And the top of the Plaza II in the background. Funny how so much was built at once in that neighbourhood... and then very little for the next 35 years.

That's just horrific. Just as well it was put out of its misery.

Looks like city staff have been cowed by a moneyed and well-organized NIMBY campaign. Yes, South Rosedale has a certain diversity in its built form, but it's a stretch to say that the neighbourhood's heritage will be damaged by the demolition of a few ranch-style houses.

I'm old enough to remember the late eighties and early nineties, when the headlines were full of stories about the tightness of the residential rental market. At that time, very little had been built in 20 years. Rent controls were killed for good reason.

Great view of what replaced Ontario's third parliament building.

Hoarding up. Demolition looks imminent.

It would be funny if it weren't so tragic: You cover your building with styrofoam and then you're shocked when it goes up like a Roman torch.

Wouldn't surprise me if there was some kind of flammable insulating material beneath that zinc sheathing (a la EIFS).

Looks like a cheap and disrespectful reclad contributed to today's London tower tragedy: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3795199/grenfell-tower-apartment-building-london-fire-residents-towel-door-stay-fire-trap-third-world/

An abomination. Two crap EIFS styles in one structure. On the brown side, they would have done better to just nail raw styrofoam onto their siding.

Easy to see why Vitrolite fell out of favour. Most of the storefronts in this series feature cracked or broken panels.

I like how you can see what looks like complete wilderness in the background.

Everything's fine.

This morning.

My mother is long gone, rest her soul, but her matchbook collection is still around. A selection of her Yorkville and area favourites from the 70s and 80s:

There's room to build something... a handsome building was razed AFTER the HBC tower went up. The crappy RBC pavilion came later.

It might not be about humility, but it just might be about love for their dead son. Why not take them at their word? Never stopped them in the past.

I did a "then and now" last spring that touches on this site: http://urbantoronto.ca/forum/threads/miscellany-toronto-photographs-then-and-now.6947/page-841#post-999571

The last house on Bloor... between Parliament and Avenue. Thought I'd get in on the Then and Now action and throw up a couple of scenes at Bloor East and Sherbourne. It's easy to forget that Bloor used to be a tree-lined residential street before the Viaduct opened in 1918 and was widened...

One of the oldest (and most egregious) parking lots in the city. So happy to finally see it go.