I have been posting photos of various neighborhoods and buildings in Toronto, mostly with a positive and admiring stance. I cannot take photos of "negative" things, i.e., ugly things. That might be a weakness, but that is my attitude.
The interesting thing is that almost all my photos of the (beautiful) landmarks, buildings and sites depict a historical Toronto, not a current one. This dawned on me when I was taking photos of the Toronto Dominion Center complex, designed by the architect Mies Van der Rohe, which is the only contemporary building I have photographed. I find the complex imposingly beautiful, grand and the very best of skyscraper architecture of the 1960s. I juxtapose these photos with those of the insipid high rise of the CIBC center (they are next to each other), designed by the Chinese I. M. Pei only a decade later in 1973. I took photos of Pei's building, and posted them only to compare and contrast these two buildings, both contemporary, yet one far superior than the other. In fact, I contrast Pei's building with the original CIBC headquarters building of 1931 to show the paucity in Pei's design. The Van der Rohe complex is one of the few contemporary buildings in Toronto which has a grand presence, but it is an anomaly rather than the norm.
Something happened to make Canada (and by extension, Toronto) a mediocre and second-tier place, as demonstrated by the architecture. I think it has to do with the British influence, where Canada was regarded as an outpost to counter the formidable American presence to the south, rather than a place to develop and build. Genteel Victorian houses dominate in the major cities, where British colonists lived and oversaw the rule of the country. But frontier towns and regions, especially in the Niagara/New York state area, have fortified complexes to ward off American incursions.
There is also the ever-present French animosity, which affected nation building. But the whole of Canada is in some form of break-away state, from Quebec to Western Canada, and even the Atlantic coast Maritime provinces. This lack of national cohesion is subtly and constantly felt, and art and architecture capture this ambivalence. And although there were impressionable edifices erected during the formal British presence, they are far and few between to make a strong cultural contribution.
I'm at an exploratory phase with these ideas. When did Toronto become a second-tier city? Was it always a second-tier city, and if not, why did it slide down the excellence scale?
More on that later.
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Posts at Camera Lucida on Toronto architecture can be found under the Architecture label, going as far back as 2005.