This rather strange building is the sales or presentation centre for a condo to be constructed on Queen St in the West Queen West area which has been another big area for artist studios. There is now a lot of pressure from condos and the artists are losing the old warehouses that were there. This condo company hired British architect Will Alsop ( he designed the Ontario College of Art and Design floating addition ) to design their sales centre and has tried to trade on the bohemian flavour of this part of Queen St in their sales pitch.
What an interesting building! Is there an area in Toronto that is predominately artist dwellings?
ReplyDeleteA building with a difference.
ReplyDeleteShirley: There isn't really a whole area but most artists live downtown in the older parts of town but spread out from one end to the other. Queen St probably has the most galleries and small quirky restaurants although as the rents go up the galleries are starting to move a bit north by a few blocks.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderfully quirky building! I love it, and all the other photos that are showing on your home page right now. My husband and I were just in Toronto in May — our first time — and we both loved the Bohemian flavor of Queen St West, but we also noticed the condos going up. Seems to us that you'll end up with a fake Boho district when all that's done, which is kind of sad. We hope that the independent artists find a new area for themselves. Adds so much character to any city.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like you've been photo blogging for quite some time, but I'd like to welcome you to the CDP community!
I miss the old Queen West. I used to work in West Queen West (long before it known as that!) when it was pretty run down.
ReplyDelete