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This week's Throwback Thursday brings us to a rooftop in Toronto's Kensington Market area, looking toward the downtown skyline. In June 2011, two big items dating the photo are the rise of what would briefly be the Trump Toronto Hotel and Residences to the left of the Bank of Montreal Tower, and the rise of the Shangri-La to the right of it. The Bank of Montreal Tower itself is the other big news: it was being reclad at the time, its Carrara marble—ill-suited to the extremes of our climate—being replaced by hardier white glass.
Nearly nine years later, a slightly wider shot from the same perspective, updates the story on a cloudy March, 2020 day. The Trump is now the St. Regis, the Bank of Montreal's black stripe at the corner now goes all the way down, and the Shangri-La has long been completed. In the meantime, many more recent towers now appear as well, including the Residences of 488 University, which is beyond the left edge of the photo above, but now rests on the reclad 18-storey office building that predated it at 480 University. Other new towers in the 2020 image include the Residences of the RCMI to its right, and a veritable forest of new condominiums in the Entertainment District, too many to name.
We will return next week with another look at the changing face of Toronto. In the meantime, you can submit your own Throwback Thursday comparisons in our dedicated Forum thread for your chance to be featured in next week's edition.
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