Wilson tiles

 

Location: Wilson subway

Date photo taken: 19 August 2023

When the Spadina line was built in the 1970s, the TTC engaged three different architectural firms to design the various stations. Due to the challenges inherent in the site however, the TTC kept Wilson station for itself. Which means that the tile patterns on the platform walls are likely the work of someone in the TTC design department. Kudos to them. They are strongly reminiscent of their time and still striking. 

Shalom II

 

Location: Bathurst between Sheppard and Finch

Date photo taken: 19 August 2023

If you wander into the 27 acre Sherman Campus of the Prosserman Jewish Community Centre on Bathurst, you might spot this monumental work by Kosso Eloul. It's the third of his pieces to be featured on this blog and while all are different in finish and arrangement, all are recognizable as the work of a single artist. In his own words, Eloul was "strongly prejudiced towards simplicity" and he used geometry, which was both "eternal and elemental", to explore relationships, the precariousness of life, and the search for stability. 

According to Toronto Sculpture, this piece was commissioned by the Jewish Community Centre in 1978.

History of Yorkdale Mall

 

Location: Yorkdale Mall

Date photo taken: 9 December 2018

Yorkdale Shopping Centre, located at Highway 401 and Allen Road, opened in 1964. At the time, it was billed as the largest enclosed shopping mall in the world and it was definitely something new for Toronto. According to the Toronto Star, approximately 100,000 people visited on opening day. Since opening, the mall has consistently reinvented itself, having gone through four major renovations to date. On a visit not that long ago, I was delighted to discover that one of the interior hallways leading to the washroom facilities had been given over to a display of vintage photographs of the mall. A space that in many such facilities is overlooked and often bleak had been transformed into a gorgeous gallery celebrating the development of this cultural space. It was really interesting to study the archival images and then re-emerge into the modern mall and note the differences and similarities. Definitely worth a look on your next visit, even if you don't need the facilities.. And for those interested in urban development and the future of shopping malls, you might want to check out the ambitious redevelopment plans currently being put forth for Yorkdale and its surroundings.

Don Mills Montage

Location: Lawrence Avenue, west of Don Mills

Date photo taken: 14 July 2019

Charles P. Staffer, a Hungarian born architect and artist, immigrated to Canada in 1957. He worked for the T. Eaton Company, designing and creating murals and other artworks. For the new store opening at the expanding Don Mills Centre, he created two murals, one for inside, and one for the exterior. Both drew on the surrounding neighbourhood for inspiration and both have survived the ongoing evolution of the mall, first to a fully enclosed shopping centre and then to the open-air retail and entertainment complex that exists today. When Cadillac Fairview demolished the old mall in 2006 both murals were removed, restored and then reinstalled. This one can now be found on the north side, facing Lawrence.

Pioneer Village Station

 

Location: 2800 Steeles Avenue West
Date photo taken: 22 September 2018

This is one of two similar-looking buildings that act as entrances to the Pioneer Village TTC station. Designed by SGA/IBI Group Architects in joint venture with Alsop Architects, the TTC page dedicated to this stop describes them as "a pair of sculptural objects, robust and yet embodying playfulness and free flowing movement." They are certainly striking. A friend, on seeing this picture without the aid of their glasses, mistook the structure for a turret. That is forever how I will think of these buildings, and it seems somehow fitting. After all, they sit on opposite sides of Steeles, one in Toronto and one in Vaughan, protectors of their respective realms.

Spring Flowers

 

Location: Lawrence Ave. E. at Curlew

Date photo taken: 23 January 2021

Image #16 in the Traffic Signal Box Series

The official start of spring may still be a few weeks away but spring temperatures were definitely in evidence in the city today. Pretty soon real live tulips will be everywhere, but until then, this gorgeous sunny mini mural will stand in nicely. I assume it was done as part of StART's Outside the Box program but I can't find any info on the artist. If you know, please comment!

Rainbow Tunnel

Location: East Don Trail
Date photo taken: 23 January 2021

This rainbow tunnel is likely familiar to any who have driven up the Don Valley Parkway. It sits on the east side, just south of the Lawrence exit and it's been around since the very early 1970s. It was originally painted by a youth named BC Johnson as a memorial to a friend who died in a car crash on the nearby roadway. Every time the city painted it over, which happened often, he would return and repaint. Eventually the City embraced the mural and in 2013 it provided funding to Mural Routes to refresh the rainbow and to create a further mural on the inside of the tunnel. If you want to visit it in person it can be accessed from west of the Don Valley via Moccasin Trail Park, or from the east side via Milne Hollow and the East Don Trail.

Traffic Signal Box - Maple Leaf Mosaic

Location: Maple Leaf Drive at Jane
Date photo taken: 22 February 2020
Image #13 in the Traffic Signal Box Series

Happy Canada Day!

This box is the work of Thomas Dannenberg and it was commissioned in 2018 as part of the 6th year of the Outside the Box project. This city run program invites artists and graphic designers to apply for the opportunity to paint one of the many traffic signal boxes that dot intersections across the city. Applicants are encouraged "to consider the context of the local area and the city as a whole" when creating their design. Outside the Box is one of many projects run by Street Art Toronto, which also maintains an artist directory - the perfect place to find an artist to paint that garage mural you've always wanted.

Passing on the TTC

Location: Bessarion TTC station

Date photo taken: 14 July 2019

Again this week an image that references people. Sort of. The work is by Montreal born, Toronto based artist Sylvie Bélanger. The tiled photo collages which together are called "Passing" are found throughout Bessarion station. The entrance floor is where you will find this section, and other legs and feet. Go down a level to the platform and you find lots of heads. At first the placement puzzled me, but once I got beyond simple anatomy (head high, feet low) I saw a logic to the presentation. The upper concourse is where people are in motion, coming and going, and there is space to move. On the platform, things can get more crowded, and more often than not, your view is limited to the backs of the heads in front of you. Although from what I hear, crowding isn't exactly a problem at this particular station.

Fun fact: In the 2018 ridership statistics (the latest currently available on the TTC website) Bessarion station typically sees 2990 customers coming or going on an average weekday. While this number is pretty low, it's not the least travelled station in the system. Ellesmere, Midland and Downsview Park all see fewer patrons. 

Supernova

Location: Shops at Don Mills

Date photo taken: 14 July 2019

This clock tower, situated in the Town Square at the Shops at Don Mills, pays homage to the distinctive style of housing and the explosive pace of suburban development that characterized Toronto in the 1950s and 60s. What I love most about this Douglas Coupland piece isn't the piece itself, but one reaction to it that I found online. To sum up, "Wrong, wrong, wrong." On her Don Mills blog, Jane points out that while the house forms incorporated in the sculpture are similar in style to the homes built in Don Mills, "they Ain't. Don. Mills. Houses." Don Mills is unique in that it was Canada's first planned community and part of what makes it special is that the house plans were designed by select architects to suit the area. Those in Coupland's sculpture were based on blueprints generated by the government and supplied through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. I love both the attention to detail that Coupland showed in the creation of the work, and the knowledge and passion exhibited by Jane in pointing out the historical inaccuracy.

Family Group

Location: 1470 Don Mills Road

Date photo taken: 14 July 2019

Sitting outside a small office complex on Don Mills just south of York Mills is a sculpture featuring a three member family grouping. Despite their spindly appearance, described in one source I read as “emaciated”, I get a sense of joyfulness from this piece. It is the work of Prince Monyo, a Romanian exile, done while he was living in Canada in the 1970s. He claims that he never aspired to be an artist, but that a friend here taught him to work in bronze. He later opened one of the largest bronze foundries in Florida.

Black Creek Pioneer Village

Location: Black Creek Pioneer Village, near Steeles and Jane

Date photo taken: 22 September 2018

School may be out for summer but there's still lots to see and do at Black Creek Pioneer Village. This site, run by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, is a careful recreation of an Ontario town from the 1860s complete with all the buildings you'd expect, costumed interpreters and heritage breed animals. If that's not enough to tempt you, how about a haunted walk? Or some axe throwing? Or maybe some goat yoga with the cutest kids around? These are some of the special programming available through their Nightlife program.

If you just can't make it out to the Village but want to travel in back in time, all of the buildings and animals are profiled on the Black Creek website. 

Lightning on a Clear Day

Location: 95 The Pond Road
Date photo taken: 22 September 2018

The Quad at York is a student residence made up of a pair of U-shaped buildings. The various east and west-facing sides of the building are etched with a series of branching patterns. I was drawn to the lightning but there are others, equally beautiful. They're impressive from a distance, and even more engaging up close where you can see the shifting colours in the designs. They are the work of Montreal artist Nicolas Baier.

Mother and Child

Location: Baycrest Health Sciences Centre grounds, Bathurst St. and Baycrest Ave.

Date photo taken: 27 August 2015

This sculpture, entitled Mother and Child, sits in the green space in front of the Bathurst Street entrance to the Baycrest Health Sciences Centre. It is one of a surprising number of artworks owned by Baycrest and displayed throughout the facility and grounds. According to their website "Baycrest’s unique art environment encourages cognitive and social engagement, factors known to promote brain health and healthy aging." To facilitate enjoyment of their collection and to spark conversation, they offer a number of Art Walk booklets modeled after the Museum of Modern Arts’ Meet me at MoMA program. This piece, created in cast aluminum by artist Aharon Bezalel in 2010, was donated to Baycrest in 2011.

Emery Village

Location: Weston Rd. at Verobeach Blvd.

Date photo taken: 22 May 2015

Emery Village is located in the north west corner of the city, bounded by the Humber River on the west, Highway 400 on the east, Steeles to the north and Wilson Rd. to the south. Almost nothing is left of the small farming hamlet that once existed here, industry replacing farms in the post-war boom, when the North York Official Plan designated all lands north of Finch as industrial.  In 2003 the Emery Village BIA was founded and one of their goals is to restore a sense of history to the area. These signs, along with historical plaques and historically-themed murals are part of this effort. 

To get an idea of what this area looked like once upon a time, check out the historical images of Emery that are part of the Toronto Reference Library's digital archive. 

Harmony

Location: Outside the Columbus Centre, 901 Lawrence Ave. W.
Date photo taken: 24 June 2016

This cute bronze of two young girls sharing a drink functions as a fountain just outside one of the rear doors of the Columbus Centre, a community hub for the Italian community in Toronto. The Centre is  home to the Carrier Gallery  and art work is scattered around the building, the grounds and in dedicated gallery space. This piece is by Lea Vivot, who was born in Czechoslovakia but now lives in Kleinburg. It was donated to the Centre by Alice Boccia in memory of Luigia and Antonio D'Odorico.

Custom Sidewalk

Location: Glen Park area
Date photo taken: 9 May 2016

Sidewalks are a bit of a contentious issue in Toronto. Despite an acceptance of the fact that a more walkable city equates to a healthier city, between one third and one quarter of Toronto's streets don't have sidewalks. It's current practice to install missing sidewalks when street surfaces are repaved but the area's councillor has to sign off on the installation before it can happen and in many cases they refuse, citing opposition from residents. This may soon change however. Thanks in large part to a need to comply with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, a recommendation will go before council in June to eliminate the need for further approvals for sidewalk installation. In the meantime, I love how this homeowner has taken matters into their own hands and created a beautiful gravel path where the sidewalk would be.

Traffic Signal Box - Adrian Hayles

Location: Bathurst and Wilson
Date photo taken: 17 November 2015
Image #6 in the Traffic Signal Box Series

Another traffic signal box given a colourful treatment thanks to StreetARToronto's Outside the Box program. These colourful clouds are by artist Adrian Hayles, who has done several boxes around the city.

Home

Location: Ranee Avenue, at the Allen Road underpass
Date photo taken: 10 September 2015

This mural can be found on one side the of underpass where Ranee Avenue travels under the Allen expressway. On the other side of the underpass is it's twin, another mural with another feel good message. Both were created by neighbourhood youth working with Art Starts, an organization that seeks to use art to engage residents in under-served areas of Toronto. The youth involved did much more than paint however. For three weeks they were immersed in the revitalization process, doing things like attending meetings and interviewing residents. The project was initiated by Toronto Community Housing as part of the Lawrence Heights Revitalization Project. Like Regent Park, this 50s era housing development is being completely razed and redeveloped. Demolition began this fall and the project is expected to take 20 years.

Castlefield & Caledonia Design & Decor District

Location: Corner of Caledonia and Raitherm Roads
Date photo taken: 10 September 2015

The Castlefield & Caledonia Design & Decor District is not something I had heard of before stumbling into it and seeing these signs. The area is centered around the intersection of Caledonia Rd. and Castlefield Ave., which is slightly north west of Dufferin and Eglinton. As the name suggests, the area is populated with a wide range of design and decor businesses from rug and tile stores to designer outlets and general home stores. Back in 2007 the City of Toronto released a plan for the district which would help provide a framework for future development in the area. The vision for the neighbourhood was "to ensure the area retains the conditions that originally drew the design and décor businesses to the district" including low rents, large open buildings and an industrial look and feel. Some recommendations in the document included the retention of key industrial structures (the Bell communications tower and the gantry structure from an asphalt plant), improving access to the Beltline park, and the creation of gateway entrances and branded signage for the whole district.