Lynx

 

Location: Sherbourne north of Lakeshore   

Date photo taken: 11 July 2022

I love stumbling across wildlife in the city, even when it's just a cut-out pasted to the wall. This lynx surprised me as I walked under the railway corridor north of Lakeshore on Sherbourne. A fisher with a fish clenched in its jaws is under there too. I have no idea who put them there or why. If you know, please leave a comment!

Update: Mystery solved!! This is part of the street art project known as Downtown Critters, and their website promises lots more to come.

Middle Road Bridge

 

Location: Sherway Drive

Date photo taken: 18 June 2022

This humble looking bridge spans the Etobicoke Creek, just north of the QEW. It sits in parkland, connecting the leafy neighbourhood of Sherway in Mississauga to Etobicoke Valley Park North in Toronto and its scale seems perfectly suited to the pedestrian traffic it now serves. When it was built in 1909 however it was part of Middle Road, an important transportation corridor connecting the former counties of York and Peel regions. Middle Road was eventually absorbed by the new highway in the 1930s, but the bridge still remains. Both Mississauga and Etobicoke have recognized their ends of the bridge for its heritage value, and the plaque visible at the bottom right declares the bridge a National Historic Civil Engineering Site. It states that the Middle Road bridge was the first reinforced concrete arch-truss bridge in North America.  

Playing Tiger, Sittin' Dragon

 

Location: Gristmill Lane, Distillery District

Date photo taken: 7 July 2022

This large, vaguely human-shaped block is one of 13 arrayed in a line down Gristmill Lane in the Distillery right now as part of 6IX Art Outdoors. Each statue provides a canvas for a Canadian artist to share something of their personal identity and their culture. This particular one features a family portrait by Yen Linh Thai, who represents her family members through their zodiac animals. The exhibit is part of the Lavazza IncluCity Festival which runs until July 17.

Bell Box - Angel Carrillo

 

Location: Morrison Street

Date photo taken: 24 March 2022

Image #16 in the Bellbox Series

Here's another painted Bell box courtesy of the Bell Boxes Murals Project, a nonprofit street art program. This one is in New Toronto and was done in 2021. The artist is Angel Carrillo and if you love the style, he also happens to be a tattoo artist and co-owner of Southside Ink. 

Poop power

 

Location: Rolling Mills Road

Date photo taken: 7 October 2020

When I first saw this post, it was the cute little cut-out of a dog at the top that caught my attention. The diagram on the front, with the words "Dog waste only", got me intrigued. It turns out these bright green pillars are an innovative new way to dispose of your pooch's poop and turn it into something positive. This pillar sits atop a concrete containment well sunk into the ground, where the poop is collected and kept safely contained. Out of the sun, the contents remain cooler and smell less. The bins are emptied regularly and the waste is delivered to a facility that converts it into energy. With approximately 230,000 dogs in Toronto according to the city's website, that amounts to a lot of energy potential. The condo development in the Canary District was the first in Toronto to have these collectors installed but it seems like such an elegant solution that I'm hopeful more will start popping up around the city. 

Laughter Solves Depression

 

Location: Noise barrier along the rail corridor, viewed from Sudbury just south of Queen St. W.

Date photo taken: 11 November 2021

This mural, encapsulated within a large letter S, is one small part of the gigantic mural that stretches along the sound barrier adjacent to the railway lines running through West Queen West and Liberty Village. While not that noticeable at street level, the wall is highly visible from the adjacent condos, and Urbancorp, developers in the neighbourhood, were responsible for keeping the space from becoming an eyesore. Attempts to cover the barrier in ivy met with little success and the wall was repeatedly and extensively tagged. The eventual solution was to accept that the wall was the perfect canvas and offer it up to street artists. Large blocky letters marked out in white primer, spelling out Toronto, Parkdale, West Queen West, and so on, provided over 50 street artists with individual canvases on which to contribute their own visions. If you want to learn more, a short documentary was created detailing the project. 

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.