cityscape
Spotted: The Colourful Lights of Mt. Dennis
Streetlamp art installation Nyctophilia lights up the night in rainbow hues.
SPOTTED BY: Shawn Micallef
WHERE: Weston Road and Dennis Avenue
WHEN: Wednesday, July 30, 9:45 p.m.
WHAT: A controversial new art project in the York neighbourhood of Mt. Dennis. The installation is called Nyctophilia—”love of the night”—and features 36 streetlamps of various colours mounted to 10 utility poles. The public did not take kindly to the project, which cost $250,000 all told, when the poles were being erected last month. But designers Christian Giroux and Daniel Young say the gentle glow of the LED lights has changed people’s attitudes somewhat: “I was photographing it the other night, and I saw about 10 people actually stop their car to get a photo of it,” Young told the Toronto Star in an interview. “There’s a romanticism about coloured lights in the city.”
Spotted features interesting things our readers discover in their journeys across Toronto. If you spot something interesting, send a photo and pertinent details to [email protected].