Miscellany Toronto Photographs: Then and Now

[Traynor]

I believe these were always separate buildings with a common wall. They seem to have distinctly separate entrances and different names above the doors.

 

[adma]

Presumably a common architect as well. (This uphill stretch of Yonge seems to have been quite the repository of midcentury almost-modern--in this case, with a Dudokian "Dutch Brick" touch; best surviving example of the sort in the nabe being Deer Park Library. And of course, the CHUM building also fit that midcentury categorization.)

 

[Mustapha]

What an interesting find, Mustapha! It had never occured to me that underneath the PoMo EFUS, signage and additions was a very interesting single moderne building, quite skillful in its handling of the grade change. Pity the renovations could not have been done more in the spirit of the original.

The 'find'. Yes, 'I must admit it took more than a moment to dawn on me. I looked at the 'Then' picture several times and nothing twigged, until I stared hard at the renovated building from the opposite corner.

 

[Mustapha]

South west corner of Keele and Finch 1953 - 2009

I wish society didn't need those Cash Money stores. I imagine farmers in that area did well when development started. I know Brampton area farmers went to the bank.

 

[Mustapha]

Taken from approximately the same location, this view looks west down Highway 7 from Woodbine Avenue (termed "Don Mills Road" in the 1964 write-up). The church seen in the distance in the 1964 shot still exists in 2010, but is largely concealed by the growth of trees in the meantime.

I used to work up here and would zip over to Buttonville on occasion when they were running flights out of there to Montreal. What fascinated me was the dip in the road on Woodbine just north of this intersection. You definitely knew you were passing through what was once a small village because a few of the original wooden one story cottages were still situated very close to the [widened] road. I wonder if they are still there? You certainly couldn't live in them I thought, but some were kept up. This would have been in the early 90s.

 

[LowPolygon]

I can't say I really like to old look to that building. It's VERY dull looking. Also, I think they did the best they could to keep the old elements in the new urban look. I actually give the new look two thumbs up!

Do you really want to go with the word “dull†in this instance? Also, forgive me if I fail to see what is particularly “urban†in the “new lookâ€. In any case, I think your thumbs are definitely pointed in the wrong direction—in fact if they are going to be pointing skyward in support of hack renos like that, I suggest we put them under (Bau)Haus arrest until they undergo the necessary retraining.

 

[Traynor]

Do you really want to go with the word “dull” in this instance? Also, forgive me if I fail to see what is particularly “urban” in the “new look”. In any case, I think your thumbs are definitely pointed in the wrong direction—in fact if they are going to be pointing skyward in support of hack renos like that, I suggest we put them under (Bau)Haus arrest until they undergo the necessary retraining.

Must you bully everyone into your idea of aesthetic? You have a right to your opinion, as do others. There is no need to always belittle others that dare to disagree with your evolved sense of style. It is caustic, unnecessary and not in the spirit of a fair, open forum. Did you have such little approval as a child, that you must now squash all others that may steal attention away from you?

In the future, just state your views with as many flourishes as you wish, but quit the berating. You come across smug, smarmy and pedantic in the most distasteful way.

 

[Mustapha]

I wonder now whether the coating on that building is removable; that is, reasonably easily removed. I know it's sprayed on. Could it be blasted off with water pressure a hundred years from now as tastes change?


February 18 addition.


Then:

Beverley and Sullivan NW corner. 1909.

Now: November 2009.

 

[Earlscourt_Lad]

I wonder now whether the coating on that building is removable; that is, reasonably easily removed. I know it's sprayed on. Could it be blasted off with water pressure a hundred years from now as tastes change?

Sadly it's usually more complex. They tend to screw styrofoam to the brick underneath, then run an appallingly thin skim coat of stucco/plaster/render over the styrofoam.

 

[thecharioteer]

Speaking of religious buildings, Mustapha, a little further north on Cecil, just east of Spadina is the church that became a synagogue and then a community centre (losing its rather bizrre tower along the way):

 

[LowPolygon]

Must you bully everyone into your idea of aesthetic? You have a right to your opinion, as do others. There is no need to always belittle others that dare to disagree with your evolved sense of style. It is caustic, unnecessary and not in the spirit of a fair, open forum. Did you have such little approval as a child, that you must now squash all others that may steal attention away from you?

In the future, just state your views with as many flourishes as you wish, but quit the berating. You come across smug, smarmy and pedantic in the most distasteful way.

oh no, not you again, with your tired old tune: "You have a right to your opinion, as do others". A deeply held principle which you conveniently forget every time you deride senior members of this forum, and and say things like "I am not the only forumer out there that has remarked negatively to his rudimentary drawings. You should read the remarks at SSP and SSC." about the work of Wyliepoon, and who said--about people who were defending the new render of N1B-- "I'm beginning to think that all those who are vehemently defending this design are, in fact, undercover Great Gulf employees". really.

anyway, i know you've been having a hard time defending yourself over there on the N1B thread--but i really wish you wouldn't act out on me...and please just stop with the high-handed and totally hypocritical school monitor routine.

 

[Aaron]

Regardless of what Traynor may have said in the past or where he might be coming from with his criticism of you, he's absolutely right.

 

[LowPolygon]

Regardless of what Traynor may have said in the past or where he might be coming from with his criticism of you, he's absolutely right.

oh no another one! piling on are we? what is this--"the revenge of the disgruntled"?

anyway, please PM your complaints to me--i really don't want Mustapha's thread highjacked with your grousing. operators are standing by.

sorry Mustapha!

 

[LowPolygon]

Presumably a common architect as well. (This uphill stretch of Yonge seems to have been quite the repository of midcentury almost-modern--in this case, with a Dudokian "Dutch Brick" touch; best surviving example of the sort in the nabe being Deer Park Library. And of course, the CHUM building also fit that midcentury categorization.)

one of the nicest midtown commercial buildings from that era, and certainly the least damaged, is the building on the NE corner of Yonge and Pleasant. all things considered its pretty intact, the Timothy's is relatively unobtrusive and it even has original windows!

 

[adma]

Not sure whether the windows there are original or "respectful"--but I agree that it's a superior retrofit to the Yonge + Woodlawn ones, in which old and new actually form a counterpoint (and even the new stuff has a neat 80s-tech stylishness).

And in some ways, I even agree with the "dull" part; all that constipated-conservative-brick-semi-modern from the Yonge-subway-construction era, from Procter & Gamble to CHUM, did have a way of making the "Lake Iroquois incline" one of the deadest stretches of Yonge back in the day. I suppose one could call the affliction "Kerr-Hall-itis".

Still, there are certain ways to either adapt to or remedy deadness; and the REMAX/Homeservice Club block is an example of how not to--tacky, clashing, and half-bakedly incoherent--even the "keeping the elements of the old" that Aladone and (from the other end) Urban Shocker refer to only underlines the half-bakedness of it all. Oh, sure, there may be an "extemporaneous urban vernacular" alibi; but on simple aesthetic grounds, when it comes to PoMo-era extreme makeovers, give me CineplexOdeon to the north anyday.

And, Traynor, I don't get why you're so jumpy, unless either you or your father worked on one of these kinds of projects and you're "feeling the burn". Well, tough bananas then. And to be fair, let's put "You have a right to your opinion, as do others" in practice re some of the other examples on this thread page. Let me call the Beverly Street Baptist Church a horrid piece of late Victorian polychromy that's better off demolished, likewise with the Church of Christ on Cecil Street and thank God! they removed that nightmareish tower already. And watch me get berated for stating my "opinion". Or else, imagine a forum where I'm not berated for stating such an opinion; imagine how insipid such a place would be...