I’ve been spending some time with Torontonians, including an architect and an interior designer, and giving some thought to Toronto specifically and cities in general. As ever, I walk around with a camera, always scouting locations, always taking visual notes.
At the moment, Toronto is growing and building. (The city bird seems to be the construction crane.) Lots of high-rise condos. Lots of green building. Lots of glass and steel. In part because Toronto is self-consciously trying to promote it’s stature in the world, there are some projects by big name architects.
Herewith some visual notes:
Frank Gehry’s exterior of the Art Gallery of Ontario (here with Henry Moore’s sculpture) is impressive, But then there’s the interior.
Daniel Libeskind’s addition to the Royal Ontario Museum gets raves and pans.
The Sharp Centre for Design at the Ontario College of Art and Design, by Will Alsop, Alsop Architects:
Lest you get the idea that it’s all new, there are some fine examples of older architecture:
More photos of Toronto Civic and Commercial architecture, including more details of some of the buildings shown here, with notes, are available on my flickr feed.
I may have a later post on residential architecture.