Destruction of the line of gorgeous 19th-century houses on the corner of Charles and St. Thomas is now fully underway, their demolition the final step to make way for the construction of The St. Thomas, a twenty-three storey condo tower. It will be the third tower at the intersection, just north of 77 Charles Street West, a sixteen-storey condo (that will necessitate demolishing Lycée Français de Toronto, a french school); and just west of... [continue]

Every Saturday morning, Historicist looks back at the events, places, and characters—good and bad—that have shaped Toronto into the city we know today. Canadian Bank of Commerce Building. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1257, Series 1057, Item 409 Now dwarfed by everything around it, the Canadian (Imperial) Bank of Commerce Building (25 King Street West) once dominated the Toronto skyline. For three decades, its 34-storeys and 141-metre height made it the tallest building in the... [continue]

Sarah Lazarovic—curator of the garage-based Montrose Portrait Gallery of Canada—is painting a portrait of a Torontonian every day. Each Monday, we'll feature one of those portraits here. Suggestions for subjects welcome. A bunch of SCTV alums reunite for a benefit show tonight. It's sold out, but there are some $250 tickets left for tomorrow's show. Steep—even if you rationalize it as $125 a piece for each of Eugene Levy's fantastic eyebrows.... [continue]

Photo by ariehsinger from the Torontoist Flickr Pool. Strike days like this make us wonder how difficult it'd be to run our own transportation service in Toronto. Of course, you couldn't actually open your own transit company—the City of Toronto Act says the only people who can run public transit are the TTC—but there are currently hundreds of kilometres of vacant rail on the street and underground, just waiting to carry millions of people... [continue]

Sarah Lazarovic––curator of the garage-based Montrose Portrait Gallery of Canada––is painting a portrait of a Torontonian (be they grannies or gardeners or Gord Perks) every day for one hundred days. Each Monday, we'll feature one of those portraits here. Stephen Lewis talks heritage and democracy tonight, to mark the 40th anniversary of the Ontario Heritage Trust. Dessert is also involved.... [continue]

Toronto, we are told, is a world-class city. But Toronto is noticeably absent from the list of major urban centres famous for graffiti and street art: New York, Barcelona, San Francisco, Berlin, LA, Melbourne, and London. Even within Canada, smaller cities like Montreal and Vancouver hold a better reputation for graffiti than Toronto. Vandalist seeks to change all that. Toronto has some amazing stuff going on and up onto the walls––we just rarely hear... [continue]

Following the release this year of Neil Young's 1971 Massey Hall concert and a third tribute album comes Chrome Dreams II. Featuring ten new songs and covering a range of musical styles, there is something for all of his fans on this recording. "Where Living With War and Everybody’s Rockin' were albums focused on one subject or style, Chrome Dreams II is more like After The Goldrush or Freedom, with different types of songs...... [continue]

Contributor Tony Makepeace is taking us for some spins around our city with his fantastic VR panoramas. You can look up, down, side to side, in and out—pretty much every direction but back at yourself, which would be kind of creepy. Say hello to Panoramaist: the Toronto shoe-gazer's worst enemy. Click on the preview image above to launch the QuickTime VR panorama in a new window. Panoramaist is best viewed on a fast computer....... [continue]

Photos by mishkaoutofcontrol from the Torontoist Flickr Pool. Except to its frequent clientele, Toronto's legendary Matador Club is best known as the setting to Leonard Cohen's "Closing Time," which laments a place that "got wrecked by the winds of change." The Matador's been around since 1914. Built as a dance hall for WWI soldiers, it then became home to a bowling alley, and finally ended up as a quirky, late-night hangout with strong country... [continue]