Toronto Through My Lens
There’s nothing quite so rewarding in street photography as setting out for the day, having no destination in mind; you merely wind through the city with your camera wherever your feet take you, recording the city as it goes about its daily business.
I love shooting in black and white – it makes everything so much more interesting, moody, dramatic and contemplative. Here are some black and white shots from one such session:
If I had to assign Toronto apartment buildings a theme song, it would be Queen’s Another One Bites the Dust.
For decades I’ve passed by 88 Isabella Street, a 14-story rental building borne from 1960s architecture. It has always been tidy-looking, well kept and kind of dignified. Built in 1965, 88 Isabella – also known as The Villager – typified a mid-century residential apartment building in the Church-Wellesley neighbourhood. At one point, I remember there being a sign on the building saying Furnished Apartments For Rent. Now – sadly – it is falling victim to another condo mega-tower, this one a 62-story behemoth, consisting of 720 condo units.
The condo developer, Capital Developments, claims they will provide 82 rental units in the new building to replace existing units from the original building. Allegedly, the building proposal includes a Tenant Relocation and Assistance Plan that addresses the right for existing tenants to return to a replacement rental dwelling unit at similar rent and financial compensation to mitigate hardship. I’ll believe that when I see it.
Many former tenants forced from their homes, and people from the neighbouring housing co-op, are registering protest, opposition and argument, as well they should. Researching this post, I’ve been reading about the plights of some “renovicted” tenants of 88 Isabella Street, and my heart goes out to them.
I was incredulous when I heard this beautiful older building had been emptied of tenants and demolition work begun. It saddens me greatly to see Isabella Street slowly going the way of nearby Charles Street. Until a few years ago, Charles Street was a quiet, leafy, dignified street with a few older brownstones and walk-up apartments. Now, a walk down Charles Street feels like you’re carving your way through the valley of the super-high rises – it is noisy, overcrowded, packed with people, clogged with cars and devoid of its former character. I fear Isabella Street is heading for the same fate.
This latest travesty also pains me because I used to live on Isabella Street during its heyday, and remember it as a wonderful, calm street on which to live. It’s sad to see Isabella Street now devolving, but I guess that’s urban progress for you (harummffff!!).
Directly across the street from 88 Isabella Street is 81-83 Isabella Street, two joined, beautiful walkup-style apartment buildings, known as The Merlan:
Unbelievably, these two charming buildings are also destined for demolition, being replaced by a 69-storey condo tower.
The Merlan is a three-storey, U-shaped Edwardian Revival apartment constructed in 1927, containing 48 rental units in one-bedroom configurations. Designed by architect Norman Alexander Armstrong, The Merlan stands as an example of Toronto’s second apartment building boom. The Edwardian Revival structure originally offered 49 units across its distinctive U-shaped layout, with twin entrances anchoring each wing. Recognized for its heritage value, the building was added to the City’s Heritage Register in December, 2024.
The heritage facade of The Merlan would be integrated into the new build, according to a planning report that went to the City in early June. The new design features a two-to-three-storey base reconstructing The Merlan’s heritage facades along Isabella Street. The new condo will be topped by a ten-storey podium and a stepped tower volume.
The project proposes 647 residential units, including 48 replacement rental suites replicating the one-bedroom format of the existing apartments.
In November 2023 Capital Developments received approval for a 69-storey building at 90-94 Isabella Street. Additionally, 135 Isabella is slated for a 69-storey tower, which the developer KingSett Capital proposed in June 2023.
Isabella Street is going to be a very different street within the next few years…
The Water’s Edge Promenade stretches from Sugar Beach near the foot of Jarvis Street, past Sherbourne Common, ending at the foot of Parliament Street – for now. There are future plans to keep extending Water’s Edge Promenade further along the eastern waterfront.
The Water’s Edge Promenade was a Waterfront Toronto initiative, envisioned by West 8 (an award-winning international office for urban design and landscape architecture) and DTAH (a landscape architecture and urban design company) as the “Green Foot” of the city at the edge of Lake Ontario.
Silva cells provide adequate soil volume for healthy tree growth of the double row of fall colouring maple cultivars, and rainwater is captured to water the trees as a passive irrigation system. The trees were selected a year ahead of planting, and were hand-picked individually at various local nurseries, as a cautionary measure due to the high profile nature of the project, and the significant quantity of trees required for the area (including for the adjacent Sugar Beach).
The granite cobblestone “maple leaf” promenade was constructed with skilled Irish stonemasons who were brought over to teach local contractors this special technique. The project is also part of the East Bayfront District’s comprehensive stormwater management plan, which includes a future wood boardwalk over a forebay system to treat stormwater runoff as part of the ‘treatment train’ approach employed.1
Almost as noticeable as Lake Ontario are the condo developments on, and near, the Water’s Edge Promenade:
I must say that the most striking building I observed on this walk was the Aqualuna Condos, located at 155 Merchants’ Wharf. This building was absolutely stunning and I was fascinated by its colour, form and architecture. Its opulent design was created by Danish architects 3XN, and apparently the building features first class amenities. I shudder to think what a unit here would cost.
The Water’s Edge Promenade is considered one of Canada’s Best Landscape Architecture Projects. It’s so nice to see our long-neglected waterfront coming to life and becoming a welcoming destination within the city.
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:
Outside the Pier 27 Condos, located at 29 Queen’s Quay East, there are two intriguing installations, both the work of Alice Aycock.
This was Phase 1 of the project, completed in 2017. The Toronto Twister is made of structural steel with aluminum powder coated white. It is 25 feet tall at its highest point:
The second phase of the project was installed in 2021 outside the Pier 27 Condos:
The last time I walked down The Esplanade, I was struck by how many new condos have sprung up in that neighbourhood. I thought it may be interesting to put together a little photo journal of the structures I encountered that day.
Continuing on in the Yonge-Eglinton area, I came across a couple of interesting sculptures on Roehampton Avenue:
This sculpture is located at 70 Roehampton Avenue beside “The Republic” condo building. What’s Your Name? identifies North Toronto Collegiate Institute (NTCI) students past and present by reproducing their proper names and handwritten signatures on the sculpture’s stainless steel surfaces.
One sheaf shows all the first names of students who have attended the school since 1912, beginning at the top of the inner page. Each name is present only once, and at the moment it first appears in the school record. The chronological list includes new names through to 2010 with a total of 2053 different names. The names of the last students to occupy the original NTCI building appear at the bottom of the outer page.
The second sheaf creates imprints of the students’ public and private identities by contrasting the names of those who attended the school over the past century with a selection of signatures from alumni and current students.
‘What’s Your Name?’ is often the first question we ask someone, and by answering we announce ourselves to each other and to the world. During adolescence our relationship to proper names tends to change; a name is no longer something given but something made, crafted and personalized through the deliberate art of the signature. Schools, and particularly high schools, are where the proper name and the signature intersect.
Paper and print, which are the core tools of education, become dynamic sculptural forms on which an imprint of students’ public and private identities is inscribed.
Located outside the condos at 101 Roehampton Avenue is a work entitled Points of View: Looking North. The stainless-steel sculpture combines precise geometries with expressive organic form — an exploration between the rational and emotional aspects of material forms:
The entire material world, whether natural or man-made, consists on a fundamental level of rational geometries-ratio. Our appreciation of their complex appearances is, however, our emotional response. ‘Points of View: Looking North’ combines these apparently very different worlds and traits of human thought.
Outside the condo buildings at 150 and 155 Redpath Avenue, there is an interesting 2-part sculpture entitled Stargate.
Designed by Toronto and Krakow-based artists Blue Republic (Anna Passakas & Radoslaw Kudlinski), the 2016 installation includes alien-inspired pieces on the two west side corners of Redpath Avenue, fronting the entrances to the condo towers at 150 and 155 Redpath.
The crew of blue and yellow characters, each weighing thousands of pounds, create a window into outer space, both through the bold creatures themselves and their surrounding landscape of swirling vortices.
Our inspiration for this piece came from the unique diversity of this city. For some, moving to a new neighbourhood is like moving from one universe to another. So many people bring various experiences and cultures with them from all over the world. We are both science fiction fans, and we felt that “Stargate”, drawing from this popular genre, could be the glue between these narratives.
Inspired by both Eastern and Greek mythology and science fiction, Stargate serves as a connection between different worlds and a call to explore the unknown.
This post was originally from a couple of weekends ago when the weather was not cooperating. I am reposting this one as I don’t believe it was published recently given all my trouble with my automated sender.
This post is one-part city walk mixed with two-parts photography experiment.
It’s a distant foggy memory, much like the weather we’ve had recently. Given that, I thought it would be interesting to take a walk in the fog/darkness and shoot in black and white to emphasize the moodiness.
I love shooting in black and white; it makes everything look so different and dramatic – details stand out, creating emotions. In addition to shooting in soft black and white I used a diffusion filter which removed much of the “digital edge” from modern digital cameras, leaving a soft B&W treatment looking like it was shot on film. The shots are intentionally dark and muted, and the fog enhanced the effect.
Located at 247 Yonge Street, across from the Eaton Centre, is OctoZone. OctoZone is a huge claw machine-themed gift shop. The interior is very Asian-styled, infused with copious amounts of bright turquoise and hot pink neon (the effect lost, of course, in my black and white shots). I’ve passed this place several times and have always wondered what it is; this time I decided to take temporary refuge from the fog and drizzle, go in and check it out. It’s quite an interesting place: click here if you’d like to watch a short YouTube video about OctoZone.
Next stop: home, where it’s warm and dry! 🙂
At 637 Lakeshore Blvd. West just west of Bathurst Street sits the Tip Top Lofts. Just behind it lies Lake Ontario. This building has a long and prominent history in Toronto. Formerly known as the Tip Top Tailors Building, it was constructed in 1929 and housed the manufacturing, warehousing, retail and office operations of Tip Top Tailors Ltd., a menswear clothing retailer founded in 1909 by Polish-Jewish immigrant David Dunkelman.
The building was designed by Bishop and Miller architects, incorporating the Art Deco style. In 1972, the building was designated as a heritage structure by the City of Toronto.
In spring 2002, Dylex (the company owning the building) sold the property to Context Development, who converted it into condominium lofts. The conversion was designed by architects Alliance of Toronto. The conversion included the addition of six stories on the roof. The neon Tip Top Tailors rooftop sign was retained and given a slant. Inside, there are 256 beautifully renovated lofts.
A few notes on the interior lofts courtesy of the website condos.ca:
Offering “hard” and “soft” lofts: When the building was converted into lofts in the early 2000’s, Context Developments was smart-thinking to create both hard and soft lofts. What that means is that Tip Top Lofts offers both the classic, exposed brick and woodbeam “hard loft” style, as well as more modern “soft loft” styles that will feel like a contemporary condo.
Courtesy of the City of Toronto Archives and torontolofts.ca, here are a few photos tracing the history of this magnificent Art Deco building:
I love black and white! Great job on putting together this collection.
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