Cranes

Location: Looking east from Trinity Street, south of Eastern
Date photo taken: 26 January 2013

Cranes have sprouted up all over the area referred to as the West Don Lands, a large area of land bordered by the Don River, King Street, Parliament Street and the railway corridor adjacent to the Gardiner. These cranes are busy constructing the future home of the Pan-American Games, which come to Toronto in 2015. The facilities for this event are being built as part of a much larger community plan which will see a vibrant new neighbourhood in this corner of the city. For an idea of what it all will look like, visit the Waterfront Toronto website.

The red brick building with the red door was built in 1859 as the Palace Street School, and was remodeled and expanded in 1890 to become Irvine House, a hotel. In the years since then, it changed hands and uses many times, but from 1965 until 2007 it was the home of the Canary Restaurant.

Masc – 287 Jarvis

Location: Decorative stonework, 287 Jarvis Street
Date photo taken: 25 October 2012
Image 1 in the Mascs of Toronto Series

Toronto is full of faces, staring stonily out from buildings across the city. When presented alone these faces are referred to as mascarons. In the Mascs series, this blog will widen the definition to include any interesting faces, whether they be prominently presented or hidden among other decorative details.

This face is from the front of 287 Jarvis Street, a heritage property built in 1890 by architects Knox and Elliot. It currently operates as a rooming house run by Homes First Society.

Electro-Voice V-15 Microphone

Location: CBC Museum, Canadian Broadcasting Centre, 250 Front St. W.
Date photo taken: 15 Jan 2013

This microphone is one of many on display in the CBC Museum, located on the main floor of the CBC building at Front and John Streets. In this space, and another one on the lower floor, the CBC displays equipment, props, merchandise and more from its long history of radio and television broadcasting. The museum is free and open from 9 to 5, Monday thru Friday.

For more information on what you can see in the CBC building, read the post on Hogspot.

Tree Tags

Location: Queen's Park
Date photo taken: 11 December 2013

Many trees around the city are now sporting small metal tags, just above eye level. Some of those tags are painted green. They mark ash trees that are healthy enough to be good candidates for inoculation by a product called TreeAzin™. TreeAzin™ helps protect ash trees against the ravages of the Emerald Ash Borer, an invasive insect species that has taken up residence in Toronto and threatens to wipe out the city’s population of ash trees by 2017. That’s about 860,000 trees. It’s too expensive to treat every tree, especially since it has to be repeated every two years, so the city is prioritizing high value trees. If you’re a home owner and have an ash tree on your property, take note: if it succumbs to the bug, and most experts expect that most untreated trees in the city will, you will be financially responsible for having the dead tree removed. For more information, visit the City of Toronto’s page on Emerald Ash Borers.

Robert Simpson Co. Monogram

Location: The Bay building, near corner of Bay & Richmond
Date photo taken: 1 November 2012
Image 1 in the Remnant Series

The building that houses The Bay’s Queen Street store has always been a mecca for shoppers. It was built in stages by the Robert Simpson Company, which first opened its doors at the corner of Queen and Yonge streets in 1894. This monogrammed window grill, which bears the letters RSC, can be found on the art deco addition at Bay and Richmond which was completed in 1929 and included the grand Arcadian Court restaurant on the 8^th floor. These grills are unlikely to be updated to HBC any time soon as the heritage designation which the building enjoys forbids major changes to the exterior.