Bike Stands at the ROM 4

I thought I would head back to the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) for some more of their bike racks. This one representing their fossil collection is a Trilobite which is a group of extinct marine arthropods found on all the modern continents. Actually more than 20,000 species of trilobites have been placed - the most diverse group of animals in the fossil record. And it makes a great bike stand!

Corner Store

In the days before large grocery stores, the older residential areas of Toronto had a little store sprinkled about on most corners where kids could buy their supply of penny candy. You can still see these interesting buildings but most of the ones on small streets have been converted into housing leaving corner stores mainly on the more busy streets fighting to survive against the mega-stores. This store, Steven's, in the Annex is like a part of the community - local news, always fresh flowers, trendy foods, etc - suitable for this rather bohemian/artsy neighbourhood!

"Sugar Beach"

Like many cities around the world, Toronto is in the process of reclaiming a lot of the downtown industrial properties along the harbour for recreational uses and "Sugar Beach" is one of the latest examples. This 2 acre urban beach was previously an ugly industrial parking lot but a redesign by Montreal-based, landscape architect Claude Cormier has transformed it to include a beach, a plaza space for performances, and a tree-lined promenade. It is called "Sugar Beach" since it is right beside the Redpath Sugar factory which is where that ocean-liner in the pic is unloading.

That water feature periodically spurts up high into the air giving the kids a real treat!

Redpath's is to the west but the main view from the beach is to the lake - south - I showed it here.

Concrete Poetry

bpNichol (who most often used his lower-case initials and no space to his surname) was well known for his "concrete" (or size) poetry where the typographic arrangement of the words is as important as the conventional elements of the poem such as words, rhyme, etc. With this in mind it is only suitable that one of his poems has been engraved in the concrete in bpNichol Lane right outside of Coach House Press.

I have tried to shoot this in snow, ice, rain, and finally this sunny shot but it has been hard to get a nice clear image of the whole thing so I apologize for the shadows from the trees!

bpNichol Lane

The older parts of downtown Toronto are criss-crossed by a network of laneways that run behind the streets and their buildings and whose purpose it is/was to provide service access to the various properties. These lanes are usually not named but in some circumstances that is not the case when it is felt that naming the lane would be a suitable commemoration for someone. A lane in the Annex that runs through the U of Toronto has been named for bpNichol, a well-known Canadian poet and author. The lane is also the site of Coach House Press, one of Canada's most venerable literary presses which is suitably housed in a quirky old coach house! More on this lane & bpNichol tomorrow.

Taking part in Signs, Signs. For more signs click here.

Reuse and Recycle

One of my favourite examples of recycling a building is this small structure at U of Toronto which was a nondescript 1950s office until being overhauled in 2004 by the noted Toronto firm of Moriyama and Teshima Architects. It is now the School of Continuing Studies for the university and is especially lovely in summer with the grasses blowing in front of the 2 story glass 'living room' and has a wonderful lounge and hidden garden for the part-time students to enjoy.

Unfortunately that is not my little red Porsche out front!

Kline at the AGO

This will be my last pic from the 'Abstract Expressionist New York' show at the AGO and it is one that I would love to own. Titled "Le Gros" and painted by Franz Kline in 1961, it is a great example of his style of work that displays strong, practiced, brushstrokes. They had several of his pieces mounted in a lovely moodily-lit room and it was fabulous!