News   Dec 03, 2024
Magnum Opus: Construction Along the Length of Ontario Line 3
 2K     1 
News   Dec 03, 2024
17 Storeys Proposed on Bathurst Near Forest Hill Line 5 Station
 1.1K     7 
News   Dec 03, 2024
Mississauga's High Point Passes to Exchange District Condos
 1.1K     1 

Evocative Images of Lost Toronto

Waterfront 1944, during wartime construction of minesweepers (shipyard at the foot of Spadina).
Now the site of the "Toronto Music Garden"

Toronto shipyard 1944 minesweepers under construction.jpg
 

Attachments

  • Toronto shipyard 1944 minesweepers under construction.jpg
    Toronto shipyard 1944 minesweepers under construction.jpg
    219 KB · Views: 577
Toronto 1884 N/E view from roof of Mail Bldg. at King-Bay.
Are the cigar factory and temperance hotel on the site that's now occupied by the (once-named) Trump Tower?

Toronto 1884 N:E view from roof of Mail Bldg. King-Bay .jpg
 

Attachments

  • Toronto 1884 N:E view from roof of Mail Bldg. King-Bay .jpg
    Toronto 1884 N:E view from roof of Mail Bldg. King-Bay .jpg
    209.7 KB · Views: 571
pman said:
How sad that a beautiful beaux arts building was torn down to make way for the identikit midcentury mediocrity that survives to this day.
Click to expand...

IMHO, I don't think there is anything mediocre about Shore & Moffat's William Lyon Mackenzie Building, at least as it was when the feds owned it. I'm still fond of the building, despite the loss of the open courtyard and the other 2000-ish renos.

But, yes, I agree that William Lyon Mackenzie Building could have been built elsewhere, it never served as a decent view terminus for Toronto Street, and the General Post office building ought to have been saved.
 
thecharioteer said:
The "new" Post Office on Adelaide Street under construction in 1873. One can see right through the ground floor. Notman & Fraser, in the TPL:

View attachment 123544
Click to expand...

If I recall correctly, the original architectural rendering is lurking in the special collections at the reference library. It showed a pale golden limestone with a daring lilac coloured roof (unless my memory is playing wishful thinking on me)
 
Skeezix said:
IMHO, I don't think there is anything mediocre about Shore & Moffat's William Lyon Mackenzie Building, at least as it was when the feds owned it. I'm still fond of the building, despite the loss of the open courtyard and the other 2000-ish renos.

But, yes, I agree that William Lyon Mackenzie Building could have been built elsewhere, it never served as a decent view terminus for Toronto Street, and the General Post office building ought to have been saved.
Click to expand...

It’s all about timing. The PO could have been integrated into the WLM Building block with very little loss of GFA. It was the Modernist mentality of the era that viewed the compositional purity of the Shore & Moffatt design as more important than the retention of an old building whose design attributes would not be appreciated until the 1980’s. Similar to the demolition of the deco Bank of Montreal at King & Bay for the podium of FCP in the mid-70’s, which while it resulted in a loss of GFA (and revenue), still had to go in the name of the Edward Durrell Stone vision for the corner.
 
thecharioteer said:
It’s all about timing. The PO could have been integrated into the WLM Building block with very little loss of GFA. It was the Modernist mentality of the era that viewed the compositional purity of the Shore & Moffatt design as more important than the retention of an old building whose design attributes would not be appreciated until the 1980’s. Similar to the demolition of the deco Bank of Montreal at King & Bay for the podium of FCP in the mid-70’s, which while it resulted in a loss of GFA (and revenue), still had to go in the name of the Edward Durrell Stone vision for the corner.
Click to expand...

In this case, never mind 80s. I'd say the case for Langley's PO was made with the publication of Toronto: No Mean City in 1963.
 
thecharioteer said:
It’s all about timing. The PO could have been integrated into the WLM Building block with very little loss of GFA. It was the Modernist mentality of the era that viewed the compositional purity of the Shore & Moffatt design as more important than the retention of an old building whose design attributes would not be appreciated until the 1980’s. Similar to the demolition of the deco Bank of Montreal at King & Bay for the podium of FCP in the mid-70’s, which while it resulted in a loss of GFA (and revenue), still had to go in the name of the Edward Durrell Stone vision for the corner.
Click to expand...

I don't really agree with that. Suggesting that the General Post Office could have been integrated into the Shore & Moffatt kind of misses the point of why the William Lyon Mackenzie Building was so great.

Yeah, they didn't appreciate Victorian architecture in the 1960s (much like they didn't appreciate Shore & Moffatt modernist jewel in 2000), sure they were hellbent on the latest modernist architecture, and yes, I wish they'd saved the General Post Office and built the William Lyon Mackenzie building elsewhere. All I am saying is that the William Lyon Mackenzie building was most definitely not the "identikit midcentury mediocrity" as it was described above, and was originally an architectural jewel in its own right. Doesn't make up for the loss of the General Post Office, nor are the attitudes in the 1960s fully comprehensible today, but what a mess that would have been to have had the Post Office integrated into the new office building. If you are talking fantasy scenarios, much much prefer they have not ruined the William Lyon Mackenzie building and just put it somewhere else, and then left the General Post Office alone.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DSC
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top