Commerce Court!

[DarnDirtyApe]

I was inspired by an older post about Commerce Court to go take a few photos during my lunch break. It was perfect weather, really sunny with clear blue skies. I think my favourite is the second last photo - it really is amazing to stand at the bottom of CC West and look straight up. The patterning of the windows gives a really cool effect in the sunlight.

Here is the link to the Flickr set if you're interested: Here

 

[ganjavih]

Love it. Great square, great architecture, great finishing touches.

 

[boons97]

Notice in the first pics how all the ledges have had pieces added or cut off to prevent skateboarders from using them. Although its a small thing, I think that, to a degree, this compromises the integrity of the square. This same thing has been done to Mies' ledges at the TD Centre and, in a terrible way, to the ledges at the corner of St. George and Harbord. Its a pain in the ass, quite literally, to sit on a ledge and have to deal not only with the wax put on by skateboarders but pieces of metal or marble sticking up.
Anyway, small rant, but I find it annoying

 

[fouratjajou]

My favorite of the older buildings in T_O_ . Not just because of its size, but the decor all around it. Really like the bearded faces near the top, I was like "what the hell !!!" when i first noticed them a few years back, sort of like in a stuper, lol.

 

[DarnDirtyApe]

You're right, I never noticed those faces! That's crazy. I think I have a better picture of the top.

Really Large Version

 

[Observer Walt]

Darn Dirty Ape, these are good pics. Thanks for posting them. Years ago I worked in Commerce Court North (the old original building), and it took me a long time to notice those faces!

More than once I have wondered about the sculpture of the two businessmen. What does it depict? Is it just two portly men who have bumped into each other because they weren't watching where they were going? Or is there more to it, a backstory that we don't know? Is it too fanciful to imagine two sumo wrestlers trying to bump each other out of the circle? (Good art is supposed to make you ask questions :\ )

 

[ganjavih]

Those two portly men remind me of those weird dudes in that Tool video.

 

[adma]

Then there are those more indigenous examples of two portly men...

 

[limber88]

More than once I have wondered about the sculpture of the two businessmen. What does it depict?

The sculpture is by William McElcheran, renowned Canadian artist and OCAD graduate. The sculpture is called 'Businessmen Talking'. McElcheran did a lot of these 'businessman sculptures'; there are several others to be found around toronto.

On a tangential note, there was an interesting article printed in the Globe last year about how developers use public art to win zoning concessions. i.e. a statue may get a developer more height, density, etc.

 

[building babel]

If ever there was an example of how less-is-more can become more-is-less, the outdoor public spaces of Commerce Court are it.

 

[Long Island Mike]

DDA: Good CIBC pix! I like the abstract pix of the 70s era tower building as well as the older Commerce Court building-from the 30s was it? I recall reading that this building was once the tallest in the entire British Commonwealth of Nations! Today it is dwarfed by Toronto's newer downtown skyscrapers. LI MIKE