This week's Throwback Thursday turns the clocks back almost seven years, for an east-facing view over the Downtown Toronto rail corridor captured from Spadina Avenue. We travel back to Summer, 2013 when the South Core skyline was getting a couple of major additions with the rise of the second phase of the Southcore Financial Centre & Delta Toronto complex at Simcoe and Bremner. Following on an initial 26-storey office tower, the complex's 47-storey hotel tower and 30-storey second office tower were both approaching their final heights of 160 and 135 metres with curtainwall glazing fast enclosing the levels below. While you can only see a bit of the north edge of the office tower, the Delta Hotel tower is prominent in the image below.

Looking east along the rail corridor from Spadina, 2013, image by Jack Landau

The same view captured in late Spring, 2020, shows the completed Southcore Financial Centre & Delta Toronto complex, along with some other big changes. Most prominent at the centre-left of the frame is the newly-topped out south tower of CIBC SQUARE, standing 49 storeys at a height of 237.7 metres, with more glazing still to come. To the right of the image, the Renaissance Hotel—originally the SkyDome Hotel—has been re-branded to a Marriott, while a sliver of the new 32-storey 16 York office tower is visible above the iconic stadium, and finally off in the distance behind the trees at the lower left of the 2020 image, a sliver of the 44-storey Monde condominium tower can be seen.

Looking east along the rail corridor from Spadina, 2020, image by Forum contributor Red Mars

An animated GIF helps to illustrate just how much has changed in a few short years.

We will return next week with another look at the changing face of Toronto. In the meantime, you can submit your own Throwback Thursday comparisons in our dedicated Forum thread for your chance to be featured in next week's edition.

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