Throughout October, UrbanToronto is celebrating 20 YEARS, with stories looking back over the last two decades. Each day we are also checking out our ever-changing street scenes, comparing an older "Then" shot with an up-to-date "Now" shot.

Then: Looking north towards Cathedral Church of St James from Market Square (2005), image by Edward Skira

The final 'Then & Now' looks north from atop Market Square condominiums at Front and Church towards the Cathedral Church of St James and beyond to Yorkville. The 2005 view is dominated by the spire of St James, which when it was finally complete in 1874 was the tallest structure in Canada - and would remain so for 25 years until the construction of Old City Hall. In 2005, the built form had already started to grow; a number of high-rise buildings are under construction, such as Jazz Apartments (right of the church), Spire Condos (the core of which can just be seen appearing to the left of the steeple), and in the distance the 51-storey Manulife Centre bookends Toronto's downtown core. 

However, scroll down to 2023 and the 'Now' image below is a great representation of the type of growth that Toronto has seen over the last two decades. There are a number of buildings completed in the last decade (Yonge & Rich Condominiums, Massey Tower, YC Condos, and even One Bloor East in the distance), and there are projects currently under construction - Social at Church + Dundas, 199 Church, The Saint, 88 Queen. While there are taller and more visually-striking buildings in the Financial District that have created new jewels in the city's skyline, much of Toronto's vast growth has been due to the sheer number of buildings constructed in the area surrounding those. The 2023 image reflects this aspect of Toronto's construction boom, capturing a variety of building heights, architectural styles, vintages, and developers. These buildings don't necessarily stand out in height nor groundbreaking design, but when taken as a whole they reflect a larger picture — a diverse city in constant physical evolution.

Now: Looking north from Market Square (2023), image by Ara Sagherian

This is the last of our 'Then and Now' from UrbanToronto's last two decades! We will be back with our Daily Photo in November.

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Thank you to the companies joining UrbanToronto to celebrate our 20 years in business.

Related Companies:

Arcadis, architects—Alliance, Astro Excavating Inc., Baker Real Estate Incorporated, Bass Installation, CCxA, Cecconi Simone, Citi-Core Group, Egis, entro, Entuitive, EQ Building Performance Inc., Figure3, First Capital, Graziani + Corazza Architects, Great Gulf, Grounded Engineering Inc., Groundwater Environmental Management Services Inc. (GEMS), Hariri Pontarini Architects, Isotherm Engineering Ltd., Jablonsky, Ast and Partners, Janet Rosenberg & Studio, Kramer Design Associates Limited, L.A. Inc., Live Patrol Inc., Minto Communities GTA, Myles Burke Architectural Models, NAK Design Strategies, o2 Planning and Design, Parcel One, Peter McCann Architectural Models Inc., Quasar Consulting Group, Quest Window Systems, Rad Marketing, RAW Design, Rebar Enterprises Inc, RJC Engineers, Ryan Design International, TUCKER HIRISE Construction, Turner Fleischer Architects, UCEL Inc., Unilux HVAC Industries Inc.