Kenneth E. Harker
2010 Toronto

Jen and I went to Toronto for a long weekend in August. This was my third trip to Toronto in the past three years (business trips to visit customers), but this was the first time that Jen came with me. It was also the first trip to Toronto where I took photos.

These photos are copyright © 2010 Kenneth E. Harker. All rights reserved.

Dundas Square and Ryerson University

Our hotel was near Dundas Square, at the major intersection of Dundas Street and Yonge Street in downtown Toronto. The square is compared by many to Time Square in New York or Picadilly Circus in London, and features large commercial billboards on all sides. However, some of the buildings are part of the campus of Ryerson University. The first night we were in town, we wandered through campus (most of which is northeast of Dundas Square) on the way to dinner. Ryerson University is a public university with about 31,000 undergraduate and 2,000 graduate students. It was founded in 1852 by Egerton Ryerson as a teacher's college called the Toronto Normal School, but evolved into a full university curriculum over the years. Ryerson was one of the early bureaucrats of Canada and is considered the father of Ontario's public school system; the school's name was changed to honor him in 1948. Because it is an urban campus, it is often difficult to tell which buildings belong to the university and which do not. It was twilight when we walked through the campus, so the light for photography was not the best.

	At the northeast corner of the square, looking at the giant video screen billboards attached to the Toronto Eaton Centre, a massive indoor shopping center and office complex. The Toronto Eaton Centre is part of the PATH, 28 kilometers (17 miles) of linked pedestrian walkways underneath downtown Toronto. The PATH is basically a giant underground shopping mall.
	Just north of the Toronto Eaton Centre is the World's Biggest Bookstore, which actually no longer is. Located in a converted bowling alley, its claim to be the world's biggest bookstore in 1980 might have been true, but it is no longer true today. Nevertheless, the store has over 20 kilometers of bookshelves, and unlike Powell's Books in Portland, Oregon (which we visited earlier in the year) all of the books were new stock.
	Some local business on Dundas Street, near Ryerson University. I was a bit intrigued by the name of the Internet cafe on the upper floor, but not intrigued enough to go inside.
	This giant tower was on top of one of the campus buildings. There were dozens of antennas on it (all of them were vertically polarized as far as I could tell), and one whole face of the tower was covered in hardline.
	A sculpture of a courtyard in the center of Kerr Hall.
	This is a blurry photo of the green inside Kerr Hall. The building in the foreground with the clock tower is the Recreation and Athletics Centre. The two tall office buildings in the background are located on Dundas Square.
	Some conifer trees on campus. The greater neighborhood area around Ryerson University is known as the Garden District.

Yorkville

We took the subway to Yorkville for lunch. We walked around the neighborhood for a half hour or so before our restaurant was open. Yorkville is considered one of the premier shopping districts in Toronto, with lots of expensive boutique shops and art galleries. The neighborhood reputedly has the third-most-expensive retail storefront rents in North America.

	Some trees in Yorkville Park, a narrow public space on the south side of Cumberland Road.
	Cumberland Street was full of restaurants and boutiques. Most of the very expensive shops were on Bloor Street, one block south of Cumberland Street. Every lamppost in Yorkville had hanging flower baskets.
	Another section of Yorkville Park.
	There are many art galleries in Yorkville. This one had a fun sculpture of a Toronto Blue Jays player outside.
	Another gallery had a life-size sculpture of a bull.
	A more modern sculpture in front of a gallery that showed only Canadian artists.
	A monkey on a horse with a short woman and a small dog.

Royal Ontario Museum

After lunch in Yorkville, we spent several hours at the Royal Ontario Museum. Focusing on world culture and natural history, the Royal Ontario Museum is one of the largest museums in North America. It was extremely busy the day we were there, with lots of families and children.

	The front entrance of the museum on Bloor Street. The unusually shaped addition to the building is known as the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, after a major donor. Inside, the angles create a lot of strange shapes that create dead space and limit the amount of items that can be displayed in a gallery.
	Looking up at the front of the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal. The addition to the museum houses the new entrance, a gift shop, restaurant, seven galleries, and the exhibition hall for visiting exhibits. When we were there, the major traveling exhibit was the Terra Cotta Warriors of the First Chinese Emperor, Qin Shi Huang Di. I'd already seen them, in the ground in Xi'an, 18 years ago.
	We spent our time in the museum visiting the cultural history galleries, starting with Canada. The Canadian galleries were roughly split between aboriginal Canada and post-European immigration Canada. Flash photography was not allowed in the museum, so I didn't try to take very many photos. These are birch bark canoes, which Jen had never seen before.
	A ceremonial mask from the Tsimshian tribe of northern British Columbia.
	A aboriginal straw hat from British Columbia.
	A very nice sculpture of a seahawk head.
	A totem pole from the Pacific Northwest. In general, the museum had better quality artifacts from the aboriginal tribes of the west coast and the Arctic. I was kind of disappointed in what was on display from the tribes of Ontario, Quebec, and the Maritimes. The museum also did a very poor job of relating artifacts to geography. It was often very difficult to tell where in Canada something was from.
	Another totem pole. Because of the height, the poles were displayed in the center of stairwells, separated from the rest of the Pacific coast aboriginal artifacts, which made it a little bit difficult to fully appreciate them.
	View of the Taking of Quebec by Francis Swaine. There was surprisingly little in the museum about French-Canadian history.
	This portrait amused me. It is a portrait of William "Tiger" Dunlop (1792-1848), a Scot who emigrated to Ontario and worked as an official for the Canada Company. He was apparently well-known for his wild hair.
	Outside of the museum, the bicycle racks had whimsical designs. This one is some kind of flightless bird.
	I think this is supposed to be a giraffe head.
	A dragon. I'm not sure this is the most practical design for a bicycle rack.

Queen's Park and the Ontario Parliament

South of the Royal Ontario Museum is Queen's Park, a large urban park in the center of downtown Toronto. Established in 1860, the park was named for Queen Victoria, then the reigning monarch of Canada. The Ontario Parliament building, the home of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, is in the southern half of the park. The park land belongs to the University of Toronto, but has been leased to the province for a period 999 years. University buildings surround the park, but most of the University is west of the park.

	Jen, in Queen's Park.
	The War Memorial of the 48th Highlanders of Canada. The monument lists the engagements in which the 48th Highlanders have fought, including battles in the Anglo-Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War.
	An equestrian statue of Edward VII, King of the United Kingdom and Emperor of India (1841-1910). Edward succeeded Queen Victoria to the British throne in 1902, after being heir to the throne longer than any British monarch. In 1860, Edward became the first heir to the British throne to visit North America, and was present at the dedication ceremony for Queen's Park. This statue was originally erected in a park in Delhi, India, but was moved to Canada in 1969.
	Most of the trees in the park were maples or oaks, although there were birch, ash, pine, and other species. A sign in the park informed us that Norway maples, although not native to Ontario, were planted in part because they are "tolerant of pollution".
	A pond and fountain near the center of Queen's Park.
	The Ontario Parliament building. The building exterior is made from local Ontario sandstone, which has a slightly pink hue, not unlike the slightly pink limestone in the Texas state capitol building. This building houses the Ontario Legislative Assembly, which governs a territory of over 1,000,000 square kilometers - larger than any European country except Russia.
	The lawn by the southwest corner of the Parliament Building features a statue of Sir Oliver Mowat, the third Premier of Ontario. Mowat was Premier from 1872 to 1896, the longest-serving Premier of Ontario to date. He was one of the Fathers of Confederation, representing Ontario at the 1864 Quebec Conference that defined the roles of the federal and provincial governments in a united Canada.
	The back side of the Ontario Parliament building. The first Ontario Parliament Building (along with the Governor-General's residence) was burned by American troops during the Battle of York in 1813, an act that the British at the time considered contrary to the civilized rules of war. At the personal request of the Canadian Governor-General, Sir George Prevost, the British would retaliate in the summer of 1814 by burning the U.S. Capitol and the White House in Washington, D.C.
	A black squirrel in Queen's Park, near the Ontario Parliament Building. Black squirrels are the same species as the common gray squirrel, and can be found in Ontario and the U.S. Midwest. Black squirrels were apparently more common than gray squirrels prior to the arrival of Europeans, when the virgin forests of North America provided deep shade. As the forests were cut down, gray squirrels had a biological advantage and have ever since outnumbered black squirrels.
	This was the first black squirrel I've seen, although I would see several more later in the day.
	At the very southern end of Queen's Park is a statue of Sir John A. MacDonald (1815-1891), Canada's first Prime Minister. MacDonald was a Father of the Confederation, and served as Prime Minister of Canada from 1867 to 1873 and again from 1878 to 1891. During his term in office, MacDonald was a major proponent of the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway, which he saw as essential to securing a Canadian nation that stretched to the Pacific Ocean.
	Part of the Toronto skyline reflected in an office building across the street from Queen's Park.

University of Toronto

The University of Toronto was founded in 1827 as King's College, the first college in the colony of Upper Canada. It was originally envisioned as an institution that would help defend Ontario society against the rising sentiments of pro-American republicanism in the colony. Originally associated with the Church of England, in 1850 it became a (mostly) secular university and changed its name. The university is based on the English model, with 12 semi-autonomous colleges. Today, there are about 33,000 undergraduate and 11,500 graduate students. We had an hour to explore the campus on our way to meeting old friends for dinner.

	The Department of Household Science offered a bachelor's degree in home economics at the University of Toronto from 1906 until the 1960s, when the program was phased out over several years. This building was completed in 1913, and featured a gymnasium and a swimming pool in the basement, the only such facilities open to women at the university until 1959. Today, the building houses the Department of Classics and the Centre for Medieval Studies.
	Falconer Hall, one of the Law School buildings.
	The Terrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research is housed in this interesting, modern building. While it is an interesting visual design feature, I'm sure the gap between floors does nothing good for the winter heating costs.
	Convocation Hall features a large rotunda used for ceremonial functions and gatherings. It is used for the annual convocation ceremonies.
	Simcoe Hall, one of the Administration buildings on campus.
	I found this marker stone interesting. The plaque indicates the elevation in feet, as it predates Canada's conversion to the Metric System.
	The University College building. The green in front of the building is known as the Front Campus. University College was the founding college of the university. Today, it is home to the departments of Canadian Studies, Drama, Health Studies and Sexual Diversity Studies.
	Some details of the University College building. I thought this was one of the prettiest buildings on the university campus.
	The southwest corner of University College featured this round room.
	The northwest corner of University College.
	Knox College is the postgraduate theological college of the University of Toronto. It is associated with the Presbyterian Church in Canada. While all of the undergraduate degree programs at the university are secular, this college obviously is not.
	Another part of the Knox College building has large windows and many design elements found in Gothic churches.
	The CN Tower, way off in the distance. I visited the CN Tower on a previous trip to Toronto. Constructed in 1975, it is 553.3 meters (1,815 ft) tall. For 32 years (from 1975 to 2007), it was the tallest free-standing structure on land in the world.
	Another black squirrel. This one was feasting on leftover sandwich bread that we watched it pull out of a trash can.
	Some students playing soccer on the Back Campus, which had a soccer field next to a rugby field. The red brick building across the field is Wycliffe College, an Anglican seminary federated with the University of Toronto. Like Knox College, it only offers Masters and Doctorate level degrees. The white stone building is a part of Hart House, the student activity center at the University of Toronto.
	The Robarts Library and the Thomas Fisher Rare Books Library were an architectural disappointment.
	Whitney Hall, a student dormitory.
	The courtyard in front of the Sir Daniel Wilson Residence, another student dormitory.
	A wall outside the Lash Miller Chemical Laboratories was decorated in alchemical symbols. The building was completed in 1963.
	The back side of Knox College, along St. George Street.
	The view to the south along St. George Street. The CN Tower is visible from miles away, as it often is in downtown Toronto.
	This older building on St. George Street was surrounded on three sides by the modern building that houses the Department of Mathematics.

Chinatown

We had dinner with some old friends who live near Chinatown. There are actually several Chinese-Canadian ethnic enclaves in the Greater Toronto Area, but the Chinatown area of Spadina Avenue and Dundas Street (designated by city government as the Chinatown Business Improvement Area) is the largest and oldest, dating back to the 19th century. It is one of the largest Chinatowns in North America. Chinatown was originally located in the blocks to the east of its current location. The building of a new city hall in the 1950s and further commercial development in the 1960s pushed the smaller Chinese-Canadian merchants westward to the current neighborhood. The BIA collects taxes from the merchants in its boundaries; in the case of Chinatown, the BIA uses its levies to sponsor an annual Toronto Chinatown Festival, an event that attracts 100,000 people.

	The intersection of Spadina Street and Dundas Street West. The shopping mall on the southwest corner of the intersection is known as Dragon City. The wires hanging above the street are for streetcars.
	The street scene on Dundas Street West.
	The intersection of Dundas Street West and Huron Street.
	A church offering services in English, Cantonese Chinese, and Mandarin Chinese languages.
	This Chinese restaurant had barbecued duck hanging in a window display.
	My new favorite restaurant name: "Ten Mile Aroma".
	The Lucky Charm Moose Village had an interestingly painted moose above the main entrance.

Art Gallery of Ontario

The Art Gallery of Ontario was founded in 1900 as the Art Museum of Toronto. Today, it is the 10th largest art museum in North America and contains the largest collection of Canadian artwork in the world. The museum building underwent extensive transformation in 2004 at the hands of native Torontonian architect Frank Gehry. This museum was Gehry's first work in Canada. On our visit, we focused on the Canadian collection and the European collection.

	The front façade of the museum on Dundas Street.
	The northeast corner of the museum features a sculpture called Large Two Forms by Henry Moore. The Henry Moore Sculpture Center at the AGO contains over 900 works by the British sculptor, the largest collection of his works in the world.
	These distinctive staircases are a signature architectural feature of the Frank Gehry re-design of the museum.
	Next door to the AGO on McCaul Street is the very distinctive Sharp Centre for Design building, part of the Ontario College of Art and Design (in the process of re-branding itself as "OCAD University").
	OCAD is Canada's oldest and largest university for art and design. The Sharp Centre for Design features a level suspended four stories above ground on multi-colored pillars at different angles.
	This building was completed in 2004, the same year that the Frank Gehry renovations to the AGO were completed next door.
	Across the street to the northwest of the Art Gallery of Ontario is the Italian Consulate in Toronto. This moose sculpture in the Consulate front yard faces the AGO and includes the traditional colors of Italy and the distinctive maple leaf of Canada.
	A Toronto Transit Commission Route 505 streetcar. Toronto has 11 streetcar lines in the downtown area and they were fairly convenient. because the street car lines were in the center of the street, you often had to cross a lane of traffic to board the cars.

Korea Town

We had dinner one night in Korea Town, another designated Business Improvement Area in Toronto. Toronto has the largest Korean-Canadian community in Canada, but the Korean Town BIA is limited to the businesses on Bloor Street between Christie and Bathurst Streets, essentially the neighborhood between two stops on the subway line.

	It was raining when we got out of the subway. The light poles in Korea Town were all decorated with banners that looked like the South Korean flag.
	"Magic Health Food".
	Concrete flower pots all along the sidewalk were painted in Korean folk scenes. This one features children sitting on top of a blue tile roof.
	Across the street from the eastern end of Korea Town, on Bloor Street, was a store called Honest Ed's. The lights and signs reminded me of off-strip Las Vegas. The store compares itself to Macy's in New York City or Harrod's in London.