Royal York hallway

 

Location: Royal York Hotel

Date photo taken: 20 November 2025

As someone who lives in Toronto, the inside of our city's hotels is not something I'm all that familiar with. The lobbies, sure, especially those ones that connect to PATH, but not the floors that have the rooms. So when friends visited recently and stayed at the Royal York, I couldn't resist the urge to look around a bit. For those who are curious, here's the 10th floor hallway of what was once the largest hotel in the British Commonwealth.

Automated Treat Machine

 

Location: TD Terrace, 160 Front St. W.

Date photo taken: 19 December 2025

This is one of the cutest things I've stumbled across in quite some time. It's a scaled down version of a bank machine but the little green paw prints and the canine content on the screens should tip you off that this isn't meant for regular customers. That and the treats that drop into the bowl when the motion sensor is tripped. The Automated Treat Machine was previewed at TD's Tech & Innovation Day conference in May 2024 and later that summer, was installed in the branch on the ground floor of the new TD Terrace building. Next time you're in the neighbourhood with your dog, you might want to pop in to make a withdrawal.

St. James Park lighting

Location: Jarvis and Adelaide
Date photo taken: 13 February 2025

In 2018 the City completed phase one of a revitalization of the heavily used St. James Park on the edge of Old Town. As part of the improvements, this cluster of lighted poles was installed at the north east corner of the park. Designed by PMA Landscape Architects and billed as a "heritage interpretation lighting feature", the reference is subtle. The massing of the poles and their varied heights creates a form that mirrors the silhouette of the cathedral that sits on the south west corner of the park. 

Remembering the victims and survivors

 

Location: Humber College Lakeshore Campus

Date photo taken: 10 July 2021

The sprawling Humber College Lakeshore campus is situated on the grounds of the former Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital. Opened in 1889 as the Mimico Asylum, this institution operated, under various names, for 90 years, closing its doors and transferring the last of its patients in 1979. This sculpture, created by Rocky Dobey and installed on campus in 2019, memorializes the former patients of the hospital. The roof is etched with a repeating pattern of words: We Remember. The roof also holds a small plaque on which the following is inscribed:

1889 - 1979

Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital

We will always remember the victims and the survivors

If you want to learn more about the hospital, several websites exist. Two that I found particularly interesting are: 

Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital - a site about the history

The Hospital History Project - where staff and volunteers of the Lakeshore Grounds Interpretive Centre share their findings as they comb through archival resources relating to the institutions located on the site.

Enterprise

 

Location: Guild Park and Gardens

Date photo taken: 9 April 2022

This large panel, dedicated to Enterprise and featuring a scientific instrument in the centre, is one of three stone crests arranged in a row on the grounds of Guild Park. Carved from white marble, they stand about 6 feet or 1.8 m tall and each weighs about 4 tonnes. They were originally created for The Bank of Toronto's head office and main branch building at King and Bay streets which opened in 1913. The three panels hung above the entrance. Roughly a decade after the merger of the Bank of Toronto and the Dominion Bank this building was demolished to make way for the Toronto-Dominion Centre. The panels, along with many other elements from the building, were salvaged and for a time were displayed near the swimming pool of the former Guild Inn, but were put in storage when that part of the hotel was closed up. They remained in storage for more than 30 years but as part of the City's revitalization of the park, they were reinstalled on the grounds in October 2020.

The Sound Eater

 

Location: Sculpture Garden, King & Church

Date photo taken: 16 October 2025

Artist Meghan Cheng has used data visualization techniques to create a sculpture that brings the soundscape of the Sculpture Garden to visitors in a whole new way. Each of the four distinct segments represents the audio waves of a sound frequently heard within the garden. They are then playfully arranged to create her "sound-consuming serpent". The sounds, all recorded on Sunday July 27, 2025 are:

Section 1 (head): Streetcar, 8:05 am

Section 2: St. James church bells, 7:59 am

Section 3: Melodic bells, 7:58 am

Section 4 (tail): Bird, 7:42 am

Pentagon Totem: High Five

 

Location: Corner of St. Clair and Foxbar
Date photo taken: 2 November 2025

This stack of brightly coloured polyhedrons is one of two artworks displayed in the POP (privately owned public space) at the base of the Blue Diamond Condominium at St. Clair. It is the work of Angela Bulloch, who was born in Rainy River, Ontario but now divides her time between Berlin and London. The piece is of painted stainless steel and was installed by the building developer, Camrost Felcorp in 2021.