Miscellany Toronto Photographs: Then and Now

[Mustapha]

A+
The Charioteer mentions Yonge & Finch, and Mustapha provides a then and now.

That was quick...

I second the A+

We try to keep it topical, thanks.


September 29 addition.



Then: Looking WNW along Wellington from Bay.

Now: August 2009.

 

[thecharioteer]

Then: Looking WNW along Wellington from Bay.

Now: August 2009.

As much as I love the TD Centre, I'm reminded by these photos and the ones of Millstone Lane of Robert Venturi's paraphrase of Mies' famous maxim "Less is more" to say "Less is a bore".

In 1966, Venturi wrote the book Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture in which he stated:

"I like elements that are hybrid rather than 'pure, ' compromising rather than 'clean, ' distorted, rather than 'straightforward, ' ambiguous, rather than 'articulated, ' perverse as well as impersonal, boring as well as 'interesting,' …I am for messy vitality over obvious unity. I am for richness of meaning rather than clarity of meaning; for the implicit meaning as well as the explicit function."

Does anyone still read Venturi today, or has he been relegated to the dustbin of POMO history?

 

[Urban Shocker]

I think people turn to him for witty and amusing critiques of the works of other architects, and less so to admire the buildings he designed.

 

[thecharioteer]

I think people turn to him for witty and amusing critiques of the works of other architects, and less so to admire the buildings he designed.

I agree, but he did win the Pritzker in 1991, and his Sainsbury Wing addition to London's National Gallery (1991) is not without some interest (note that Madame X is visiting in this pic).

 

[Goldie]

Iola Cinema

I'd dearly love to have an old photo of this building when it was the Iola Cinema (c.1946).
I'd even pay $ for such a photo.

 

[thecharioteer]

I'd dearly love to have an old photo of this building when it was the Iola Cinema (c.1946).
I'd even pay $ for such a photo.

Can't help you, Goldie, but here's a pic of the old Odeon Danforth, from the Ontario Archives, on the same block at 635 Danforth from the late 40's (the film showing was released in 1947). Looking at Google Earth it looks like the building is still standing:

 

[Mustapha]

September 30 addition.



Then. 5126 Yonge, Gladys Allison branch, North York Library. Posing for its civic photograph in 1959, I suppose, the year it was built. Demolished in 1985.

Now: August 2009. My perspective may be off a few tens of feet, north or south. I don't remember the old structure, never used it as a student.

 

[thecharioteer]

September 30 addition.



Then. 5126 Yonge, Gladys Allison branch, North York Library. Posing for its civic photograph in 1959, I suppose, the year it was built. Demolished in 1985.

Now: August 2009. My perspective may be off a few tens of feet, north or south. I don't remember the old structure, never used it as a student.

The old North York Library represented an interesting moment in Toronto civic architecture, reminiscent of the Forest Hill branch designed in 1962 by Marani, Morris and Allen (Royal Bank Building 20 King W.; Better Living Centre, CNE). Clearly influenced by the neo-classical side of Mies, these buildings represented the best of "Modernism" with their light-filled reading rooms and fulfilled their functions admirably.

 

[Uncle Teddy]

Big changes for North York.

 

[Edward Skira]

Thanks for the NYCC library shot. I spent a lot of time there in the 70's and 80's.

 

[adma]

Forest Hill's a little too crypto-conservative for "Miesian classical" purity a la North York IMO. Also note Harold Town's frieze at North York; he salvaged/recreated its "runes" for the atrium of its replacement...

 

[Goldie]

old time cinemas

Can't help you, Goldie, but here's a pic of the old Odeon Danforth, from the Ontario Archives, on the same block at 635 Danforth

Many thanks for the Odeon photo.
I know that cinema well.
When a youngster, I went to many cinemas in that neighbourhood - Palace, Cameo, Odeon, Iola, Granada, Century.

My fondest memory is of the Iola because that's where I first saw a movie.
The Saturday serials were great!
I remember the Captain Marvel and Green Hornet serials -- that was in the 40s!

 

[thecharioteer]

Many thanks for the Odeon photo.
I know that cinema well.
When a youngster, I went to many cinemas in that neighbourhood - Palace, Cameo, Odeon, Iola, Granada, Century.

My fondest memory is of the Iola because that's where I first saw a movie.
The Saturday serials were great!
I remember the Captain Marvel and Green Hornet serials -- that was in the 40s!

Here's an interior of the Odeon Danforth:

The Century Theatre 1947 (Ontario Archives); now the Music Hall; built in 1919, 1800 seats:

The Palace Theatre 1947 (Ontario Archives); 664 Danforth, opened in 1924, closed in 1987, 1575 seats:

And while we're at it, one of the theatres from my childhood, the Alhambra on Bloor, just west of Bathurst (now the Swiss Chalet):

 

[Mustapha]

To me, these old theatre photographs suggest to my minds eye for a moment that I am in that place again. Watching serials, like goldie - although serials were on their way out in my childhood of the early 60s, as TV supplanted them. They were still recycling Green Hornet at the Coronet in the early 60s.





October 1 addition. Is it really October already?


Then: North side of Eglinton E, #76, midblock between Yonge and Redpath. October 13, 1930. About 3pm judging from the way the shadows are falling.

Now: August 2009.

 

[Conrad Black]

Looks like it was a school or something in the then photo and not a Bell switching centre.