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Evocative Images of Lost Toronto

Goldie said:
Yes I agree, it's somewhat puzzling isn't it LPCI?
Three possible answers:
- the old home has been completely replaced by a new semi
- it was extensively renovated after the attachment (number 93) was added
- the house numbering system has been altered
Click to expand...
I think the photographer retouched the other half out.
Some of the other houses have their house number in the stained glass, no renumbering.
It just doesn’t look renovated.
 
So I’m poking around the neighborhood of 91 Sumach, and a block west on Bright St at Queen, I look up and lo and behold the streetlight.

01F159B8-7D37-4941-8075-669EC5D65136.png
 
LPCI said:
So I’m poking around the neighborhood of 91 Sumach, and a block west on Bright St at Queen, I look up and lo and behold the streetlight.
Click to expand...

Definitely not "original"--those pseudo-retro hybrids have been bouncing around the St Lawrence-to-Corktown zone for ages now.,,
 
I took them to be “evocative”, not original. I wish I could explore TO for real, and not by Google Earth. I haven’t lived in TO for 47 years.
 
Goldie said:
Yes I agree, it's somewhat puzzling isn't it LPCI?
Three possible answers:
- the old home has been completely replaced by a new semi
- it was extensively renovated after the attachment (number 93) was added
- the house numbering system has been altered
Click to expand...
The footprint of 91 Sumach on the 1890 Goads map shows a house with a wide front – like the modern house that is now apparently divided into two. The Google-image house has old worn bricks, so it doesn’t seem to be a rebuild. On an extensive renovation that essentially keeps the character of the old house, it makes no sense to change the bay and remove the decorative brickwork. And, in the 1890 City Directory, Robert R. Armstrong is listed as a policeman living at 109 Sumach.
 
LPCI said:
So I’m poking around the neighborhood of 91 Sumach, and a block west on Bright St at Queen, I look up and lo and behold the streetlight.

View attachment 237854
Click to expand...

I'm not a fan of using this fixture-style this way.

The fixture is pseudo-Victorian, but the bracket is Art Deco, and the pole is contemporary blah.

Nothing matches.

If one is going to do that, and I like the evocative fixture itself, it needs to be on a similarly styled pole, at a height such a fixture would have been at, in earlier times.
 
Northern Light said:
I'm not a fan of using this fixture-style this way.

The fixture is pseudo-Victorian, but the bracket is Art Deco, and the pole is contemporary blah.

Nothing matches.

If one is going to do that, and I like the evocative fixture itself, it needs to be on a similarly styled pole, at a height such a fixture would have been at, in earlier times.
Click to expand...
The streetlighting is going to get far worse and far more mixed up. Toronto Hydro Street Lighting (THSL) can no longer purchase the Acorns that are so common and will not use the metal halide bulbs (the white light) because they have too much mercury. When an Acorn or a Victorian gets knocked down, it now almost always gets replaced by a Cobra or one of their few remaining Acorns. THSL are trying to create a'palate' of poles and luminaires that it will support but they (for reasons I understand) want this to be TINY compared to the number in the City's Streetscape Manual. See: https://www.toronto.ca/city-governm...delines/design-guidelines/streetscape-manual/

This shows a total of 21 “standard” City light types plus a further 36 “Site specific” ones. Plus a further 49 BIA lights! The City (and some BIAs and neighbourhood associations (including the St Lawrence BIA and Neighbourhood Assn) are trying to ensure there is more choice!
 
DSC said:
The streetlighting is going to get far worse and far more mixed up. Toronto Hydro Street Lighting (THSL) can no longer purchase the Acorns that are so common and will not use the metal halide bulbs (the white light) because they have too much mercury. When an Acorn or a Victorian gets knocked down, it now almost always gets replaced by a Cobra or one of their few remaining Acorns. THSL are trying to create a'palate' of poles and luminaires that it will support but they (for reasons I understand) want this to be TINY compared to the number in the City's Streetscape Manual. See: https://www.toronto.ca/city-governm...delines/design-guidelines/streetscape-manual/

This shows a total of 21 “standard” City light types plus a further 36 “Site specific” ones. Plus a further 49 BIA lights! The City (and some BIAs and neighbourhood associations (including the St Lawrence BIA and Neighbourhood Assn) are trying to ensure there is more choice!
Click to expand...

I have difficulty believing that THSL cannot find a manufacturer willing to replicate/emulate the acorn design. They are a large enough buyer on their own for this to a profitable run.

THSL and the City need to settle on a replacement for the current Cobra/HPS lights; that are moderately elegant, while modern, reduce light pollution with better directional light/guards and LED as the standard tech.

In respect of older parts of the City, I would like to see the acorn design retained to a great degree; but I'm not adverse to a model that's LED w/Lower light pollution levels. But it should seek to maintain the deco-era vibe and work with the current or similar deco bracket.

I think that's actually do-able.

Whether THSL does, is a different matter.

Sigh.
 
Northern Light said:
I think that's actually do-able.

Whether THSL does, is a different matter.

Sigh.
Click to expand...

THAT is the problem in a nutshell. THSL see themselves as a (reluctant) streetlighting supplier who was forced to buy a very run-down system. Their priority is adequate lighting so they are not sued. The City agrees that adequate lighting is essential but also has some degree of 'design' sensibility.
 
DSC said:
THAT is the problem in a nutshell. THSL see themselves as a (reluctant) streetlighting supplier who was forced to buy a very run-down system. Their priority is adequate lighting so they are not sued. The City agrees that adequate lighting is essential but also has some degree of 'design' sensibility.
Click to expand...

Just bring it back in-house. Shifting it from the City to a City-owned corporation was essentially an accounting trick.

It was bad form then, the decision has not since redeemed itself.

Time to un-do that mistake.
 
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