Sir Novelty Fashion
Senior Member
Where are the updates of yesteryear? Ou sont les mise-a-dates d'antan? This forum used to be hopping with them.
Not being one to wallow in nostalgia - well, fine. Being one to wallow in nostalgia, I decided to walk the walk. And there definitely was some walking involved.
We start at One Bedford. Nothing is happening here.
Across the road, then, to Varsity, which finally seems complete, and RCM, which is getting there.
Varsity is looking great. Some nice features out front. Notice the nifty skater-proof seating.
The final cladding is going on the front of the Conservatory's east wing.
Brick going inside the Varsity access tunnel
From Philosopher's Walk, the connection between old and new:
Meanwhile, next door, someone's gone and built the damndest thing on Bloor St.
No wonder they need to signpost C5: the entrance is the strangest little hatchway built into the side of the west crystal, marked only by a shadow paved into the ground:
The ROM hoarding is still falling off in chunks, like scabs off a healing wound. On the West side, they've revealed a funny little concrete terrace-area. I love this stuff, these little nooks.
On the edge of ROM Plaza, people make use of unadorned concrete furniture
Construction is ongoing. Through the windows, you can see that scaffolds have re-colonised some of the galleries. Landscaping on the east side is still going, with some hoarding still up. And the edges of the crystal are still cordoned off.
Around the corner, then, to Yorkville, where the 5-star jell-o mold is almost done.
It really is imposing.
Just down the road, the disembodied head of 100 Yorkville waits patiently.
Behind it: Big giant hole!
You'll recall that 100 Yorkville connects to a secondary, somewhat less giant hole to the east
Four Seasons. Check out the landscaping.
I'd never noticed that the west wall of the 18 Yorkville lowrise segment was left blank. Why? To connect with a future phase? Who owns the adjoining land? Isn't that Four Seasons?
Now we come to Yorkville Regency, which is busy testing the theory that the rich really will buy anything, as long as it's expensive enough.
Notice the varying treatment of the vertical elements.
I counted four different shades of grey between different sections of the shiny stone cladding at the base. What is that stuff?
Seen from Bay, Lotus slowly rises:
Lotus, from the front:
Now let's mosey down to Balmuto, and the Cruptal Blown construction site, where a race is on between Crystal Blu and the Uptown to see who can shuffle around the jobsite the most without actually building anything.
The Uptown, for its part, has amassed some serious-looking equipment and has aquired for itself a middling pile of dirt.
Whereas Crystal Blu has... a backhoe. Evidently, it just dispensed with the sales centre. Notice the fence at the edge of the picture? That's the dividing line between the sites. Crystal Blu's footprint is insanely small.
But what's this? Crystal Blu has an ace up their sleeve!
Will the Uptown secretly built an ersatz zeppelin mast inside its ersatz art deco upper reaches? Will they build anything at all? The two sites taken together:
Over to Bloor Street Neighborhood on Charles East. Big giant hole!
Very large hole.
Hole. Taken from a friend's fire escape, which will soon be thoroughly loomed over.
When I turned around, there was a cat.
Across the road sits the pointy office tower that's set to be replaced. A pity.
Next to it, Casa remains a fairly modest hole in the ground.
I puttered over to Church and Jarvis, where someone appears to have picniced through the recent demolitions. Still some scraps on-site.
It will be a shame to re-lose this perspective of the church.
On Bay, the two men tasked with building Murano took the day off, but they're finally starting to get somewhere. (Maybe they took my advice and hired an intern.) North side is almost at ground level, south and east sides are already there.
Big old poster for Burano:
The Wellesley station tower (22, is it?) is almost done.
My camera is amazing for low-light, but can't handle bright sunlight.
The MET, looking awesome.
The thing is covered in dirt.
Phase II rises:
Townhomes behind, almost topping out:
ROCP II
Metropolis! Opening in 2002! I mean, June, 2007! I mean, "we almost have walls."
The previous view was of the north side, in case you couldn't tell it from the east side, which is also missing little patches still:
Service tunnel, into its depths
They were installing lampposts along the Yonge St. face, which was looking very not-ready.
And down to MLSE: Big giant hole!
Ditto for Telus, though footings are going in on the west side:
I'm sorry, I was getting really tired of taking pictures of foundations by this point in my walk.
Now we nip back in time a few days to earlier this week, when I passed RBC and B/A. RBC, where they've just started work on the third floor:
Is it just me, or does that floor look a little, uh...
Still digging the lowrise phase
Next-door: Diggin' out the Pitz
Meanwhile, at B/A...
Son of Stump rises
And back to today, as I trundled home on the Spadina car. Cityplace:
Behold, streetwall:
Cityplace (Luna?) rises on the north side of Bremner now
Bremner will be a new artery soon
Looking south
Mosaic, from moving streetcar
Then I had a nap, and dreamed of cranes.
Not being one to wallow in nostalgia - well, fine. Being one to wallow in nostalgia, I decided to walk the walk. And there definitely was some walking involved.
We start at One Bedford. Nothing is happening here.
Across the road, then, to Varsity, which finally seems complete, and RCM, which is getting there.
Varsity is looking great. Some nice features out front. Notice the nifty skater-proof seating.
The final cladding is going on the front of the Conservatory's east wing.
Brick going inside the Varsity access tunnel
From Philosopher's Walk, the connection between old and new:
Meanwhile, next door, someone's gone and built the damndest thing on Bloor St.
No wonder they need to signpost C5: the entrance is the strangest little hatchway built into the side of the west crystal, marked only by a shadow paved into the ground:
The ROM hoarding is still falling off in chunks, like scabs off a healing wound. On the West side, they've revealed a funny little concrete terrace-area. I love this stuff, these little nooks.
On the edge of ROM Plaza, people make use of unadorned concrete furniture
Construction is ongoing. Through the windows, you can see that scaffolds have re-colonised some of the galleries. Landscaping on the east side is still going, with some hoarding still up. And the edges of the crystal are still cordoned off.
Around the corner, then, to Yorkville, where the 5-star jell-o mold is almost done.
It really is imposing.
Just down the road, the disembodied head of 100 Yorkville waits patiently.
Behind it: Big giant hole!
You'll recall that 100 Yorkville connects to a secondary, somewhat less giant hole to the east
Four Seasons. Check out the landscaping.
I'd never noticed that the west wall of the 18 Yorkville lowrise segment was left blank. Why? To connect with a future phase? Who owns the adjoining land? Isn't that Four Seasons?
Now we come to Yorkville Regency, which is busy testing the theory that the rich really will buy anything, as long as it's expensive enough.
Notice the varying treatment of the vertical elements.
I counted four different shades of grey between different sections of the shiny stone cladding at the base. What is that stuff?
Seen from Bay, Lotus slowly rises:
Lotus, from the front:
Now let's mosey down to Balmuto, and the Cruptal Blown construction site, where a race is on between Crystal Blu and the Uptown to see who can shuffle around the jobsite the most without actually building anything.
The Uptown, for its part, has amassed some serious-looking equipment and has aquired for itself a middling pile of dirt.
Whereas Crystal Blu has... a backhoe. Evidently, it just dispensed with the sales centre. Notice the fence at the edge of the picture? That's the dividing line between the sites. Crystal Blu's footprint is insanely small.
But what's this? Crystal Blu has an ace up their sleeve!
Will the Uptown secretly built an ersatz zeppelin mast inside its ersatz art deco upper reaches? Will they build anything at all? The two sites taken together:
Over to Bloor Street Neighborhood on Charles East. Big giant hole!
Very large hole.
Hole. Taken from a friend's fire escape, which will soon be thoroughly loomed over.
When I turned around, there was a cat.
Across the road sits the pointy office tower that's set to be replaced. A pity.
Next to it, Casa remains a fairly modest hole in the ground.
I puttered over to Church and Jarvis, where someone appears to have picniced through the recent demolitions. Still some scraps on-site.
It will be a shame to re-lose this perspective of the church.
On Bay, the two men tasked with building Murano took the day off, but they're finally starting to get somewhere. (Maybe they took my advice and hired an intern.) North side is almost at ground level, south and east sides are already there.
Big old poster for Burano:
The Wellesley station tower (22, is it?) is almost done.
My camera is amazing for low-light, but can't handle bright sunlight.
The MET, looking awesome.
The thing is covered in dirt.
Phase II rises:
Townhomes behind, almost topping out:
ROCP II
Metropolis! Opening in 2002! I mean, June, 2007! I mean, "we almost have walls."
The previous view was of the north side, in case you couldn't tell it from the east side, which is also missing little patches still:
Service tunnel, into its depths
They were installing lampposts along the Yonge St. face, which was looking very not-ready.
And down to MLSE: Big giant hole!
Ditto for Telus, though footings are going in on the west side:
I'm sorry, I was getting really tired of taking pictures of foundations by this point in my walk.
Now we nip back in time a few days to earlier this week, when I passed RBC and B/A. RBC, where they've just started work on the third floor:
Is it just me, or does that floor look a little, uh...
Still digging the lowrise phase
Next-door: Diggin' out the Pitz
Meanwhile, at B/A...
Son of Stump rises
And back to today, as I trundled home on the Spadina car. Cityplace:
Behold, streetwall:
Cityplace (Luna?) rises on the north side of Bremner now
Bremner will be a new artery soon
Looking south
Mosaic, from moving streetcar
Then I had a nap, and dreamed of cranes.
