This week, Throwback Thursday compares shots north on Yonge Street from Grosvenor, three years and one month apart during Open Streets Toronto events, the first on August 16, 2015. Prominent on the left side of this photo is Five St. Joseph, topped off and with much of its cladding in place, the lines of its construction hoist still visible, on the west side of Yonge. In the background, One Bloor East is prominent, just over 70 storeys high at this point and its crane still up top for a few more months as it heads towards topping off later that year.

Looking north on Yonge Street from Grosvenor on August 16, 2015

The second is from September 16, 2018. With Yonge Street closed to motorized traffic again for the first part of the day, cyclists this time are in the shadow of TeaHouse 501 Yonge Condominiums, under construction in the right foreground of the photo, replacing the two-storey high line of shops that were built on the block following the Yonge subway construction in the fifties. (The subway swings out to the east of Yonge here from underneath Yonge itself further south. That means that 501 Yonge's garage has to be above ground with no room below ground for cars. The garage will be disguised when the complex is complete.) Moving left, both One Bloor East and Five St. Joseph are complete, while a new tower, Wellesley on the Park, is now rising prominently on the left side of the photo. Heading for 60 storeys, it will top out above the top of the photo in 2019.

Looking north on Yonge Street from Grosvenor on September 16, 2018

We will return next week with another look at the changing face of Toronto!