including the Toronto Dominion designed by Mies van der Rohe.
[Apologies for the "Photobuckets" logo. It is the "free" program I'm using to make the slide show (the payment is in the advertising, I guess). Other programs are too cumbersome to use on blogs.]
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culminating at the shore of Lake Ontario.
The tallest skyscrapers are near the shore, where
the bank headquarters are located.
The elliptical shape indicates the bank headquarters.
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There is interesting architecture in Toronto. But, like many things here, I get the impression that architecture was an afterthought. Perhaps Canada was too easily subdued by the British, who considered it an outpost to proceed further south to the indomitable Americans, and they (the British and those they left behind) never had the ambitions for grand (or grandiose) projects. Nonetheless, the architecture shows that lack of commitment.
As I wrote in my previous post, there are some beautifully crafted (I think that's the right word) Victorian homes. But, they are far and few between, and the majority lack any striking impressions.
Grandeur is what is lacking in most of Toronto's architecture, and grandeur is what is especially lacking with most of the city's tall buildings. That is, after all, what Mies van der Rohe was after (see my previous post where I describe his Toronto Dominion Center). Skyscrapers are our modern version of touching the hand of God, as Leonardo ambitiously tried with his painting.
There really is only one part of town with a few impressive skyscrapers. But they hardly compare to the formidable towers in New York. And when seen from above, these skyscrapers are clustered in the southern-most part of the city, near Lake Ontario and the harbor, dwarfed by the flatlands of Toronto. Perhaps it shouldn't be surprising that the most impressive of these buildings are banks, where commerce from the lake's harbor has now entered the computerized offices that banks rely on to fuel their money making activities.
The skyscrapers in the above slide show are part of downtown Toronto's bank and commercial complex. Despite knowing about them (and passing by them) for a long time, I chanced upon them recently while on an errand at a nearby department store. This time, I returned several times, mesmerized by their grandeur. I finally came away with the photos that make up the slide show.
The dark looming buildings (there are several of them, almost identical to one another) are Mies van der Rohe's Toronto Dominion Bank Center. Although named after one bank, the complex includes other large Canadian banks and commercial centers.
