Canadian skylines of the past - Page 136

Rico Rommheim · #**2701** Posted **Mar 12, 2019, 3:51 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by O-tacular

If you read the blog in the link there's some interesting history about the Calgary tower. Apparently it was the tallest building in Canada for a few months in 1968 before Toronto's TD centre was finished. It's also apparently earthquake proof.

I don't see how that's possible, as Montreal's CIBC, PVM and Victoria towers were all built 5 years prior, and slightly taller.

J.OT13 · #**2702** Posted **Mar 12, 2019, 4:00 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rico Rommheim

I don't see how that's possible, as Montreal's CIBC, PVM and Victoria towers were all built 5 years prior, and slightly taller.

Unless it was the tallest in elevation?

Rico Rommheim · #**2703** Posted **Mar 12, 2019, 4:08 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Unless it was the tallest in elevation?

Even if we count antennas, the three Montreal towers also have antennas so nope.

starburns42 · #**2704** Posted **Mar 12, 2019, 4:09 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by O-tacular

Calgary from the late 60's:

http://acrossandabroad.com/2010/03/2...calgary-tower/

If you read the blog in the link there's some interesting history about the Calgary tower. Apparently it was the tallest building in Canada for a few months in 1968 before Toronto's TD centre was finished. It's also apparently earthquake proof.

This is how Atlantic provinces look now!

esquire · #**2705** Posted **Mar 12, 2019, 4:15 PM**

^ That top picture of the Calgary skyline has to be the single most posted vintage skyline pic on this forum. I feel like I've seen it 100 times.

Airboy · #**2706** Posted **Mar 12, 2019, 4:23 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

That was the Canada pavilion and, yes, it was torn down. And yes, it was cool. And you have made me feel very old ...

Yup some pretty neat building during the 67 expo. My first trip back to the site was about 1980, quite depressing to see.

First trip across country for that. Parents drove a 66 Plymouth Belvidere with three young boys and pulling a tent trailer. I remember most of that trip quite vividly. Expo was incredible as well. Saw the Monkeys and 5 Dimension play.

Acajack · #**2707** Posted **Mar 12, 2019, 4:23 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by starburns42

This is how Atlantic provinces look now!

So the Calgary Tower is the equivalent to the NBTel (now Bell Aliant?) Tower in Moncton?

J.OT13 · #**2708** Posted **Mar 12, 2019, 4:25 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rico Rommheim

Even if we count antennas, the three Montreal towers also have antennas so nope.

Depends if the antenna is an integral part of the architectural language or it's purely functional. On the Calgary Tower (or CN Tower in Toronto), the former is true, while in the Montréal examples (or many in Ottawa), the latter is true.

It's kind of like how antennas are not counted within Montréal's height restrictions. Or the argument of whether the tallest building in Montréal is 100 de La Gauchetière or 1250 René-Lévesque. The height of the Calgary Tower and the CN Tower always includes the antenna.

Dr Awesomesauce · #**2709** Posted **Mar 13, 2019, 12:16 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by TorontoDrew

source:https://static.torontopubliclibrary.ca

All Toronto's currrent Financial core

King St. East, looking east from Yonge St., Toronto, Ont. 1873

Love the lion over the entrance of that building on the north side of the street. They weren't effing around. Wow.

MonkeyRonin · #**2710** Posted **Mar 13, 2019, 8:06 PM**

1980s Toronto from Avard Woolaver

Kensington Market, Toronto, 1983 by Avard Woolaver, on Flickr

Yonge Street, Toronto, 1980 by Avard Woolaver, on Flickr

The Shuffle Demons, Toronto, 1984 by Avard Woolaver, on Flickr

Sam the Record Man, Yonge Street, Toronto, 1981 by Avard Woolaver, on Flickr

Funland Arcade, Yonge Street, Toronto, 1981 by Avard Woolaver, on Flickr

Queen West and Portland, Toronto, 1983 by Avard Woolaver, on Flickr

Kensington Market, Toronto, 1983 by Avard Woolaver, on Flickr

The Junction, Toronto, 1985 by Avard Woolaver, on Flickr

Queen and Bathurst, Toronto, 1984 by Avard Woolaver, on Flickr

The Junction, Toronto, 1983 by Avard Woolaver, on Flickr

Yonge Street, Toronto, 1985 by Avard Woolaver, on Flickr

Cineplex Eaton Centre, Toronto, 1985 by Avard Woolaver, on Flickr

Carlton and Bleecker, Toronto, 1980 by Avard Woolaver, on Flickr

Gerrard East and Mutual, Toronto, 1982 by Avard Woolaver, on Flickr

Queen and Sherbourne, Toronto, 1978 by Avard Woolaver, on Flickr

Yonge and Gould (looking south) Toronto, 1982 by Avard Woolaver, on Flickr

Toronto Skyline, 1989 by Avard Woolaver, on Flickr

Dundas West and Medland, Toronto, 1984 by Avard Woolaver, on Flickr

hipster duck · #**2711** Posted **Mar 13, 2019, 10:20 PM**

^Awesome set.

This photo reminds me of one of my earliest memories as a small child.

My parents would go to Kensington and buy eggs from a store run by a lady of some unknown Eastern European origins who kept chickens in cages on the front stoop. This would have been around 1987. The place was messy and disorienting and the whole experience scared me.

I was only four, so my memory isn't the greatest, but I think the store was located just to the north of where the Freshmart is today on Augusta (I'd link it to Google Streetview, but the store is hidden behind a truck).

Dr Awesomesauce · #**2712** Posted **Mar 14, 2019, 1:13 AM**

Big hair.
Arcades.
Druxy's.
Nightmare on Elm Street.
Sam the Record Man.

You had to be there to truly appreciate it.

Gresto · #**2713** Posted **Mar 14, 2019, 3:43 AM**

Love that last set of retro pics.

MolsonExport · #**2714** Posted **Mar 14, 2019, 3:51 AM**

wicked set!

GeneralLeeTPHLS · #**2715** Posted **Mar 14, 2019, 4:47 AM**

Love that set, too bad they can't be downloaded.

yaletown_fella · #**2716** Posted **Mar 14, 2019, 7:17 AM**

Great photos.

Traffic lights actually used to look nicer. No big ugly yellow shield.

MonkeyRonin · #**2717** Posted **Mar 14, 2019, 6:27 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by GeneralLeeTPHLS

Love that set, too bad they can't be downloaded.

Sure they can?

This guy has loads more great content. It might just be his aesthetic or perhaps the B&W film, but the look of all of these kind of support my idea that the 80s were really the last decade of the industrial era. Even just from looking at photos, the 90s as a whole seem to bear much more of a resemblance to the current order of things. Posted some in the spoilers below so as to not overwhelm.

someone123 · #**2718** Posted **Mar 14, 2019, 6:47 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

Even just from looking at photos, the 90s as a whole seem to bear much more of a resemblance to the current order of things.

The 80's are the Canadian urban retro sweet spot right now. Different enough from today to look weirdly foreign, grittier than today, but also roughly modern-sized cities that had a lot more going on than they did in 1950. Go much farther back than 1980 and Canada didn't even have big cities.

I've been surprised at how quickly stuff from the 70's and 80's has disappeared over the past 20 years. I am a bit too young to have a sense of what things were like in the 80's but there used to be a lot more retro 1980-style interiors with stuff like earth tone tiles, chunky wood paneling or railings, lots of indoor plants, etc. Those things are mostly gone now and have been replaced with monotone minimalist decor. Even the low-end suburban malls, office complexes, and hotels around here have been torn down or remodeled. I didn't appreciate that the half life of that stuff is maybe 20 years.

I don't think the 90's were really an inflection point, I think they're just recent enough to feel less different. In 2060 I bet people will look back on 2019 after a bunch of currently-impossible-to-predict things happen and note how strange everything was (e.g. old stuff is weirdly ground-oriented since people didn't fly around in drones, people used to have functional point light sources because they didn't have programmable walls to emit an ambient glow, and nobody knew yet that faux Aztec style is best and should be used everywhere according to the 15 second HGTV clips that get beamed into your brain).

KnoxfordGuy · #**2719** Posted **Mar 25, 2019, 6:28 PM**

Picture from the Toronto Library archives. Toronto skyline 1880:

54525255_263636604576570_8035457896089124864_n by James McGrath, on Flickr

Bay Street and King Street in 1930 also from the Toronto Library archives:

55503438_425048061372227_6340944722013454336_n by James McGrath, on Flickr

55624266_2020116068292461_8779250849122615296_n by James McGrath, on Flickr

Chadillaccc · #**2720** Posted **Mar 31, 2019, 4:57 AM**

That Commerce Court North shot is excellent. Nice find!