Infrastructure
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The half-built relics of nixed Toronto skyscrapers
In 1914, John Eaton, the third son of retail magnate Timothy Eaton, began preparing plans for a massive expansion of his family’s empire. Aged 38...
By Chris Bateman -
The modernist Bloor-Danforth line at 50
The Bloor-Danforth line turned 50 today. Five decades ago, on February 25, 1966, the first section of Toronto’s first east-west subway opened...
By Chris Bateman -
Remembering the ill-fated CN Turbo train
On December 10, 1968, a sleek new locomotive glided out from the sooty train shed at Toronto’s Union Station. Streamlined and silver with a bright...
By Chris Bateman -
How the TTC lost and found its subway style
Not many people could have known that behind the advertising billboards on the platform of College station was something no-one had seen for more than...
By Chris Bateman -
The cold war siren system Toronto never used
At Dundas West and Shaw, near Trinity-Bellwoods Park, there’s a conspicuous piece of Canada’s Cold War history. On top of a 15-metre pole sits...
By Chris Bateman -
How the Eaton Centre nearly wrecked Old City Hall
Ever since Toronto city council moved over the street in 1965, Toronto hasn’t quite known what to do with Old City Hall. The exquisite heritage...
By Chris Bateman -
GARDINER EAST: Using the rail corridor to crack the highway riddle
The Gardiner East Follies returns for yet another extended run at City Hall beginning on Tuesday morning, when city officials present three scenarios for...
By John Lorinc -
Happy birthday to the Toronto streetcar system
There are perhaps few things more symbolic of Toronto than its streetcars. For more than 150 years, surface rail has formed the backbone of the...
By Chris Bateman -
Unveiling the Bloor Viaduct’s Luminous Veil
At night, the Rosedale Ravine is dark. It’s so dark, in fact, that the Bloor Viaduct is just shapes overhead, cobwebby steel arches and thick square...
By Kat Eschner -
Gardiner East: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Megacity
On Thursday, June 11, Toronto City Council voted to maintain the Gardiner Expressway between Jarvis Street and the Don Valley Parkway, endorsing the...
By Sean Marshall -
LORINC: We were promised Tory The Consensus Builder
I know that many politicians are ardent devotees of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s lovely old putdown, “consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” I also know...
By John Lorinc -
A dizzy history of revolving restaurants in Toronto
Nothing epitomizes space age urbanism quite like the revolving restaurant. Imagine sitting at the top of a modern skyscraper, the lights of the city...
By Chris Bateman