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This week's Throwback Thursday takes us back almost six years to Corktown Common park in Toronto's West Don Lands area, when the area was being rushed to readiness for the 2015 Pan Am Games. In this west-facing view from July, 2014 while Corktown Common in the foreground was finished, buildings in the surrounding nascent neighbourhood were still in flux. At centre middle-ground, Canary District Condominiums was topped out and nearing completion, while Canary Park Condos was wrapping up in the right middle-ground. Both would first house athletes during the games a year later, before having their interiors converted for their permanent use as condominiums. At the same time, the city skyline backdrop was also undergoing some noticeable changes. Behind Canary District and to its left, cranes were visible active at the sites of the L Tower at Yonge and The Esplanade, while to its right, the Parliament Street Data Centre at Parliament and Front, and the east tower of the Bay Adelaide Centre at Yonge and Adelaide can just be made out.
While the projects mentioned above are now complete, while several more have joined the mix in the view captured at the end of May, 2020 from virtually the same vantage point. In the middle-ground below, the two prominent cranes mark the site of the rising Canary Commons development, the next addition to this neighbourhood. Behind them, additions to the skyline include a sliver of the topped out tower core at CIBC SQUARE's south tower from behind Pure Spirit Condo, and the barely-visible tops of cranes building 75 on The Esplanade. To the immediate left of Canary District Condos, another two crane booms form a V-shape where the Time and Space Condos development is gearing to rise above grade at Front and Sherbourne. To the immediate right of Canary District Condos, the Globe and Mail Centre office tower has added a major presence to skyline views from the east, while a pair of cranes in the background to the right work away on the Yonge and Rich Condos development, closing in on its final height above Richmond and Victoria in the Financial District.
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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