Toronto Nathan Phillips Square + Spirit Garden | ?m | ?s | City of Toronto

[freshcutgrass]

It's iconic and artistic already

This is why we are in trouble.

Folks.

It's not like you can't take an existing idea and use it as art successfully....the way Toronto's own General Idea did with Robert Indiana (oddly enough also using 3D letters), but this just isn't cool. The fact that Norm Kelly thinks it is should be your first clue. The fact that people don't look cool wearing a hoodie certainly doesn't stop large quantities of them from thinking it does, now does it? (sorry....had to add that just to piss Tewder off).

 

[Torontovibe]

It's not about being cool. It's about creating landmarks that can be marketed around the world. (at almost no cost) Tourism is an important part of the economy but more than that, it helps many Torontonians identify with their city. Yeah, it's rather superficial, like the Hollywood sign but it serves a purpose.

 

[freshcutgrass]

 

[freshcutgrass]

It's not about being cool. It's about creating landmarks that can be marketed around the world. (at almost no cost) Tourism is an important part of the economy but more than that, it helps many Torontonians identify with their city. Yeah, it's rather superficial, like the Hollywood sign but it serves a purpose.

But it isn't a landmark. It's in NPS. We could put a giant replica of my left testicle in NPS, and people would take selfies with it (hmmm...actually that doesn't sound like such a bad idea). It's soooooooo lame and hardly the giant global marketing success people seem to be implying it is. Rob Ford was the last thing that got attention for the city, and hardly in a good way.

The last good idea Toronto had of that nature, was the original selfie ...Speaker's Corner.

 

[Tewder]

The "Toronto sign" has overstayed its welcome. Keeping it in NPS personifies all that is wrong with its so-called revitalization. It's the public realm equivalent of a hoodie...it might be popular, but it doesn't make it any less embarrassingly unimaginative.

The last good idea Toronto had of that nature, was the original selfie ...Speaker's Corner.

I hate to break it to you but Speakers' Corner wasn't an original idea either.

The Toronto brand is on the rise and we know it. In this sense the Toronto sign spells out - literally - a coming of age for this generation in this city. We no longer need the false imprimatur of foreign, bourgeois art to signify we've 'arrived'. We just have to be. It's a nice message in NPS of all places.

 

[NBGtect]

Toronto's brand is on the rise. I encourage people to check out the Spacing store on Richmond St W to see all the Toronto and neighbourhood products. We have a YYZ pillow in our place lol. Only a short time ago people wouldn't have considered using Toronto-branded items as decor. Things have changed rather quickly. So yes, it is cool and it is here to stay.

 

[freshcutgrass]

The Toronto brand is on the rise and we know it.

Rob Ford, Drake and the TORONTO sign. Our standards have obviously dropped, not risen. The fact that you are heralding that lame sign as the most brilliant marketing ploy in Toronto's history is proof of how low your standards are.

There are plenty of things to be optimistic about...that sign just isn't one of them. It's a leftover prop of what was a poorly marketed Pan Am Games. It doesn't have the municipal marketing power of say...an I heart NY slogan.

 

[Gphorce]

I'm on record voicing my full support of the sign. I love the light it adds to the square at night, and the large font size allows people to physically interact with it up close. I wish I were rebuilt with sturdier materials, but I can't get over how much I love seeing it every time I walk past.

It's about time people have something else other than the CN tower to mark our city. Sure City Hall was incredible when it opened, but that was over 50 years ago, and it doesn't really pack the aesthetic punch that it once did. I still like it, but I don't take pride in it the way I take pride in Old City Hall.

The Toronto sign doesn't need to be an architectural gem, or a high-concept design piece to stand out to people. Design and tastes are subjective, so for some the Archer is the defining piece in NPS, and for others it's just a piece of metal taking up space (no offense intended, I like it, but I don't consider it iconic in my mind). The sign does exactly what NBGtect states. It shows people that they've arrived. 'You are now in Toronto.'

The modern world has blurred the digital and physical landscape for many, as most recognize landmarks through pictures long before they ever visit them in person. The CN Tower tells people where they are once they see it, and that effect isn't diminished, but the Toronto sign tells people that they have reached ground zero. You're here, welcome to our city. We hope you like it as much as we do.

 

[vini007]

the city Hall can waste money on other things but not getting rid of that old falling apart concrete slabs and walls..under pass..

 

[Tewder]

Rob Ford, Drake and the TORONTO sign. Our standards have obviously dropped, not risen.

The sublime and the ridiculous. Relax, it's all on offer in a great city like Toronto!

... and more to the point, it all represents authentic, local cultural output, not a needy outsourcing of culture that somebody with an Idiot's Guide to Art insists is better for us.

The fact that you are heralding that lame sign as the most brilliant marketing ploy in Toronto's history is proof of how low your standards are.

LOL, you're just having a tough time accepting that your sensibility is no longer culturally relevant. Hugz!

It doesn't have the municipal marketing power of say...an I heart NY slogan.

... actually it does.

 

[freshcutgrass]

it all represents authentic, local cultural output, not a needy outsourcing of culture that somebody with an Idiot's Guide to Art insists is better for us.

It's one thing to apologize for the tawdry, but to also show contempt for refinement is the very definition of boorish.

And it has nothing to do with homegrown vs import (we should always embrace the best of both)....there's plenty of good stuff here. This just aint it.

As for Toronto on the rise, I will quote a big Toronto fan, Richard Florida from an interview posted right here at UT, today.

"I came here naively believing as an American that Toronto was a bastion of progressive and forward-looking values," Florida begins, recounting his arrival in Canada almost a decade ago. "Then, in 2010, the city of David Miller and Jane Jacobs was taken over by Ford nation," disrupting the narrative of a progressive and enthusiastically re-urbanizing city. "It was a kick in the head, and a kick in the nuts."

 

[Canadian Chocho]

Freshcutgrass, just admit it doesn't fit your tastes and that's why you don't like it. I don't understand why you'd bother arguing its lame and not artistically refined enough when the point is that it manages to get people to take photos that thy share and disseminate into social media with/in/of the city (both literally an figuratively). I don't think anyone is arguing that the sign is a sculptural masterpiece. Personally I found the song and video you posted to be lame but I appreciate the fact that people dedicated time an effort into making a song about the city and I'm not about to tell you that you shouldn't enjoy it.

 

[salsa]

It's been said before and it needs to be said again:

Time to move on.

42

 

[Urban View]

Until the Cavalcade of Lights, I didn't realize the elevated platform surrounding the square were reinforced enough to handle a substantial load.

 

[freshcutgrass]

Freshcutgrass, just admit it doesn't fit your tastes and that's why you don't like it.

Is there some other reason why I wouldn't like it???????

I don't understand why you'd bother arguing its lame and not artistically refined enough when the point is that it manages to get people to take photos that thy share and disseminate into social media with/in/of the city (both literally an figuratively).

People are not coming to NPS more often, nor are they taking more pictures because of this sign. The sign just happens to be there and an obvious thing to take a picture of. The sign has no intrinsic value...people are there because it's a major civic square, and it's where people have flocked to long before, and long after this sign has made its brief, meaningless and redundant appearance.

I don't hate it...I guess it made a bit of sense when Toronto was hosting an international event when NPS was the HQ for PANAMANIA, but now that it's over, it serves no point. You aren't going to feel like you are all of a sudden experiencing some kind of Toronto zeitgeist, because you are next to sign that says TORONTO. If this was what the tourists are going gaga over, then it just means we haven't done a very good job at impressing them.

Personally I found the song and video you posted to be lame

I don't think anyone was expecting this crowd to appreciate local talent such as Murray McLauchlan
and Barney Bentall jamming at a local club, but the point wasn't whether it was a great tune, but that The Archer wasn't/isn't as unimportant as some people here seem to claim.