Toronto: a love letterš
Experience my new favorite North American city!
Have you been to Toronto? If you have, you may be able to relate to what Iām about to share. And if you havenāt, you just might want to add it to your list.
Hereās why: I fell in love with Toronto recently and you might, too.
Context + a new approach
I am going to try something new with this issue (and the next few). Stay with me here.
I love to travel and I also love to learn and to understand why the world around us is the way it is. Last October I wrote:
Another theme that Iām excited to start writing about is urban environments and considering the tradeoffs that different urban planning and zoning choices create. I will be sharing some observations from my recent visit to Japan, including about subways and signage.
Alas, itās now May and you have yet to see this from me. This makes me sad because I know, while the broad brush strokes are still there, some of the specific details have begun to fade. Also, the main reason you havenāt seen this content yet is because I havenāt found the time to synthesize and organize everything.
And so ā¦ Iām trying something different today: A photo letter infused more with first-person accounts and less by research. Iām excited to share this with you and would love to hear how you experience it!
I love photography and the built environment and havenāt really focused on either so far so this is a fun change. If you like architecture, design, photography, travel or urban spaces, this issue is for you.
Overview
Starting with this issue (and continuing for a few more), I am going to introduce you to the Toronto I fell in love with.
Todayās post covers arriving in Toronto and day one. Future issues will highlight other aspects of Toronto.
This issue includes a lot of pictures. If you are reading this in email, youāll want to read it online or in the Substack app to ensure you can see it all.
With that, letās jump in!
Arriving in Toronto
As we were approaching Toronto, I was struck by how green it was. Up high, it was really green. And as we got closer, sure, there were residential subdivisions and industrial parks and roads and fancy cloverleafs, but still so much green.
Once we landed, I noticed the airportās use of magenta/purple in signage, a color I havenāt seen used in other airports before (itās said to be stabilizing).
An aside: I remember the first time I booked travel to Vancouver, BC ā stick with me here ā I was surprised to learn its airport code was YVR. I was used to airport codes having some relationship with the city name. For example: LAX (Los Angeles), SFO (San Francisco), PDX (Portland), SEA (Seattle) ā¦ so I assumed VAN. Nope, thatās actually an airport in Turkey. I never understood why Vancouver was YVR but committed it to memory.
When I booked my flight to Toronto, I was surprised to learn its airport code is YYZ. I began to feel bad for Canada, thinking all the good airport codes had already been claimed and it was stuck using random codes that didnāt make any obvious sense. In reality, I just didnāt know the history:
(C) YYZ ā Toronto Pearson International Airport
The C is for Canada, Y is for (we think) for weather reporting.Ā As for the āYZā part, thatĀ dates all the way back to the Morse Code railwayĀ stations along the Canadian National Railway, which had two-letter identifiers. The code for the station in Malton, Ontario, was YZ, which isĀ where Pearson sits todayāhence YYZ.Ā Ā
I mention all of this so you can appreciate this sign that greets you after you leave the arrivals hall.
Toronto has a direct train from the airport to downtown called UP. Itās super easy. With the name UP, my wife had hoped to see a house with some balloons but itās actually named UP because it connects Union Station and Pearson International Airport. Still, the signage is kind of cute.
Getting on the train at the airport was easy and encouraging that it is possible to have seamless transit experiences in North America.
The train ride was quiet and scenic with just two quick stops on the way to downtown.
As we got into the city, the buildings got taller.
Stepping off the train, you see this. Itās light, bright and modern.
At the end of the platform was this lovely coffee shop, Balzac's.
We stopped and enjoyed a delicious maple pistachio latte (something Iād never had before but would come to discover a recurring pistachio theme in Toronto). This is a far cry from the coffee shop in Portlandās Union Station.
The best part, compared to so many transit stations, is that the platform wall is all glass and you can watch the trains come and go while you enjoy your coffee. If I lived in Toronto, I could see myself having many a coffee meeting here with the UPās arrival every 15 minutes discreetly providing an indicator of time without the need to glance at a watch.
The GO trains have a cute green color scheme.
Just beyond the tracks, the city beckons.
Exploring Toronto
Day One
Heading out the front door of Union Station, the first thing we see is the Fairmont Royal York. A friend who grew up in Toronto mentioned it has a great location and indeed it does. The benefits of being here since 1929.
Just a few blocks away is this TD building, all shiny and glassy.
One of the things about the built environment of Toronto that is so unique is how it is a continual blend of old and new. My wife says Melbourne, Australia is also like this. Some cities feel old. Others feel all shiny and new (like Bellevue, Washington). And in others, there may be an āold townā or historic district that is preserved but the rest of the city looks different.
Toronto has done an amazing job of retaining the character of old buildings and embracing modern new ones. Just look at this scene, with the signature CN tower (the tallest building in the world until 2007) reflected in a glassy office tower with warm red brick next door.
In many cities, little metal bumps are attached to benches and flat surfaces about every 18ā to discourage skateboarders and sleeping. I donāt know the design intent of this seating area but I thought the subtle offsetting slope was a clever approach (to potentially the same end).
Toronto has a bike share program with Tangerine bikes all over. Roy Thomson Hall is seen here with a condo tower in the background. The architecture in Toronto is visually interesting.
Being in Canada, I had to visit a Tim Hortonās of course.
I just about fell off the curb when I saw this coffee shop sign. Do you recognize it?
Itās the same sign as the stock photo I used in this post earlier this year:
(And, yes, I had to get coffee there, too ā on a future day, as Iād already had two cups of coffee this morning).
Glancing down a side street, I saw this building that uses different shapes and colors to break up the mass.
Kings Street has some cute sidewalk eateries, which also feature rooftop patios!
I love how these charming old buildings coexist with the modern towers behind. Also, the streetcars in Toronto are frequent and awesome. We walked everywhere the first day but would experience them later in the trip.
As a photographer, Iām pleased with this composition. (And I never realized 500px.com was based in Toronto.)
Hereās a rendering of the lobby and base of a new condo tower under construction.
Despite all the buildings, nature is never far. Also, the tall buildings have relatively small floorplates, which makes for lots of open sky.
We walked through the financial district around lunchtime and plenty of people were outside. So much has been written about the āurban doom loopā in North American cities and walking around Toronto was such a nice counterpoint. It is alive and well.
Even in the most urban of spaces, there is green. Beautiful green.
I love the tetris like nature of this building. More broadly, this picture conveys the many textures of urban Toronto.
Here is another block we walked where the historic buildings have been preserved and additional density has been introduced with more modern architecture above.
The St. Lawrence Market is, like so many cities, the market hall where everything began.
Inside, it has two levels of food. Fresh produce, meats, multiple cheese mongers, bakeries, kitchen wares, wine and more. We ducked downstairs to use the restroom and also ordered some food. There were lots of schoolkids scurrying about in small groups. At first I thought it must be a field trip but soon realized this is lunch time in the city.
One of the things I love about travel is the serendipity.
The upstairs space (the three windows in the picture above) is an exhibition area today and, as it happened, we had the privilege to meet Kevin Matthew Wong, a Hakka Chinese-Canadian video artist, and be the first to experience his latest work:
Creating: Benevolence, a series of new works exploring the Hakka-Chinese experience in Canada, including a theatre show, short film, and museum installation.
If youāre in Toronto or will be soon (it runs through August 4, 2024), I encourage you to check it out.
This video production was really well done and neat to experience. Here is a post by the artist on Instagram to help convey more.
My wife and I had the opportunity to talk with the artist, Kevin Matthew Wong (shown below), and he is a delightful human.
I love how the shadows and composition of this picture turned out.
Here is a a mural in the basement of St. Lawrence Market that made me smile.
The Gooderham building (brick building below) is a lovely flatiron building, but I found the backside even more interesting.
This is the mural on the back side. Playful, right? Whatās real and whatās not? Look closer. The woman in the window on the second floor is real.
Walking west, thereās another greenspace.
With an amazing dog fountain! (Also Google in the background and warm red brick building in the midground). The layers in Toronto are so wonderful. Old and new. Serious and playful. Built form and natural spaces. Itās my new favorite North American city.
Toronto has managed to preserve so many beautiful old buildings.
Here is another one, with some more modern buildings in the background.
Below is the CN tower in full view between two towers with Roy Thomson Hall in the foreground.
Given how many buildings (and tall buildings) there are in Toronto, Iām continually amazed how often the CN tower shows up between buildings. In my own hometown of Portland, Oregon, āview corridorsā are a sensitive subject and Iāve long wished we could have taller buildings. Spending time in Toronto has made me even more convinced that you can have both urban scale and continuing views.
Here is a poster of a new project designed by Frank Gehry coming soon to Toronto.
As day turned to night, we walked by the Bisha hotel and residences.
Another modern building nearby had what looked to be a gym on the second floor with a nice outdoor space.
We had a lovely dinner outside at Marked and this was my view.
I was surprised for being (in my mind) farther north than my hometown, how much more an outdoor lifestyle Toronto has. This was a Thursday night.
The restaurant had even expanded its outdoor space in front of the mini mart next door.
Walking home, the city felt clean and safe.
And the CN tower, ever present in Toronto, was shining green.
Next week I will share more of Toronto and also hope to discuss some of what makes Toronto so special ā and what other cities might be able to learn and leverage from it.
Please let me know how this format landed for you and I will take any feedback you may have into consideration as I prepare future issues in this series.
Continue in this series
Have a great weekend!
Be well,
-Bryce
PS:
is now easier to access and remember at Bryces.Blog. Tell a friend!
As a resident of this fair city, itās nice to hear a visitorās perspective. Itās not a perfect place (the traffic congestion and constant construction are sometimes enough to make you want to scream) but itās still a great place to live (and visit š¤©).
Thanks for sharing in such great detail Bryce, I am only half through and have enough reasons to visit Toronto.