own path on Mother Earth (represented by the female figure in the work’s lower sections).
Representing the merging of humanity and nature, the avian-faced women reflect the need to balance these two worlds by holding the globe between them. The featured trio of faces represent the combined importance of knowledge and wisdom (grayscale), alongside innovation (coloured). Multi-coloured bodies are symbolic of diversity, while star-studded eyes reflect the inner universe present in each of us. The face on the globe depicts the eyes of the world watching humanity.
Connecting to the surrounding community, the foliage found throughout the design pays homage to the neighbouring Allan Gardens, meanwhile the angelic figure atop the work connects to the church to the east and serves as a symbol of freedom. A pride-inspired flag was integrated in response to the resounding support the project received from the Church-Wellesley community throughout its development.
The project was made possible through a collaboration among The STEPS initiative, Parkside Student Residence, Knightstone Capital Management, and StreetARToronto (StART), an initiative of the City of Toronto that supports, promotes and increases awareness of street art and its unique role in adding beauty and character to neighbourhoods across Toronto.
The Mural Slowly Takes Shape
Continuing to growA closeup of lower sectionMural’s titleArtist’s monogram
By sculptor Ted Bieler, 1971. Aptly located at the Medical Sciences Building at the University of Toronto, the work represents the double helix of DNA through its spiralling ribbons of precast concrete.
The Blessed Sacrament is a Catholic Church located at 24 Cheritan Avenue, which is on Yonge Street just south of Lawrence Avenue. Construction of this church began in the spring of 1929 at the (then) cost of $180,000.00. In June 1930 the church was opened and dedicated.
The Blessed Sacrament is one of the largest church structures in the Archdiocese of Toronto. It’s architect, J. Gibb Morton, based his look for the building on two periods of medieval Gothic architecture.
Brickman was created by a German abstract group called Inges Idee in 2010, and sits at the corner of Jarvis Street and Adelaide Street East.
Commissioned by Aspen Ridge Homes as part of the City of Toronto Private Developer Percent for Art Program. Brickman is an urban figure, both abstract and figurative blending elements of 19th century history with a contemporary take on monumental sculpture. The sculpture poses questions of human scale and urban development and comments on distinctive architectural materials and features in this historic area.
Plaque at base of brickman
The 8-meter high sculpture depicts a prospectively distorted, anthropomorphic figure made of bricks of ever-diminishing size. The perspective distortion with an extreme vanishing point makes the figure seem expressive and dynamic, and simultaneously larger than it actually is.
Brickman is an abstract “urban figure” that quotes the smokestacks and dynamic of the big city and the grid of the streets surrounding it. It takes up the plunging lines of the rows of high-rises and the vanishing points of the streets that run perfectly straight for miles. It relates to the masonry buildings of the neighbourhood and takes people’s thoughts back to the period of Toronto’s early development.
I agree with Bob K . And the weather was super warm . A perfect day for a parade. Being…