So this weekend was hectic for me! I adventured around Toronto trying to do as much as I could during the Doors Open event here in the downtown. With my map in hand, and a list of places I wanted to go, I was ready to become a tourist for the weekend. If anyone is reading this from outside of Toronto, I highly recommend visiting during this weekend next year because you get to see and do so much in the city!!
I started my weekend off at City Hall. Now, the Toronto city hall is located at Nathan Philips Square, on Queen Street W. If you're coming on the Yonge/University subway line, get off at Osgoode Station, then you'll be a hop jump and possibly a skip away from city hall! I suppose you can call this one of the "Squares" that Toronto has. It's starting to become a more urban area for Torontonians to visit, though there are other nice places in the city to hang out as well. This is definitely a nice central location for tourists. Inside you'll find lots of information on what there is to do, etc.
I decided to take a tour with the Toronto Society of Architects. They offer tours all summer long, and I highly suggest you go on one if you'd like to get to know some of the buildings here in the city. They cost $10 and are led by volunteers who are graduates of Architecture, etc. Basically people who know there stuff. Today they had mini tours for free and I went on the short version of their "Toronto's Culture and Renaissance: Buildings of the 21st Century" tour. So let me take you through the 3 buildings I saw, and some fun facts about each!
The Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts [Home of the Canadian Opera Company & National Ballet of Canada]
- Located at 145 Queen Street West [Osgoode Station is connected to this building, you can actually walk up through the building to get outside]
- Built in 2006, designed by Diamond (Architect) and Schmitt (theatre planning and design specialist).
- Every seats was tested with a 3-D computer system to make sure every seat had a perfect view (though a lady on the tour tried to debate this, so you'd have to see for yourself).
- It's a glass case around a dome in the middle. Think: egg yolk surrounded by an egg white. (I didn't make that one up).
- It has these rubber thingies underneath to protect the theatre from the vibrations that subways produces down below!
- It has these really cool blinds that are connected to a weather sensor. Therefore, when there's lots of sun, the blinds automatically come down!
Next is The Sharp Centre of Design, Ontario College of Arts and Design
-Built in 2004, designed by British Architect Will Alsop, etc.
- Located on 100 McCaul Street Toronto.
- Built like an umbrella over the original building so that it would obscure the view of the park for the apartment buildings across the street.
- Crayon like structures serve no functional purpose. They are purely for design and were made out of old pipe lines that were clean, shaped and painted.
- Fun and whimsical building.
Last building I saw, The Art Galley of Ontario (AGO)
- Built in 2008, designed by Frank Gehry.
- Located on 317 Dundas West.
- Gehry actually grew up around the corner from the AGO and used to go there as a child. What a great honour in must have been to get to design a building in his own stompin' grounds. He's known for some pretty crazy designs.
- Fun fact, because Gehry really didn't want the TTC Streetcar polls to be near the walk way part of the building, they were able to create something to that the streetcar cable would be connected to the building itself. Pretty cool.
- Has these fish skeletal feel with the wooden beams.
- Isn't a tall building, he made sure it fit in with the area and was lower with this belly type thing that comes out into the walk way.
I later headed down to the Old City Hall. A nice old building. Just what a like to see!
Have you noticed that there is suddenly a love affair with glass? Everything is class.... even the Hespeler Public Library in Cambridge is a glass box!!! Hespeler doesn't need an expensive glass box!!! But that's for another day...
Hope you enjoyed your own little tour of some Toronto buildings!! It sure made me appreciate architecture a lot more, and made me appreciate Toronto more too.
More to come in Part Two!!
Keep smilin'
Monica
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