J
JoeyCuppa
Guest
Beautiful site, Bob.
I'll be looking at it for days... and yeah, I've bookmarked it.
I'll be looking at it for days... and yeah, I've bookmarked it.
|
|
|
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
B
building babel
Guest
Archivistower:
The more I look through these listings, the more I am astonished by your achievement in photographing all these buildings and assembling this catalogue. It is a true labour of love.
But how on earth will you keep it up to date?
This morning, for instance, I looked around the Pape/Danforth Library that has just reopened. The aisles are wider than before, there is a big new stairwell, more computers, and a brand new elevator - and the staff told me that they have no net gain of space.
Your exterior shot shows it during construction. Won't updating photographs such as this drive you crazy?
The more I look through these listings, the more I am astonished by your achievement in photographing all these buildings and assembling this catalogue. It is a true labour of love.
But how on earth will you keep it up to date?
This morning, for instance, I looked around the Pape/Danforth Library that has just reopened. The aisles are wider than before, there is a big new stairwell, more computers, and a brand new elevator - and the staff told me that they have no net gain of space.
Your exterior shot shows it during construction. Won't updating photographs such as this drive you crazy?
A
adma
Guest
Any way of Wiki-ing it up a little, in order to address the issue of updates?
C
Copper1212
Guest
Am I ever glad I checked out this thread. Your website is absolutely astonishing.
E
esplanade guy
Guest
Thanks for TOBuilt Bob,
since I found out about it, I've been using it and find it quite interesting and helpful to get information. I really appreciate it.
since I found out about it, I've been using it and find it quite interesting and helpful to get information. I really appreciate it.
A
Archivistower
Guest
Thank you all for the kind comments. I hope the site remains relevant for a long time. I also look forward to suggestions for improvement. I probably won't do much until later in the fall. I'm a bit TOBuilted out right now.
I'm not that worried about buildings moving out of date, at some point I'll naturally pass by the Pape library in optimal light conditions and then I'll snap it again. The 519 Community Centre is an example of this - I put a construction photo as an interim measure and then replaced it later. I have a sort of a tracking system for this what is needed that isn't evident from the website itself.
What I find less pleasing are the photos of buildings that fit within my scope, but for which it is almost impossible to take a good photo of. Especially north facing houses surrounded by deep lots. I find there's nothing that feels more defeating than spending more time getting a blurry white sky photo of a staid old Rosedale pile and loading it in.
I'm not that worried about buildings moving out of date, at some point I'll naturally pass by the Pape library in optimal light conditions and then I'll snap it again. The 519 Community Centre is an example of this - I put a construction photo as an interim measure and then replaced it later. I have a sort of a tracking system for this what is needed that isn't evident from the website itself.
What I find less pleasing are the photos of buildings that fit within my scope, but for which it is almost impossible to take a good photo of. Especially north facing houses surrounded by deep lots. I find there's nothing that feels more defeating than spending more time getting a blurry white sky photo of a staid old Rosedale pile and loading it in.
M
Mike in TO
Guest
Re: Re: TOBuilt
Wow - amazing job - I just bookmarked it.
I love going through and finding the "never builts" - it's very interesting to see proposals that didn't make it off the drawing board and contemplate how hey would have altered the skyline, streetscape and future development of various areas had they been built.
Wow - amazing job - I just bookmarked it.
I love going through and finding the "never builts" - it's very interesting to see proposals that didn't make it off the drawing board and contemplate how hey would have altered the skyline, streetscape and future development of various areas had they been built.
B
building babel
Guest
Re: Re: TOBuilt
I haven't checked - is Ed's headquarters for world domination there yet?
I haven't checked - is Ed's headquarters for world domination there yet?
I
interchange42
Guest
Re: Re: TOBuilt
Well, there don't seem to be any entries for Britain Street yet, but boy oh boy Bob, everything else seems to be in there!
I've been afraid to go back to TOBuilt since you finished the GUI work, and I see my fears have been completely justified! How am I supposed to get any work done now? New levels of self control are going to be necessary to keep me from spending hours and days within your creation.
BTW, I love the Hockney-like panorama on the home page, and the various windowed pics gracing the top of the search pages: it all looks so good.
Now, must get back to work, must not check out every building on Queen West...
42
Well, there don't seem to be any entries for Britain Street yet, but boy oh boy Bob, everything else seems to be in there!
I've been afraid to go back to TOBuilt since you finished the GUI work, and I see my fears have been completely justified! How am I supposed to get any work done now? New levels of self control are going to be necessary to keep me from spending hours and days within your creation.
BTW, I love the Hockney-like panorama on the home page, and the various windowed pics gracing the top of the search pages: it all looks so good.
Now, must get back to work, must not check out every building on Queen West...
42
B
building babel
Guest
Re: Re: TOBuilt
Hockney's camera art has become part of the design vocabulary. But I think it has had an influence beyond that -people don't expect to see the world reproduced, in print, in single point perspective any more. The limitations of that approach have been revealed.
For instance, his collages show the same moving object caught at different points in time, and shifts in perspective that give multiple representations of a single object. Viewers get more information. They're involved in "reading" the image differently - as though they're moving through time and circling around something to take in more details. The best Hockney-esque collages adopt this approach.
Hockney's camera art has become part of the design vocabulary. But I think it has had an influence beyond that -people don't expect to see the world reproduced, in print, in single point perspective any more. The limitations of that approach have been revealed.
For instance, his collages show the same moving object caught at different points in time, and shifts in perspective that give multiple representations of a single object. Viewers get more information. They're involved in "reading" the image differently - as though they're moving through time and circling around something to take in more details. The best Hockney-esque collages adopt this approach.
A
Archivistower
Guest
Re: Re: TOBuilt
The idea of the panorama and the blue cubes on the succeeding pages was to emphasize what I think the strength of the site is, which is taking bits of a city and allowing them to be put back together in many different ways (rather than, for instance, providing a lot of detailed information about a few buildings). My goal was to allow the user a new way of looking at the whole. I didn't actually consider Hockney, but my purpose seems pretty aligned with his.
The idea of the panorama and the blue cubes on the succeeding pages was to emphasize what I think the strength of the site is, which is taking bits of a city and allowing them to be put back together in many different ways (rather than, for instance, providing a lot of detailed information about a few buildings). My goal was to allow the user a new way of looking at the whole. I didn't actually consider Hockney, but my purpose seems pretty aligned with his.
A
AlvinofDiaspar
Guest
Re: Re: TOBuilt
Congrats Bob, you're a celebrity! What a wonderful thing you've done for the city!
From the Globe, Toronto Section:
His interest is building
This super-fan won't stop until he's shot all the city's great structures. He's up to 7,647
CATHERINE DAWSON MARCH
You may recognize Bob Krawczyk.
For the past five years, he has been cycling around the city taking pictures of buildings in just about every neighbourhood for his website, TOBuilt.ca: tall buildings, historical buildings, unusual buildings, buildings that have won awards, buildings that are important to the city and buildings that, for some reason or another, simply caught his eye. So far, he's shot 7,647. Your house may even be one of them.
"I'm pretty liberal about what I'll include," says the 43-year-old, whose day job is as a senior solutions analyst for the Ministry of Government Services. "I tend to like municipal infrastructure, so on my list I have all the libraries and pumping stations."
But he's an equal opportunity fan: He has a long-standing fascination with high-rises (18 Yorkville St. is a favourite), but he has also fallen in love with a modern home on Heathdale Road that looks like a pile of wooden blocks ("I actually felt moved by seeing it," he says), and admires the Prairie-style home on Heath Street West. A committed downtowner, he has biked as far east as the Rouge Valley to explore abandoned farmhouses and as far north as Steeles Avenue to scout suburban condos.
Mr. Krawczyk's personal website, which officially went live last month, is something of an archival masterpiece -- an on-line treasure trove that could be the most comprehensive public photo database of Toronto architecture around. (Not even the inventory of heritage properties at Heritage Toronto has accompanying photographs.)
The site is densely packed: Whether it's an Annex semi or Celestica's offices in North York, each listing has an address, number of floors, often the architect's name and a construction date. It's searchable, by address, neighbourhood or even by "oddities and whatnots."
In fact, the real thrill for Mr. Krawczyk is compiling the data. He picks up tips on new developments from on-line communities such as Urban Toronto. He checks the City of Toronto community council agendas to suss out which buildings will be granted heritage status. A few years ago, he spent a week at the National Library in Ottawa reading old copies of The Daily Commercial News and Construction Record to get the scoop on less famous buildings.
Is it a hobby or an obsession? "I like to organize data. I'm professionally trained as an archivist, and for me, organizing a big heap of misaligned data is a pleasure," he laughs.
When he was young, he organized and collected, among other things, 20 years worth of Mad magazine. But his latest collection got its start when Mr. Krawczyk discovered a website called skyscrapers.com a few years ago. The volunteer-run site was trying to list every tall building in the world, and information about Toronto's skyscrapers was woefully lacking. He set out on a one-man mission to change that, snapping everything higher than 12 storeys -- in the end, more than 1,600 images.
Mr. Krawczyk was hooked. He widened his search to include homes, bridges, gates, statues, even lampposts. Any significant structure was fair game, and once found, his facts were compiled into lists and spreadsheets. He can sort his spreadsheets by neighbourhood, for example, or number of storeys, but what he does most often is sort by the direction each building faces.
"I'm trying to get most of the buildings with nice sun conditions and blue sky. So let's say that I finish work one day and it's sunny; what I might do is quickly sort my spreadsheet and say, 'Okay, I'm going to Leslieville and Riverdale.' So I'll sort my list and I'll find all the buildings that are west-facing because those are the buildings that I'm going to shoot."
Photographing all the buildings on his list in optimal sunlight makes for a lot of return trips -- which can make this innocent hobby look suspicious. "I've had a lot of problems in Rosedale," Mr. Krawczyk says. "Private security guards have either followed me or asked me what I was doing on quite a few occasions."
But it's been worth the hassle. "If the site does one thing," he says, "I hope it makes people look at buildings that surround them with a fresh eye."
Ernie Buchner, the executive director of Heritage Toronto, says it's hard to believe that TOBuilt.ca is the handiwork of one person in his spare time. "The guy's done a fantastic job," he says.
But Mr. Krawczyk says he isn't finished. He has about 1,000 more heritage properties to find and photograph, mostly in the outskirts of Scarborough, North York and Etobicoke that are hard to reach by bike. Plus, he takes requests.
But he is already looking forward to conquering his next category. "I think I'd like to concentrate on all the modernist buildings from the fifties and sixties. That information is really hard to find."
AoD
Congrats Bob, you're a celebrity! What a wonderful thing you've done for the city!
From the Globe, Toronto Section:
His interest is building
This super-fan won't stop until he's shot all the city's great structures. He's up to 7,647
CATHERINE DAWSON MARCH
You may recognize Bob Krawczyk.
For the past five years, he has been cycling around the city taking pictures of buildings in just about every neighbourhood for his website, TOBuilt.ca: tall buildings, historical buildings, unusual buildings, buildings that have won awards, buildings that are important to the city and buildings that, for some reason or another, simply caught his eye. So far, he's shot 7,647. Your house may even be one of them.
"I'm pretty liberal about what I'll include," says the 43-year-old, whose day job is as a senior solutions analyst for the Ministry of Government Services. "I tend to like municipal infrastructure, so on my list I have all the libraries and pumping stations."
But he's an equal opportunity fan: He has a long-standing fascination with high-rises (18 Yorkville St. is a favourite), but he has also fallen in love with a modern home on Heathdale Road that looks like a pile of wooden blocks ("I actually felt moved by seeing it," he says), and admires the Prairie-style home on Heath Street West. A committed downtowner, he has biked as far east as the Rouge Valley to explore abandoned farmhouses and as far north as Steeles Avenue to scout suburban condos.
Mr. Krawczyk's personal website, which officially went live last month, is something of an archival masterpiece -- an on-line treasure trove that could be the most comprehensive public photo database of Toronto architecture around. (Not even the inventory of heritage properties at Heritage Toronto has accompanying photographs.)
The site is densely packed: Whether it's an Annex semi or Celestica's offices in North York, each listing has an address, number of floors, often the architect's name and a construction date. It's searchable, by address, neighbourhood or even by "oddities and whatnots."
In fact, the real thrill for Mr. Krawczyk is compiling the data. He picks up tips on new developments from on-line communities such as Urban Toronto. He checks the City of Toronto community council agendas to suss out which buildings will be granted heritage status. A few years ago, he spent a week at the National Library in Ottawa reading old copies of The Daily Commercial News and Construction Record to get the scoop on less famous buildings.
Is it a hobby or an obsession? "I like to organize data. I'm professionally trained as an archivist, and for me, organizing a big heap of misaligned data is a pleasure," he laughs.
When he was young, he organized and collected, among other things, 20 years worth of Mad magazine. But his latest collection got its start when Mr. Krawczyk discovered a website called skyscrapers.com a few years ago. The volunteer-run site was trying to list every tall building in the world, and information about Toronto's skyscrapers was woefully lacking. He set out on a one-man mission to change that, snapping everything higher than 12 storeys -- in the end, more than 1,600 images.
Mr. Krawczyk was hooked. He widened his search to include homes, bridges, gates, statues, even lampposts. Any significant structure was fair game, and once found, his facts were compiled into lists and spreadsheets. He can sort his spreadsheets by neighbourhood, for example, or number of storeys, but what he does most often is sort by the direction each building faces.
"I'm trying to get most of the buildings with nice sun conditions and blue sky. So let's say that I finish work one day and it's sunny; what I might do is quickly sort my spreadsheet and say, 'Okay, I'm going to Leslieville and Riverdale.' So I'll sort my list and I'll find all the buildings that are west-facing because those are the buildings that I'm going to shoot."
Photographing all the buildings on his list in optimal sunlight makes for a lot of return trips -- which can make this innocent hobby look suspicious. "I've had a lot of problems in Rosedale," Mr. Krawczyk says. "Private security guards have either followed me or asked me what I was doing on quite a few occasions."
But it's been worth the hassle. "If the site does one thing," he says, "I hope it makes people look at buildings that surround them with a fresh eye."
Ernie Buchner, the executive director of Heritage Toronto, says it's hard to believe that TOBuilt.ca is the handiwork of one person in his spare time. "The guy's done a fantastic job," he says.
But Mr. Krawczyk says he isn't finished. He has about 1,000 more heritage properties to find and photograph, mostly in the outskirts of Scarborough, North York and Etobicoke that are hard to reach by bike. Plus, he takes requests.
But he is already looking forward to conquering his next category. "I think I'd like to concentrate on all the modernist buildings from the fifties and sixties. That information is really hard to find."
AoD
C
Canuck 36
Guest
Re: Re: TOBuilt
Way to go Bob!
Way to go Bob!
C
cdl42
Guest
Congrats indeed!
I don't see the website address in the article. Was it accompanied by a sidebar or photo which contained it instead?
I don't see the website address in the article. Was it accompanied by a sidebar or photo which contained it instead?
F
fiendishlibrarian
Guest
Re: Re: TOBuilt
Bob,
Wonderful site, but one question: have you put in TTC properties? Maybe I wasn't navigating the site properly, but I just could not find the Roncesvalles, Russell, and Danforth carhouses for example. Hillcrest is also worthy of mention, as are some of the quirkier remnants of the system from days gone by (Long Branch loop sign, old Davenport garage, etc.). Many of the Bloor line stations also still retain their original frontages, and I think they're worth documenting before the TTC embarks on another botched renovation spree vis-a-vis Dundas, College stations, etc.
And if you ever have the chance, take a tour through the Four Winds buildings and townhouses, north of Finch, from Keele to Sentinel. I don't think anyone has ever documented the strange, self-contained little Brutalist world that exists up there (and that I grew up around). The entire set of four buildings are connected via their underground garages, and it's a strange little early-70s time-warp of a place, almost a Prisoner-type setting.
Edit: Mind you, the entire place may have been redone over the years, but that complex, along with the University City apartments at Fountainhead and Sentinel, were designed, it seems to me, as part of a larger vision of a self-contained, Modern community with York University at its centre.
Bob,
Wonderful site, but one question: have you put in TTC properties? Maybe I wasn't navigating the site properly, but I just could not find the Roncesvalles, Russell, and Danforth carhouses for example. Hillcrest is also worthy of mention, as are some of the quirkier remnants of the system from days gone by (Long Branch loop sign, old Davenport garage, etc.). Many of the Bloor line stations also still retain their original frontages, and I think they're worth documenting before the TTC embarks on another botched renovation spree vis-a-vis Dundas, College stations, etc.
And if you ever have the chance, take a tour through the Four Winds buildings and townhouses, north of Finch, from Keele to Sentinel. I don't think anyone has ever documented the strange, self-contained little Brutalist world that exists up there (and that I grew up around). The entire set of four buildings are connected via their underground garages, and it's a strange little early-70s time-warp of a place, almost a Prisoner-type setting.
Edit: Mind you, the entire place may have been redone over the years, but that complex, along with the University City apartments at Fountainhead and Sentinel, were designed, it seems to me, as part of a larger vision of a self-contained, Modern community with York University at its centre.