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Toronto, Canada
But how were we to know there'd be nothing left to plunder when we stumbled on the holy grail
Under the stained glass dome of the former Bank of Montreal Building, Hockey's greatest trophies (or clever replicas, depending on the season) pose for tourists and pilgrims alike. The trophy in the foreground is the Conn Smythe, the only trophy in all of organized sport that is actually a little building. A replica of the old Maple Leaf Gardens on Carlton Street- only shinier, less dilapidated and with a giant maple leaf on its roof. The Conn Smythe (named after a dead guy) is awarded to the Stanley Cup playoffs most valuable player, a singular honor in a team sport. Despite such acclaim it is still not enough to attract any attention away from the few brave visitors downtown, risking all to stand aside a clever replica of the Stanley Cup.
There is more to Toronto's architecture than BCE Place, the CN Tower and the Conn Smythe Trophy. Just a block away from my final resting place, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's towers at Dominion Place look just about as Miesian as possible.
If you were standing on Bloor Street in 2006 this is what you could expect to see, only probably more real. Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum is replacing its 1970s concrete addition with a bigger one, a Daniel Libeskind crystal, one that should hang over the street and unassuming neighborhood and impress the hell out of the Burger King and Blockbuster across the street.
Only 2 years to go! Will Alsop's way cool expansion to the Ontario College of Art and Design promises to make everyone forget about all those other big name architects when it opens in late 2004.
Hmmm... Will Alsop, Daniel Libeskind, Santiago Calatrava, but no Frank Gehry? Isn't he from Toronto? Well, no worries, the Art Gallery of Toronto plans to distract people from its pedestrian collection and the Will Alsop building across the street by retaining local boy Frank Gehry to redesign its museum by 2007. Frank promises that it will not look like another Bilbao, but no design to prove such promises has surfaced yet.
When I was four years old my parents drove my sister and I cross country to Yellowstone National Park, stopping along the way at such landmarks as the Badlands, the Corn Palace, Mount Rushmore and Niagara Falls. A visit so fulfilling that almost thirty years have passed since I felt the need to return to Niagara (although I actually was at the Corn Palace about ten years ago, but that's another story).
Only an hour drive on the Queensway from downtown Toronto, Niagara Falls is a one trick pony, an interesting natural phenomenon but still only a waterfalls. There are towers you can ascend, boats you can ride, elevators that penetrate solid rock, all to get another view of those damn inescapable falls.
Another view of the falls (with a moderate crowd thrown in for scale), looking south toward New York.
