Mirror image: Windows in the Royal Ontario Museum’s Michael Lee-Chin Crystal (above) reflect an image of the Museum House on Bloor condo tower under construction across Bloor Street. Below is a view of the Museum House condos building from Philosopher’s Walk to its south, on the University of Toronto campus. Both photos were taken on April 1, 2011.
Catching up to its cousins: The Burano condo tower, left, is slowly but surely closing in on the height of the two Murano condo towers on the opposite side of Bay Street. When topped off at 48 floors, Burano will be the tallest of the bunch — Murano North is 35 storeys, while Murano South is 45. All three condo towers, seen here on March 25 2011, are projects of Lanterra Developments.
Southern exposure: Rows of balconies along the south side of the condo tower at 500 Sherbourne Street, seen here on February 28 2011. Called The 500 Condos & Lofts, the 34-storey building was designed by Paul Northgrave of Northgrave Architect Inc. in Toronto.
Snow day: The calendar says it’s spring, but Toronto is getting another blast of winter with 5 cm. of snow falling throughout the day today. This photo, looking north from Queen Street on another snowy day earlier this winter, shows three major building sites on Bay Street. The orange construction crane is building the Sick Kids Research & Learning Tower at Elm Street; the crane in the middle of the photo is atop the Burano condo tower between Grenville and Grosvenor Streets; and the crane at the rear of the picture, on the east side of Bay, is atop the Four Seasons Toronto hotel and condo tower.
Snow motion: This photo was taken on the same day as the one above, a few blocks further north up Bay Street. It shows the Motion on Bay highrise apartment building construction site at left, along with the Sick Kids and Burano towers to the north.
Ice view: This was a view this afternoon of the Sick Kids Research and Learning Tower construction site from an ice-covered webcam high above the building.
Snowy Aura: Although it’s not on Bay Street itself, Aura condos is part of the College Park complex that occupies the entire eastern block of Bay between Gerrard and College Streets. This is a webcam view of the Aura condos construction site earlier this afternoon.
Crossing paths: The boom of one construction crane appears to be resting atop another in this photo from February 18. The two cranes are building the new ICE Condos and Infinity3 condo towers in the former railway lands area south of the Financial District. The tower in the background is an old timer: it’s one of the Harbour Square condo buildings constructed in Harbourfront, at the foot of Bay Street, way back in the late 1970s.
Rooms at the Ritz: Toronto’s newest five-star hotel, the Ritz-Carlton, opened to guests last month. The hotel boasts 267 luxurious rooms on the bottom 20 floors of the 53-storey skyscraper. The tower’s upper floors, seen above, are private condo suites still under construction. Below is a closer view of the southwest corner condo suite with canary-yellow walls.
Bay Street condo and apartment towers at sunset March 8 2011
Brickbats for the Brick Man: The Brick Man sculpture that stands sentry outside the Jarvis Street entrance to the Vü condominium complex seems to take a lot of flak.
When I was shooting Brick Man’s picture last November, several passersby were quick to comment on how “hideous,” “awful,” and “ridiculous” they thought he looks. And when I was standing next to Brick Man one evening in January, chatting with a friend who lives in Vü, a young woman heading into the condominium said: “Isn’t that the ugliest thing you’ve ever seen?” Her companion thought the sculpture was “a joke.”
From certain angles and in certain lighting I think he looks cool, but other times he does look cheap, tacky, or toy-like, and simply doesn’t suit the spot where he has been installed. Perhaps he’s not appreciated because he’s been put in the wrong place (though I’m not sure just where, on the Vü property, he might look better).
Clearly, he’s one of those public art installations that people will either love or absolutely hate. Like the Eldon Garnet wildlife sculptures at James Cooper Mansion on Sherbourne Street, which have drawn sharp criticism here in the blog since I posted their pics a month ago.
Either way, Brick Man looks like he’s a strong, thick-skinned guy, and I’m sure he can handle anything that gets thrown his way.
Red window frames accent a wall of blue waves at 77 Harbour Square
A condo ad detracts from views of Shayne Dark’s bold red “Double Vision” sculpture outside X Condos
An affront to art?: I remember the first time I saw the Shayne Dark sculpture, “Double Vision,” outside the new X Condominium tower. The slender, long lipstick-red tubes rising from the sidewalk at the southeast corner of the tall coal-black condo tower caught my attention from more than two blocks away, so I hurried up Jarvis Street to take a closer look.
Because of its striking visual impact next to the building, Dark’s sculpture, which reminds me of bamboo shoots, instantly became one of my favourite pieces of public condominium art. But it didn’t take long before the eye-catching art unwittingly became a tacky marketing tool for X Condo’s sister project, X2 Condos. In next to no time, a garish black, white and hot pink billboard advertising the X2 condo sales centre was plunked in front of “Double Vision.”
Not only does the sign spoil views of the stunning sculpture, it also cheapens the artwork — which I’m certain cost the condo developer a pretty pile of cash. And speaking of cash, I’m willing to bet lawyers could make a good case demonstrating that the sign violates Dark’s moral rights … after all, remember what happened when the Eaton Centre tied Christmas bows on artist Michael Snow’s Canada geese sculpture, “Flight Stop?”
Memo to the clever marketing people at X2: Time to find a more appropriate place to park the sales office sign; perhaps on the south side of Charles Street, away from the sculpture. Please show some respect and class for the art, folks.
For readers who haven’t seen it, here is a photo from last August showing “Double Vision” when it wasn’t obscured by advertising. A pink sandwich board sign for the X2 sales office looks much less obnoxious placed away from the artwork.
This is what you see now when you view “Double Vision” from the south
Design details: The various design patterns in the glass walls and balconies of the Maple Leaf Square south condo tower become evident in this photograph of the 50-storey skyscraper, shot from the east sidewalk on York Street. A project of Lanterra Developments, Maple Leaf Square was designed by Page + Steele IBI Group Architects and KPMB Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects.
Five towers: From left are the CN Tower, Maple Leaf Square south tower, a construction crane atop the PWC 18 York office tower, Maple Leaf Square north tower, and the Telus office tower. Photo was taken from a parking lot next to the Toronto Harbour Commission building on Harbour Street on February 18 2011.
High road: The Maple Leaf Square towers viewed from a parking lot located off Harbour Street beneath the Gardiner Expressway.
High life: The two Maple Leaf Square condo towers viewed from Harbour Street. The towers rise from a nine-story podium housing a Le German boutique hotel, offices, shops, restaurants, a grocery store and a bank. The South Tower, left, stands 50 floors, while the North Tower soars a little higher: 54 storeys.
Above the awning: Another view of the Maple Leaf Square south condo tower, this time from beneath the unique artistic awning that extends above the sidewalk along the east side of York Street. More pics of the entire complex — from both indoors and out — can be viewed in the Maple Leaf Square album on the Photo Sets page of the blog.
Joined at the hip?: When viewed from certain angles to their north, the RBC Centre (left), Simcoe Place (center) and Ritz-Carlton Toronto towers (right) appear to form one huge H-shaped mass of glass and steel. When seen from some spots to their south (below), the Ritz-Carlton, Simcoe Place, RBC Centre and the Intercontinental Toronto Centre on Front Street West (foreground) all look fused together, too.
Towers rising: This view of Toronto’s Financial District — seen yesterday from the intersection of Adelaide Street West and Widmer Street — will change considerably in the next few months as the Living Shangri-La Toronto hotel and condo tower and Trump International Hotel + Tower Toronto climb taller.
This particular block of Adelaide will look drastically different in a couple of years, too. The 43-storey Cinema Tower condo is under construction behind the red hoarding at right; another 43-storey condo, the Pinnacle on Adelaide, will be going up beside it, where the white billboard stands.
Meanwhile, a developer is seeking city approval to build a 37-storey condo and office tower where the building with the yellow awnings is situated at left. That’s currently the location of the Entertainment District’s ever-popular Alice Fazooli’s Italian Grill. Mamma Mia! Where’s poor Alice going to go?
Two towers in one: The CN Tower reflects in the west wall of the RBC Centre office building on Wellington Street West, in these photos taken this afternoon.
Looking west on Bloor Street from Avenue Road on February 12 2011
New kids on the block: The north side of Bloor Street from Avenue Road to Bedford Road keeps filling in and growing taller. Museum House condos is close to topping off and has nearly all its windows installed, while the One Bedford condo tower to its west is partly occupied and almost finished construction. Yet another condo tower — Exhibit Residences — is poised to join them. Their residents will only have to walk across the street to visit the Royal Ontario Museum (left) and the Royal Conservatory of Music, while the Yorkville neighbourhood is just around the corner.