Results tagged “cntower”

She was crowned with her towering spire on April 2, 1975, rising nearly six hundred metres above the Toronto waterfront. A year and a half later, on October 1, 1976, her doors were opened to the public for the very first time, the jewel of the skyline and a beacon to the world—and to anyone with misplaced bearings in the downtown core.

Travelling down Dovercourt Road near Dundas Street West in the fading sunshine of last Friday evening, a familiar shape caught Torontoist’s eye. In the middle of a front lawn stood four CN Towers. While the material was different (wood, not concrete), the context was different (residential, not civic), and the scale was certainly different (the tallest a litle more than six feet in height, not 1,815.4 feet), the form was unmistakable.

These three local towers were...

Little-known fact: during the construction of the SkyDome, so many people stared down at the rising stadium from the CN Tower that the landmark occasionally came to life, with binoculars in hand, to see what all the fuss was about. Reports of the tower leaning over at a precarious angle were written off as mass hallucinations or proof of too much partying.

Looking back, it's hard to imagine there was a time when Steven Seagal ruled the box office. Come to think of it, it was a bit baffling then too. The man's Wikipedia page makes him look like something of a Renaissance man (a singer-songwriter, no less!), but before he got all puffy and lame, the black belt "actor" was king. A man for his age. A man big on movie titles with three words.

Doors Open is the most rare of Toronto events: widely anticipated, universally loved, well attended, and free. Every year, tens of thousands of locals and tourists (and more than a few Torontoist Flickr Poolers) lace up their walking shoes and descend on the participating sites, learning about architecture and history while exploring rarely seen parts of the city. And with 175 buildings on the slate this year, there's lots for everyone to enjoy. But it's impossible to look at the full list of venues and not wonder about the buildings that don't appear. Maybe they've never taken part or maybe they're simply taking this weekend off. Either way, here are a few of the sites we'll miss this year.

You want to kill, like, an hour? Check out this massive panorama of the city, shot from the CN Tower. (And be sure to view it full-sized.) Photographed this past Saturday by Mike Seliske, it looks straight out across Toronto—from, it looks like to us, at least as far east as Scarborough, as far west as Etobicoke, and as far north as Thornhill. Basically: if you're in Toronto and can see the CN Tower, this stitched-together shot can probably see you back. (To give a sense of its scale, the cropped shots above are less than one-eighth of the full size.)

Now that the federal government is teetering on the verge of its first budget deficit in a decade, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is publicly considering the possibility of selling off the CN Tower to help balance the books—and pay for Prime Minister Harper's still-planned tax cuts. The building, until last year the world's tallest freestanding structure, is owned by Canada Lands Company, a crown corporation. Flaherty's musing should not come as a surprise to local residents: as Ontario finance minister, he pushed for the sale of publicly owned assets such as TV Ontario, the LCBO, and Ontario Place. Torontoist's suggestion: sell the iconic concrete hulk to Canadian Tire. At least then the name wouldn't change much.

Photo by the_anim8r from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.

Photo by Jonathan Goldsbie.

Toronto's extensive work on the silver screen reveals that, while we have the chameleonic ability to look like anywhere from New York City to Moscow, the disguise doesn't always hold up to scrutiny. Reel Toronto revels in digging up and displaying the films that attempt to mask, hide, or—in rare cases—proudly display our city.

Every weekday morning, bright and early, we feature a photo (or two) from a photographer in the Torontoist Flickr Pool. It's our way of giving the many excellent photographers in our pool the attention that they deserve.

Every weekday morning, bright and early, we feature a photo (or two) from a photographer in the Torontoist Flickr Pool. It's our way of giving the many excellent photographers in our pool the attention that they deserve.

Mark Oliver Tessaro just sent us a link to the video above, of an unbelievably fun-looking do-it-yourself ski-hill that he and his roommates built in mid-February on their Kensington Market deck.

Who knew that a year ago, while surly construction workers were working away at completing the incredibly polarizing ROM Crystal, the ROM's head honchos decided that the new building needed a signature drink to go with it? It may seem odd to picture the charmingly quiet-natured former Globe and Mail editor and current ROM Director and CEO William Thorsell pounding back different martinis with the ROM's governors and trustees and arguing well into the night about how to meld different liquors together, but it was necessary work to try to create the ROMtini—the liquid embodiment of the new ROM.

City councillor Rob Ford has at times been accused of making a career out of saying tremendously stupid things, but we here at Torontoist fully back his latest proposal to automatically name all new streets in Toronto after dead soldiers, even if the dead soldiers aren't from Toronto.

Toronto's extensive work on the silver screen reveals that, while we have the chameleonic ability to look like anywhere from New York City to Moscow, the disguise doesn't always hold up to scrutiny. Reel Toronto revels in digging up and displaying the films that attempt to mask, hide, or—in rare cases—proudly display our city.

Toronto's extensive work on the silver screen reveals that, while we have the chameleonic ability to look like anywhere from New York City to Moscow, the disguise doesn't always hold up to scrutiny. Reel Toronto revels in digging up and displaying the films that attempt to mask, hide, or—in rare cases—proudly display our city.

Each week, Torontoist shows off the most interesting, creative, and cool submissions to our Torontoist Flickr Pool. We're especially partial to photos that show our city in a new light, highlight a recent event, and remind us why we live here. Join the Flickr pool and show us what you've got.

Every weekday morning, bright and early, we feature a photo (or two) from a photographer in the Torontoist Flickr Pool. It's our way of giving the many excellent photographers in our pool the attention that they deserve.

Torontoist is ending the year by naming our Heroes and Villains of 2007––the people, places, and things that we've either fallen head over heels in love with or developed uncontrollable rage towards over the past twelve months. Get your dose, starting Boxing Day and running into the new year, three times a day––sunrise, noon, and sunset.

Every weekday morning, bright and early, we feature a photo (or two) from a photographer in the Torontoist Flickr Pool. It's our way of giving the many excellent photographers in our pool the attention that they deserve. A Toronto Kind of Love BY SILLYLITTLETHINGSYOULAUGHABOUT...

A couple weeks back, Spacing Wire posted this brilliant old TTC ad that made us hungry for more forgotten gems of Toronto advertising. The video in question was uploaded by a user calling themselves WNED 17, and their entire archive is made up of similar videos. In fact, their profile page provides a mission statement: "Youtube user WNED17 is proud to present repeat portions of broadcast captured in the 1980s and early 1990s via...

Like it or not, there's no escaping the CN Tower. Views from the building are so ubiquitous that it's hard to find a genuinely interesting shot––to say nothing of shots of the building. Still, plenty of photographers pull off a view of the city from the tower that's different and interesting, be it of a fog-covered downtown or a city up late for Nuit Blanche. Add to that pack Derek Purdy's neat stitched panorama...