Miscellany Toronto Photographs: Then and Now

[junctionist]

Actually, for what it is, I don't mind said office/condo mixed-use clunker (one of Minto's first projects in Toronto?)--though maybe it'd get more present-day respect if it were built a decade earlier and in dark red brick a la the Bay/Charles Towers. (Sooner or later, two-toned red granite with green trim will get its defenders again.)

Well, granite has its defenders today because it's a beautiful material. In a postmodern sense, it evokes pre-Modern architecture clad in stone, yet when polished has a sleek and contemporary look. Green trim evokes copper, a beautiful material to use in architecture. But this building wouldn't be a rallying point for the style.

 

[adma]

But this building wouldn't be a rallying point for the style.

Well, one never knows. There's a whole lot of now-appreciated (to one degree or another) 50s/60s modernism (maybe even Elgin Motors, had it survived) that once wouldn't have been considered rallying points. In any event, when it comes to 80s Bay St, I find that Minto Plaza comes off rather smarter, architecturally and urbanistically, than the crude Horizon On Bay a block to the south or the overstuffed The Liberties a block to the north--at least AFAIC, this is a place where those oft-loathed PoMo colours and materials really do work. Not that it's an architectural prize-winner; but maybe it doesn't have to be...

 

[LowPolygon]

The Esplanade at Berkeley Street.

 

[LowPolygon]

Well, one never knows. There's a whole lot of now-appreciated (to one degree or another) 50s/60s modernism (maybe even Elgin Motors, had it survived) that once wouldn't have been considered rallying points. In any event, when it comes to 80s Bay St, I find that Minto Plaza comes off rather smarter, architecturally and urbanistically, than the crude Horizon On Bay a block to the south or the overstuffed The Liberties a block to the north--at least AFAIC, this is a place where those oft-loathed PoMo colours and materials really do work. Not that it's an architectural prize-winner; but maybe it doesn't have to be...

If you’re going for the gold in the pink granite/green trim category—there’s nothing that can compete with Zeidler’s epochal 1989 Rogers Building. It may be one of those ‘so bad its good’ buildings, or it may just be good (I tend towards the latter these days), but either way it is the boldest distillation of the late pomo style in the city.

 

[Goldie]

The Esplanade at Berkeley Street.

Those structures in the background must be: a storage tank at the Gas Works (on the left) and Gooderham & Worts Distillery (centre & right).

 

[thecharioteer]

Yonge and Grenville 1912:

1916-19:

1949:

1959:

Today:

 

[adma]

If you’re going for the gold in the pink granite/green trim category—there’s nothing that can compete with Zeidler’s epochal 1989 Rogers Building. It may be one of those ‘so bad its good’ buildings, or it may just be good (I tend towards the latter these days), but either way it is the boldest distillation of the late pomo style in the city.

Yeah, but that's a show-boater. And as we all know about today's preservation/urban-environment-appreciation parameters, it ain't all about "the gold". Or if you want, the Big Hair, the Big Shoulder Pads, the Big Keytar, etc. (Maybe in the course of appreciation, we *start* there; but we do not *end* there.)

 

[adma]

Yonge and Grenville 1912:

Detractors might say: nothing has changed on Yonge;-) But interesting how 480 Yonge's humpbacked south profile has always been a landmark--and was that the original Britnells location?!?

1916-19:

Studebaker dealership on the ground floor, telegraphy/wireless school above: welcome to the 20th Century.

1949:

There was a fire there, right? And given what I can surmise about visual dating, must have been twilight for the Sweet Caporal block to the left.

1959:

That Hughes-Owens block was surely the classiest act among postwar single-story taxpayers--and with Renault, of all things, continuing the Studebaker tradition. (The classiness can still be sensed in bits amidst the present retail gunk.) But speaking of taxpayers, I'm trying to discern the visual form of the strip on the E side of Yonge N of Alexander--something which wouldn't have existed pre-1954 (the Yonge Subway swung away here), yet I don't know whether its present strange 70s incarnation is a makeover or an outright replacement of what's in this photo...

 

[Goldie]

Old Kingston Rd. at Highland Creek:

 

[wwwebster]

...and was that the original Britnells location?!?

This got me curious, so I dug around a little in the city directories at archive.org. The 1901 directory lists John Britnell Books at 230 Yonge (which was the later home of the Mason and Risch Building). The listing says that John Britnell was established in London, England in 1873, and in Toronto in 1884. Albert Britnell Books was at 248 Yonge.

The 1912 directory has John Britnell at 488 Yonge (as seen in the image provided by thecharioteer), and Albert Britnell at 263-265 Yonge.

By 1921 we have John Britnell & Son (Albert) together in the same store at 880 Yonge, on the northwest corner of Yonge & Scollard, as pictured in this 1930 image:

https://gencat4.eloquent-systems.co...esource/ser372/ss0003/s0372_ss0003_it0941.jpg

 

[thecharioteer]

This got me curious, so I dug around a little in the city directories at archive.org. The 1901 directory lists John Britnell Books at 230 Yonge (which was the later home of the Mason and Risch Building). The listing says that John Britnell was established in London, England in 1873, and in Toronto in 1884. Albert Britnell Books was at 248 Yonge.

The 1912 directory has John Britnell at 488 Yonge (as seen in the image provided by thecharioteer), and Albert Britnell at 263-265 Yonge.

By 1921 we have John Britnell & Son (Albert) together in the same store at 880 Yonge, on the northwest corner of Yonge & Scollard, as pictured in this 1930 image:

https://gencat4.eloquent-systems.co...esource/ser372/ss0003/s0372_ss0003_it0941.jpg

Good research, wwwebster. However I think they existed as two separate operations, John Britnell Art Gallery on the west side of Yonge and Britnell's Books on the east side at 765 Yonge (which opened in 1927 according to Mike Filey's Toronto Sketches 3 (1994).)

1939:

 

[Anna]

There was a fire there, right? And given what I can surmise about visual dating, must have been twilight for the Sweet Caporal block to the left.

yup. Here's the southwest corner of Yonge & Grenville 3 years later during subway construction.

 

[Anna]

p.s. here's your fire

 

[wwwebster]

...according to Mike Filey's Toronto Sketches 3 (1994)

Thanks for that reference. The 1921 directory listing:

http://www.archive.org/stream/torontodirec192100midiuoft#page/603/mode/1up

…left me with the impression that Albert was John’s son, but Mr. Filey informs me (via Google Books) that they were in fact brothers.

And it seems from that 1939 image that the gallery didn’t move far – from 880 to 876.

 

[Goldie]

A couple of 'oldies' from my files: