[LowPolygon]

I kinda wish we had an ongoing Mysteries thread. It's fun trying to sleuth the location of buildings, and decode the history of our secretive town

We have such great resources available, but there's nothing in place to link them all. It seems a real shame. More than I desire a physical museum of the city of Toronto, I want an online resource that allows all Torontonians (and Canadians) to contribute their knowledge. Basically a WikiTdot.

You want to be able to assign a geographic location for each photo (a la Flickr/Google maps), have a text description (a la Wikipedia), and have the ability to tag photos (a la Facebook) with links to other entries. You could take it an extra step and include a 3D model with each, linked to a time scale, so that you could get a visual representation of how the city's mutated through time.

I wonder how one would go about getting a grant for a project like that? It's a shame our centennial, or bicentennial, isn't now...it seems like that kind of project.

that's a fantastic idea. a lot of work, but a fantastic idea...

 

[urbanboyto]

this is a great idea..exposing the palimpsest of the city!

 

[Brandon716]

Is the building in the left background here:

The same as this:

 

[JasonParis]

Don't think so. The building you are referring to is a condo (even though it looks commercial) while the building above is clearly commercial.

 

[Brandon716]

I thought it was possible it was from another angle, but go to finding the buildings here:

http://www.virtualcity.ca

Its an interesting search.

 

[freshcutgrass]

Don't think so. The building you are referring to is a condo (even though it looks commercial) while the building above is clearly commercial.

The building in question, is of course Dickinson's 111 Richmond. The pic is taken looking southeast from York St, about where the loading docks for the FSC are located. The Sheraton Centre sits where the Esso billboard is. If only automobile design were as interesting as the architecture in the first decade following the war.

Here's a recent pic (it's just visable on the right)

 

[jaborandi]

If only automobile design were as interesting as the architecture in the first decade following the war.

But it was! The late 50s saw tail fins grow and grow and grow - and all that chrome, not to mention the outrageous colour combinations. You could spot any car at a distance just by its tail lights. Each make was distinctively different from its rivals. Now they all kinda look generic and the same. Pity that.

 

[adma]

Also note that even if you can't see it in B&W photography, the brick party wall on the right side of 111 Richmond (now concealed by its neighbour, though you can still see its "edge") was green glazed--supposedly the talk of the town when it was built.

Re that left-background building in the photo: believe it or not, it's early 80s. (Then again, in the same neighbourhood, one 50s-ish layer-cake I've eternally been curious about is Scientology at Yonge + St. Mary...)

 

[freshcutgrass]

But it was! The late 50s saw tail fins grow and grow and grow - and all that chrome, not to mention the outrageous colour combinations.

Except the late 50's is not part of the first decade after the war. I find that "stylistic" decades tend to run from the middle of one to the middle of another.

 

[TKTKTK]

(Then again, in the same neighbourhood, one 50s-ish layer-cake I've eternally been curious about is Scientology at Yonge + St. Mary...)

That is probably my favourite building along Yonge Street. It seems a shame that it's locked up with Scientology

 

[freshcutgrass]

Already standing for six years when these B&W photos were taken, was Allward & Gouinlock's Mechanical Engineering building of 1947-48. This is the earliest true modernist building in Toronto I can think of. And except for the ac units, still looking very sleek. Is this another forgotten little gem in Toronto's modernist collection, or is everybody pretty hot for this one?

 

[adma]

It depends what you mean by "true modernist"--after all, it's still got that limestone conservative heaviness going, even if the style's a little "Dudok Dutch". It sure isn't the Gropius/Breuer trip...

 

[freshcutgrass]

It depends what you mean by "true modernist"--after all, it's still got that limestone conservative heaviness going

Well, I certainly wouldn't define modernism as the glass curtain wall. I think limestone (and lots of other stone) looks fanastic in modernist buildings....nothing about this building says heavy or conservative to me....utilitarian yes...but then again, that's what it was designed for.

It sure isn't the Gropius/Breuer trip...

hmmm...the Bauhaus influence seems pretty obvious if you ask me, as opposed to the far busier, Wright-influenced stuff Dudok did (although I admit the part of the building that almost looks like a clock tower might throw you in that direction).

 

[adma]

Actually, when it comes to heavier, more monumentalized "Bauhaus" expression, perhaps the best comparison point is Bruno Paul's Kathreiner-Hochhaus (1928-30) in Berlin.--complete with the clock element.

Dunno if anyone else has ever made that comparison.

 

[Urban Shocker]

The Mechanical Engineering building's unadorned wall spaces are particularly delightful - like the silences between the notes in a piece of music they make that strongly vertical window, in particular, ring out loud and clear.

The building unfolds as you walk past it, rather than relying on being seen head-on in its entirety.