Last week we posted a link to the Globe and Mail story I wrote about the new additions to the Spadina Thimble — but we didn’t have a current picture to show. Finally made it back to the corner with a camera, in the wonderful December dusk on Saturday afternoon. The city seemed extraordinarily alive and happy even, which I think must be due to the holidays. Above you can see the beginning of VicTor’s tape, laid over the concrete indentation thimble artist Stephen Cruise made by pressing the plywood form he built into the pavement was still soft.
(Edited to add in this picture taken by Spacing Editor Dylan Reid of VicTor’s very Torontoish signature)
The tape continues around — after #5, the original indentation stopped. You can see one of the new trees poking out of the button holes, and the tomato plant next to it. Rasoee, in the background, has really good Indian food, if you’re into that sort of thing. You can see the newly painted white hash marks in the indentations aren’t as bright as the ones beyond, as they’ve filled with dirt, as was Stephen’s intention.
And the tape ends. Everything was so well lit and vibrant. If time should ever stop, it should do so at 4:33pm on December 16, and all things will be perpetually pretty.
A few weeks ago I came across one of the ambulance station murals VicTor did. He told me that after September 11th, he had to find a way to thank these people for saving lives. I like the way his murals, like this one, highlight the station names, bringing these chunks of civic and municipal infrastructure forward, and without making too much of a big deal about it, celebrate them.
But not even his mural can keep 40 Station (on Adelaide Richmond East) from being one of Toronto’s ugliest buildings. Fort Ambulance. It looks like the Telus monkey is going to drop a back door architectural opinion on the building. Good for him — we should build these sorts of places like we used to, better and with some grandeur.
9 comments
That measuring tape needs to be done permanently. It really livens up the sidewalk.
which leads us to the CBE’s old question: why does everything have to be grey?
Ambulance Station 40 is actually on Richmond East (you’re forgiven).
Adding insult to injury (and risking injury in the process), I remember walking in front of that place on some slushy day last winter and noticing they hadn’t shoveled. An ambulance station, yet. Like, duh…
Yes, Richmond — weird, I looked at the picture I took, to see which way the cars were going, and into town, for some reason, meant Adelaide to me. Geographic dyslexia.
The Astral Media billboard with the Telus monkey in the last photo is illegal and is obstrucing a window at 50 Richmond East.
So illegal billboards still put on their label at the bottom? I thought that they’d just sneak up the rouge ones anonymously. Ballsy. Those monkey’s are bloody cute though.
Everyone nameplates. Vast majority of illegal signs are namplated. Only a few smaller companies like Strategic Media http://www.strategicmedia.ca don’t nameplate their signs.
Adam, I guess if they figured you fell down and broke your neck, at least they could get to you right away.
i think the source of the ugliness is not so much the building but the public realm, in this case: 1. the typical Toronto rusty, leaning streetlight with wires strung along the sreet 2. bent stopsign with leaning pole 3. lowest common denominator cheapass concrete sidewalk and poorly maintained road.
why can’t the city pick a few little sidestreets like this one and actually put a bit of effort into beautifying them so that they become a pleasure to walk down?