The LCBO / Summerhill train station palace is lit up nicely at night, like so many buildings in Europe and the U.S. I wrote my Star column a few weeks ago on how we should light up some more of our buildings like this. Some people really (really) didn’t like that idea. A combination of birds, environmental concerns, light-pollution, and folks who simply thought Toronto’s buildings are too ugly to light up. I’d suggest to the LCBO they brace and expect protestors who will accuse them of killing birds. As FLAP tells us, skyscrapes lit up at night kill birds and the organization does morning rescues in the Financial District as well as ongoing successful advocacy to get buildings to turn their interior lights off at night — a great effort, but not at all the kind of building lighting I was writing about. Even in their response to my column, they mention skyscrapers. I think we can come to détente on buildings like the LCBO, no?
All those who objected so passionately for the birds are, I’m certain, vegetarians as well.
8 comments
Shawn, wanting to preserve bird wildlife has nothing whatsoever to do with whether I eat meat or not. Last I checked, there aren’t any pigs flying into the side of any buildings.
(And yes, a building with that profile, I think we can agree it’s OK to light the exterior… even though lighting a building’s exterior is extraordinarily fucking tacky, tasteless and naff.)
Well, that’s a reasoned position.
Re preserving wildlife, as a vegetarian, I think they’ve got everything to do w each other. Some animals can die, others people will shout to save. Don’t understand….
If we did not have s much light polution from street lights we would need less intense light to ‘light-up’ buildings….
So get rid of street lamps and just embed low voltage lights into the curbs of streets to gently light the street way so we can light up cool old buildings.
But first thing is first, get rid of Toronto Hydro’s cash cow of street lights and tax payer dollar waste first!
You dig me? 😉
ENB..//
Historical, heritage, modern gems of the city should be lit at night, tastefully and selectively chosen by it’s integral characteristics in which mask Toronto as unique. Architectural beauties (such as the LCBO Summerhill building) should be recognized through day and acknowledged at night.
Lit in a way that doesn’t look like a candy cane (like the CN Tower, in my opinion, distastefully reflects), but in a way that simply highlights the unique and/or well designed features of the building.
Lighting is an art in the same way that architecture is an art. If done tastefully, lighting a building can go hand and hand and work together in reflecting an experience, a memory of place, and a feeling/emotion in the same way architecture is capable of doing, the same way all these things appreciated create a city’s magic.
Shawn, it entirely has to do with whether an animal can be construed as cute or not. Most people don’t care about the ugly animals – that’s why there are lots of people who are “vegetarian” but will eat fish.
Tasteful, proper lighting of a building can be quite nice (like a lot of Martin Conboy’s work) – it’s when a building simply leaves its lights on (like so many glass skyscrapers) that many of us balk.
The city of Gent in Belgium has been doing a pretty amazing light festival for the past several years, in which various historical buildings are lit up in cool ways. This has become a popular tourist attraction: http://www.lichtfestivalgent.be/en/lfg-2011. I think in the case of Toronto, we wouldn’t have to limit it to the 3 historical buildings we have, to echo Laurenp’s comment.
Toronto has about 10 buildings that are seriously in need of proper lighting at night. And no, none of them are skyscrpaers. The Ontario Legislature in Queen’s Park should be #1 on this list.
Old City Hall gets lit up. Ottawa light up all kinds of non-skyscraper buildings (Parliament Hill, Chateau Laurier). I think they have birds there too.