Thousand Islands
One of the stops in last weekend’s roadtrip was Gananoque, home to the famous 1000 Islands (yes, the namesake of the salad dressing) where houses are built on practically all of the available land on the tiny islands.
The architecture of these houses was fascinating, as was the creative use of land for docks, boathouses, and the like. While properties weren’t built on every island, I couldn’t help but feel like this whole community is an absolute domination of the environment.
On the ROM Crystal and Details, Details, Details!
Yesterday marked my first visit to the new ROM Crystal re-design, designed by Daniel Libeskind and ear-marked several million dollars by Michael Lee-Chin.
I was hesitant to visit the ROM up until now because of a number of factors. First and foremost, I wanted to give them some time to move the exhibits in and get things sorted out. I also didn’t want to contend with mobs of people just to get a glimpse at the thing.
Well, as it turns out, I probably should have held out a little longer. I had built up a lot of excitement for seeing the new design, and I’ve already talked about how I thought it was a good thing for the city. I’m all for bold architecture. From what I saw yesterday though, I’m left a little confused, and very disappointed.
CN Tower Illuminated - Toronto, Meet Your New Skyline!
With great fanfare, a few too many speeches, some bagpipe action, and plenty of ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’, the CN Tower officially switched on its illumination around 10pm earlier tonight. While we’ve been seeing the new system tested over the past several weeks, the light show that they put on tonight was nothing short of spectacular.
The official ceremonies tonight at Roundhouse Park (just south of the Tower, giving a real break-neck view of the structure) started with a live performance by the Campbell Brothers followed by Broadway legend Colm Wilkinson that really fired the crowd up. Peppered by a number of speeches by CN Tower Chief Operating Officer Jack Robinson, Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty, Mayor David Miller, to name a few, the anticipation continued to grow throughout the night and you could see it on everyones’ faces that they were thinking ‘Just turn the damn lights on already!’
Keep reading for video of the 10-minute show, photos, and details on the lighting units themselves from inside the tower!
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Doors Open Toronto
I had the chance this weekend to check out a few of the locations open in the city as part of the Toronto Doors Open celebration. Each year, hundreds of business and buildings not typically open to the public open up their doors for free admission. As you can see by the list of open buildings, there were quite a few to choose from, but among the ones that stood out included the now closed and often illegally adventured Lower Bay subway station, the historic Distillery District, and the one that caught my eye (pictured above), 401 Richmond Street.
Once a factory, 401 Richmond has been repurposed as offices for cultural producers (artists, and so forth) and what they call ‘microenterprises’. The main feature of this building is its garden and green roof, a relatively new urban solution to the heat island effect that many cities are now facing that can raise temperatures and make things generally unpleasant for all of its residents. Buildings equipped with these green roofs not only cut down on heat absorbed from the sun on their traditionally tarred roofs, but also help cut into carbon dioxide and provide a non-traditional space for the occupants of the buildings to enjoy.
ROM Lee-Chin Crystal opening and concert
It’s been a long time coming, but Saturday June 2nd will see the opening of the Lee-Chin Crystal renovation at the Royal Ontario Museum. Free admission to the public will begin at 8pm that night, followed by an hour-and-change-long concert at 9:30pm in front of the Crystal featuring David Foster, Deborah Cox and Isabel Bayrakdarian, and will also bring appearances by David Suzuki and certainly other Canadian celebs. They’ll be closing off a good stretch of Bloor Street and part of Avenue Road for the event, so it sounds like they’re expecting quite the crowd.
The opening is met with a fair bit of controversy since the project has had a real polarizing effect on Torontonians. It seems most either love it, or hate it. I think I’ve expressed my opinion about this to many people before, but I’m delighted to see the ROM and the city of Toronto taking a chance with such a dramatic transformation. I only hope this will mark the beginning of a bit of an architectural renaissance for the city.
1 Bloor St. to be “signature” for Toronto
The developers of 1 Bloor St. are hoping that it will “instantly become a recognizable symbol of Toronto and firmly establish its presence on the international stage.” 1 Bloor’s first four floors will be be host to a 120-room hotel, with the rest of the building dedicated to condos. The atrium of the building will also have a prominent retail space, as well as a restaurant and lounge. It’s great to see the city actively looking at rejuvenating this intersection, since this area of Yonge St. can be kind of touch and go.
Open source architecture
The Open Architecture Network is bringing open source to architecture through innovative, sustainable, and most importantly, affordable design to developing and impoverished nations. I first heard about the OAN at the TED Conference 2006, where Cameron Sinclair pitched the idea and then went on to with the TED Prize, which got the project off the ground. Later this year, the OAN will be partnering with AMD and will offer a $250,000 prize to the winning design of an open competition to develop technology centers in the developing world. [via Inhabitat]
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Adam is a User Experience Specialist at IBM in Toronto and also produces content of all kinds around the Web.
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