It would be nice if they restored the row houses to the west of this project as well. Maybe even incorporate them into the hotel some how.

Solaris, I didn't mean to say that retail jobs were in any way equal to industrial jobs in pay, or in their contribution to our society. In fact I completely agree with your synopsis, that retail jobs are lower paying, and lower contributors to the GDP. My point was we are losing industrial...

Big Box store retail jobs are the industrial jobs of these times. It's interesting to see the change in Scarborough, from strip malls, factories and bungalows. To condos, town homes, and big boxes. The Golden Mile is another example of change. My understanding is that it was originally...

I wonder if that's the same tree on the right? Probably not... Trees grow faster than that, non?

Thank you for the background. I wonder if the city new the police would be using the buildings as holding cells during the G20, and that's why they didn't demolish them. I'm also interested in how much we the tax payers paid Rose and Smart Centres for the use of their property.

Does anyone know who owns the land where the protester type baddies are being held? It was the Toronto Film Studios, then it was supposed to be a Walmart I believe.

I actually like the scale and height of the new "Derby", and the details of this kind architecture continue to grow on me. But naming a building after the building its replacing, although well intentioned, seems in poor taste to me. Imagine they named that Shoppers building up at Yonge and...

A 3.5 million dollar renewal sounds pretty elaborate. I can't wait to see what the plans are. As a side note, the PoMo loft building thing that replaced the Derby is dubbed "the Derby" as well. I don't hate the new building, but I don't love the dub. I think that if you tear down a piece of...

True enough that this photo is dismal for lots of reasons. The washed out colour, the dreary day. What I think Adma was referring to is not just the lack of over head wires, but human street clutter in general, parking metres, sandwich boards, bike locks... All this kind of stuff makes a street...

Looks like those buildings beside the Derby have been boarded up for a long time.

Ah, portholes. Very modern I guess, get rid of everything with any frilly detail, and all things that interfere with clean lines. A bit stark for my taste. I'm not familiar with "wedge" lights. Were they attached to the side of buildings like the porthole style?

So culture can exist without pretty lamps and potted plants? Which restaurant would that have been? Is it in the above shot?

There doesn't appear to be any street lamps or sidewalks in the then photo. Perhaps those are lights tacked to the side of every forth building. The city didn't put much effort into street beautification back then eh?

A very nice man named Alex worked in that parking booth. I would park there when I had work in the area over the past 15 years or so. He would always give me high fives as I passed his check point. I hope he got a new gig.

Reuse of marble. I'm not sure if this has been discussed, if so I apologize. Does anyone know what they are doing with the marble they're taking down? I thought it might be fun to lay it down, and make a path, around the architecture graveyard down in the Guild.