Results tagged “libertyvillage”

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.

In the 1978 book, Lost Toronto, William Dendy wrote that in the 20th century, many Georgian and Victorian buildings were fated to a date with the wrecking ball because of neglect and "changing tastes." Now, the architecture that took their place has fallen out of favour and structures such as the Massey Ferguson plant and Riverdale Hospital (pictured above), have been torn down or are slated for demolition.

A conference about culture-led regeneration in Toronto headed up by independent non-profit real-estate developer Artscape took place yesterday at the Joseph Workman theatre at the Queen Street CAMH. In recent days, the unpopular OMB ruling to demolish the historic Abell Street building and its 80 live-work studios has crystallized the dire need to improve methods of city planning for many citizens. This has left many people asking, how do we go forward and make things good?

Between July 2003 and January 2006, photographer Geoffrey James took his panoramic camera across our city, taking shots of areas as diverse as High Park, Dundas Square, Kensington Market, Regent Park, and Liberty Village. Those photographs are collected in his newly-released book, Toronto, and the shots tell a story of a city in flux, both confident in its history and insecure about where it's headed. Besides photographs, Toronto also features an expansive introduction by Mark Kingwell and a surprisingly entertaining Notes section (no, really).