Canada Day in Toronto — Joe's Slideshow Archive

Page 7 of 7
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Screaming please come help me, that Canadian shaman gave a little too much to me

Today is not just any day, it's Canada Day (take that, other countries). It's the day commemorating the partial split of Canada from the British Empire (Wikipedia says that the split wasn't complete until 1982). There are all sorts of celebrations, including this one at Queens Park where strange local bands, inflatable shark slides, tiny flags (I even took one) and maple tinged alcohol all help to promote a healthy sense of self worth.

In an attempt to do something I haven't done, I thought like a local, hopped on a ferry and got the hell out of downtown. The ferries go to the Toronto Islands, filled with parks and trees and forests and beaches and probably best known (by me) as the location of the climactic boat chase scene in Police Academy 3, by default one of the better films of the series.

And the view back to Toronto from the islands is postcard perfect, even if it looks like a somewhat generic city skyline that could be Sydney or San Diego, but with the CN Tower and the Skydome photoshopped on top of it.

We’re hitting all of the first rate Toronto sights with a stop at Santiago Calatrava's atrium at BCE, um, I mean Brookfield Place in Toronto. This is the part by the Marche, once again under the control of Movenpick, single handedly proving that all is right in the world.

This is inside the Spirit House at Daniel Libeskind's addition to the ROM (or Royal Ontario Museum) and inside the literal (free to the public) beating heart of the design, which was not all that busy on a national holiday.

The Spirit House may be the literal (free to the public) beating heart of the Daniel Libeskind ROM (or Royal Ontario Museum) addition, but the ticketed areas above (and even the exterior of the building) remain impressive and unmistakable as bot a Daniel Libeskind building and now as the ROM itself.

Santiago Calatrava, Daniel Libeskind and Frank Gehry. Toronto is a great place to see new architecture.

The AGO (or Art Gallery of Ontario) is the Frank Gehry building, or more accurately, it’s his addition that basically takes over the rest of the building. The front side is dominated by a huge, museum long glass gallery with wood structure on the inside, while the back park view is dominated by a great big hulking blue metal box sitting on top. In between, very curvy stairs connect the two and just impose themselves on the existing building with barely any respect. And I don’t mean that as a bad thing. I had visited the AGO (or Art Gallery of Ontario) before the Frank Gehry addition and, other than a fantastic Henry Moor gallery, can’t say that the art or building was especially memorable enough to make me want to return. Now with the Frank Gehry addition, I visit just about every time I’m in Toronto to gawk at the same views, walk the same curvy stairs and (pretty much) take the same damn pictures over and over and over again.

Santiago Calatrava, Daniel Libeskind and Frank Gehry. And Will Alsop.

He may not have the international (or even North American) fame as the others, but Will Alsop’s OCAD (or Ontario College of Art and Design) is the thing that you really notice from the Frank Gehry curvy stairs at the AGO (or Art Gallery of Ontario).

We’re leaving Toronto at the halfway point of this year’s Weekend Trips Slideshow, flying back to the US over Niagara Falls to destinations unknown (and by destinations unknown, I probably really mean Newark International Airport).