Reading Buildings, Part Two
Our Saturday morning in Toronto offered us two choices--breakfast followed by a trip to the Royal Ontario Museum, or a sojourn to the harbor front, which was reported to offer various beautiful vistas and interesting markets. We decided to go north to the Museum, because we were told there were better brunch options available in that area, which is a serious consideration in Toronto, apparently:in Michael Cera's new movie, set in Toronto, "Scott Pilgrim Versus The World," there is presented the prospect of a very existential brunch. I won't give more details, because you should go see the movie; highly entertaining.
In the end, we didn't do brunch; in the interest of time, we stopped by a Tim Horton's, which I understand is a consummate Canadian experience, in the way that Dunkin' Donuts would be a consummate experience of the USA.
After a quick bite, we walked along Queen Street, looking for the subway. There were some impressive metal and glass edifices, and an elaborate downtown mall, but this is the building that caught my eye:
This is the old Toronto City Hall, and it just looks dignified and grand. Good architecture is like pornography for me, in that I can't necessarily define it, but i know it when I see it, and this is good architecture. It feels historic, which sometimes only means that it looks like it has been around for a long time and things have happened there, which, okay, doesn't sound very exciting at first glimpse. But trust me; it's a great-looking building.
We pressed on, and found our way to the subway, which we accessed through the lobby of a bank, naturally enough. I like the Toronto subway. It seemed efficient, easy to figure out for tourists, and clean.
Downtown, we could see the Royal Ontario Museum from blocks away, as it was a very distinctive building.
As it turned out, the exhibit we wanted to see was at a different gallery north of where we were; since time was of the essence, we made do with what was there. We saw some interesting paintings from colonial times--it was a bit disconcerting to see a painting from that era, but not focusing on the Revolutionary War; the famous painting there was The Death of General Wolfe, set in the French and Indian War. We also saw some exhibits of art and craftwork from native tribes across Canada, including an impressively long canoe, and stuff from the Pacific coast that reminded Marina of what she saw during the summer she lived on a reservation on the Olympic Peninsula.
Finally, we went to the Distillery District, a collection of boutique shops and restaurants located in the 47 old brick-and-iron buildings that formed the Gooderham & Worts Distillery, around since 1832. Everything was closed to cars; it is a collection of brick-lined pedestrian thoroughfares, and apparently, it was everyone in Toronto, if not all of Canada, goes to get married--seriously, we were there for an hour and saw three separate wedding parties.
It was a fascinating area, and I would have enjoyed more time to explore. Apparently the design of the buildings was called Victorian Industrial.
I will let pictures do the rest of my talking for me, a collection of snapshots of the Distillery District. From here, we fought our way through traffic to get out of Toronto--apparently the city decided to close the Gardiner Expressway, the major freeway out of the city--on a Saturday afternoon, which choked the streets with traffic, and turned what should have been a 1 hour, 20 minute drive into a three hour journey. But that was not enough to poison what was an enjoyable, rapid trip to Toronto. I've heard people say that it is a clean version of New York, and I would agree with that, except that I haven't been to New York. However, based on the television representations of New York--and television never lies--I would say it is an accurate comparison.
In the end, we didn't do brunch; in the interest of time, we stopped by a Tim Horton's, which I understand is a consummate Canadian experience, in the way that Dunkin' Donuts would be a consummate experience of the USA.
After a quick bite, we walked along Queen Street, looking for the subway. There were some impressive metal and glass edifices, and an elaborate downtown mall, but this is the building that caught my eye:
This is the old Toronto City Hall, and it just looks dignified and grand. Good architecture is like pornography for me, in that I can't necessarily define it, but i know it when I see it, and this is good architecture. It feels historic, which sometimes only means that it looks like it has been around for a long time and things have happened there, which, okay, doesn't sound very exciting at first glimpse. But trust me; it's a great-looking building.
We pressed on, and found our way to the subway, which we accessed through the lobby of a bank, naturally enough. I like the Toronto subway. It seemed efficient, easy to figure out for tourists, and clean.
Downtown, we could see the Royal Ontario Museum from blocks away, as it was a very distinctive building.
As it turned out, the exhibit we wanted to see was at a different gallery north of where we were; since time was of the essence, we made do with what was there. We saw some interesting paintings from colonial times--it was a bit disconcerting to see a painting from that era, but not focusing on the Revolutionary War; the famous painting there was The Death of General Wolfe, set in the French and Indian War. We also saw some exhibits of art and craftwork from native tribes across Canada, including an impressively long canoe, and stuff from the Pacific coast that reminded Marina of what she saw during the summer she lived on a reservation on the Olympic Peninsula.
Finally, we went to the Distillery District, a collection of boutique shops and restaurants located in the 47 old brick-and-iron buildings that formed the Gooderham & Worts Distillery, around since 1832. Everything was closed to cars; it is a collection of brick-lined pedestrian thoroughfares, and apparently, it was everyone in Toronto, if not all of Canada, goes to get married--seriously, we were there for an hour and saw three separate wedding parties.
It was a fascinating area, and I would have enjoyed more time to explore. Apparently the design of the buildings was called Victorian Industrial.
I will let pictures do the rest of my talking for me, a collection of snapshots of the Distillery District. From here, we fought our way through traffic to get out of Toronto--apparently the city decided to close the Gardiner Expressway, the major freeway out of the city--on a Saturday afternoon, which choked the streets with traffic, and turned what should have been a 1 hour, 20 minute drive into a three hour journey. But that was not enough to poison what was an enjoyable, rapid trip to Toronto. I've heard people say that it is a clean version of New York, and I would agree with that, except that I haven't been to New York. However, based on the television representations of New York--and television never lies--I would say it is an accurate comparison.
posted by Devin at 1:50 PM
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