Ontario – RDZ Photography

Virtual Travel – Ontario

Architecture, Art, Festival, History, Museum, Nature, Sciences, Sports, Transportation

Welcome to Ontario – Canada’s largest province by population, and the center of the country’s media.

It is also home to more NHL hockey players than any other place in the world.

Government/History

1931 1946 1948 1952 1955 – Parliment Buildings 1968 1970 1973 1996 – Yonge Street

Ottawa

The Canadian National Capital is in Ottawa. The collection of buildings are on what is known as Parliament Hill. They were built between 1859 and 1927.

The metro area is the 5th largest in the country with 1.3 million people.

Many of the buildings are open for tours. The main assembly hall has started a 10 year reconstruction effort, so a new hall was built in what was previously an open space between buildings.

The city is located at the confluence of the Rideau Canal and the Rideau River.

During the summer the buildings are lit up in the evenings with an impressive light show.

Roads and Bridges

1957 1958 1959 1960 1962 1964 1965 1967 1986 – Ivy Lea Bridge 2010 – Highway 406 St Catharines

Toronto is by far the largest city in Canada, and one of the major cities in North America. It is also one of my favorite cities in the world.

The CN Tower was completed in 1973 as the worldest tallest freestanding structure, a record it held until 2007.

The railroads and the lakes built the city. Today the city still has long distance train travel, as well as an extensive subway and streetcar network.

The lakeshore was once an industrial area, but is now filled with luxury condos and apartments.

The entire downtown area is filled with great architecture.

Toronto is the center of the hockey universe, including the Hockey Hall of Fame.

2008 07 05 57 Toronto Hockey Hall of Fame

2008 07 05 47 Toronto Hockey Hall of Fame

2008 07 05 89 Toronto Hockey Hall of Fame

2008 07 05 99 Toronto Hockey Hall of Fame

Hamilton is located 50 miles from Toronto, but it is one continuous city. Once a steel town, it still has some industry, but has transition to a more diverse economy today.

It is also home to Tim Horton’s #1!!

Windsor is across the river from downtown Detroit.

Countryside

1966 1974 1978 1980 1990 – Highway 17 – Wawa 1992 – Algonquin Provincial Park 2001 – Algonquin Provincial Park 2003 – Pancake Bay 2005 – Pancake Bay Provincial Park 2006 – Highway 118 Muskoka 2008 – Highway 141 – Muskoka 2014 – Highway 69 French River

Niagara Falls is shared with New York, but the Ontario side is much nicer.

Scarborough is now part of the city of Toronto but was for many years a separate suburb. It is home to Guild Park – home of relics from down demolished buildings in downtown Toronto.

It is also home to the RC Harris Water Treatment Facility AKA – Palace of Purification.

Ottawa – July 2019 – Capital Views

Architecture, Art, Festival, History, Nature, Transportation

As the Capital of Canada, Ottawa has a number of historic government buildings. With their longstanding connection to England, they tend to have a similar look to those in London.

The majority of the buildings are located on Parliament Hill.

The large Central Block (right with clock tower) has just started undergoing a 10 year restoration.

They offer tours of the House of Commons. With the Central Block under construction they enclosed this former courtyard to make it the new meeting chamber.

One interesting fact – the seats are green because the seats in London’s House of Commons is green. Why is England’s green – nobody knows.

A committee room.

Many other buildings in the city have the same look.

The Canadian Supreme Court.

Another government building on Parliament Hill.

The Canadian Mint.

The entrance to the Prime Minister’s Residence.

The Canadian History Museum across the river in Gatineau, Quebec.

The Alexandra Bridge.

The famed Rideau Canal.

The Rideau Falls.

Our day in Ottawa ended with an impressive light and sound show, detailing the patriotic history of Canada.

Toronto – July 2019 – Sunrise at the Palace of Purification

Architecture, Art, Nature

The drive out of Toronto featured a stop along Lake Ontario as the sun rose. Our stop is the ‘Palace of Purification’ – the R C Harris Water Treatment Plant.

The sunrise was fantastic, as are the art deco buildings. All you have to do to get there is take the streetcar to the very end of the line near Scarborough (but we drove!)

Toronto – July 2019 – An Emphasis on Modern Architecture

Architecture, Art

The Toronto postings end with a more focused modern architecture tour. With more than 70 new skyscrapers more than 150m (500 feet) high built since 2000 (second in North America to New York), there are plenty to choose from, although a few of the more interesting buildings downtown are not skyscrapers.

Not all of the buildings below were built after 2000, but all have the modern architecture look.

Toronto – July 2019 – For This Collection You Need a Large Garden

Architecture, Art, History, Nature

In the 1960s Spencer and Rosa Clark started a collection that required a very large garden – they acquired architectural artifacts from large buildings in downtown Toronto that were being torn down and replaced with even larger ones.

This garden is located in suburban Scarborough, in what is now Guild Park and Gardens.

The archway from a long gone building leads you into the park.

What were once decorative pieces on the Toronto Star newspaper building are now giant building blocks.

Remnants from a Music Hall.

Smaller pieces are integrated directly into the gardens.

While others are added together to make a new sculpture.

Toronto’s second fire hall was located at Richmond and Portland Streets. Dating from 1871 it was torn down in 1968. In the background is a brand new events center.

The Greek Theater (also the featured photo for this posting). What was once the Bank of Toronto Building is now a theater in a park.

The grounds are immaculate, with the artifacts well spaced throughout.

The facing from the Quebec Bank Building has porcelain lions.

Additional random artifacts.

Easily the largest collection is from the former Bank of Montreal Building at King and Bay Streets in downtown Toronto. With this many fantastic items, this must have been an amazing building!

Toronto – July 2019 – Hall of Fame Hockey Jerseys (or Sweaters if you are Canadian)

Art, History

The Hockey Hall of Fame is filled with memorabilia of the sport. Easily the most prevalent are the jerseys from the various teams.

Let’s start with the NHL – both current and former teams.

The Toronto Arenas played the first two NHL seasons in 1917 and 1918. They eventually became known as the Maple Leafs.

This jersey is clearly a reproduction, with the modern NHL logo on it.

The Boston Bruins are another of the ‘Original 6’, with this jersey being one of the early ones.

The original Pittsburgh Penguins jersey, which made a return as an alternate jersey a few years ago.

The famed ‘Winged Wheel’ of the Detroit Red Wings.

The original NHL team in New York were the Americans, with the strange nickname of the Amerks – they were soon eclipsed by the Rangers and eventually folded.

Continuing with the short lived series of teams starting with the Cleveland Barons…

Kansas City Scouts…

Atlanta Flames…

And finally one that never should’ve been allowed to move – the Quebec Nordiques.

Some random cool Juniors and Minor League teams…

And finally an amazing collection of international jerseys, including many countries you wouldn’t think would have ice hockey – like India, South Africa and Argentina.

Toronto – July 2019 – An Impressive Skyline with Architectural Variety

Architecture, Art, History

The city of Toronto has the 3rd best skyline in North America, according to the building website Emporis. There are more than 60 buildings at least 500′ high.

We had the opportunity to take an architectural tour with Daniel, from the Toronto Society of Architects. If there was someone you wanted to wander downtown Toronto with to learn about the history of the city, and the buildings, it is Daniel, as he has over 40 years of experience designing many of them.

Not all the buildings on this posting were seen on Daniel’s tour, but with the knowledge from him we were able to seek out more than what he had time to cover.

Included in these is (to me) the Mecca of Hockey – Maple Leaf Gardens. The Gardens were closed to NHL hockey more than 20 years ago, but the good folks of Toronto had the sense to retain the building and re-purpose it.

Most of the 1st level is a large grocery store, while Ryerson University uses the remainder of the building for athletics.

The highlight is on the current 3rd level – the ‘original ice’, as well as the exposed original ceiling!

Since the 1970s Toronto has had a near continual skyscraper building boom.

There are pockets of historic buildings scattered throughout downtown. In the distance is the clock tower of the ‘old’ city hall.

Completed in 1899 it was used as city hall until 1966 when the new city hall (feature photo for this posting) was completed.

E J Lennox was the primary architect for the old city hall in the 1890s. As was custom at the time he expected to have his name engraved on the building. When city council told him no – he got his revenge – by doing a ‘grotesque’ of himself. He is in the center with the mustache.

Even better was his revenge on his bosses in the city council – he included them as goofy looking people in grotesques, which means 120 years later he is still getting his revenge.

If you look enough you find many art deco touches, including these nice skylights in the Toronto Coach Lines building. Not bad for a bus station.

Another art deco entrance along Yonge Street.

All around you get glimpses of old and new.

The Bank of Nova Scotia building is one of the better art deco examples.

As is the Canadian Bank of Commerce.

A portion of the Hockey Hall of Fame is in the ornate lobby of an old bank.

Union Station is another example, and will shine even more when the renovations are completed in a few years.

Not downtown, and not a skyscraper the ‘Palace of Purification’ is the R C Harris Water Treatment Facility in Scarborough. It is an art deco masterpiece with a great setting along Lake Ontario.

Toronto is a city on the move, and their architecture shows it.

Windsor, ON – June 2017 – Riverfront Scenes

Architecture, Art, Festival, History, Transportation

With a weekend in the Detroit area it was decided to spend the night in Windsor, which is just a mile away through the tunnel.

The Windsor Riverfront offers excellent views of downtown Detroit (other post) as well as the scenes on the Canadian side.

The Ambassador Bridge

Riverfront Park

A carnival was being held in the riverfront park

Niagara Falls – Late Summer 2016 Road Trip – Day 16

Nature

The best time to visit Niagara Falls if you don’t want people in your photos – before daybreak on a Sunday. The roar of the falls drew us to the edge of the park to see the white water before it crashed over the edge. The glow of the buildings from the Canadian side of the falls cast some light on the falls but it was a shadowy image for us to see. Niagara Falls seemed exceptionally larger to me than the falls we saw in Quebec.

I believe it is the expanse of the gorge and the enormous volume of water flowing from Lake Erie into the Niagara River over the falls that is so amazing. Niagara Falls is actually three waterfalls; Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side and American and Bridal Veil Falls on the American side of the gorge.

After a return to the hotel to get breakfast and checked out, we headed out for some more views of the falls. We parked the car in an empty lot and walked across the Rainbow Bridge to Canada for a better view. The bridge gave us a great view of Horseshoe Falls and as the sun rose above the falls; the lighting improved the beauty of the scene even more.

Since we were going back into Canada we had to pass through immigration, where we were reminded that we had to stay behind the little black line on the floor before approaching the window, even though we were the only people there. But they let us back into the country, and we proceeded up the hill onto the Ontario side.

The area was nearly empty and perfect for photos. The sunlit mist rising from the gorge was very pretty. The Ontario side is very well landscaped, obviously built for the crowds that regularly view the falls from this vantage point. But on this early Sunday morning we had the place to ourselves.

One of the attractions is a zip line down into the falls. I have read that the tacky commercialization of Niagara Falls in the 1800s lead directly to the push to create the National Park Service, and it is clear that in the 150 years since the people of Niagara Falls still haven’t learned their lesson. Even with the beautiful landscaping of the park along the Ontario side, they still obstruct the view with zip lines.

Usually met with objections one of my favorite photo subjects are people posing for photos. This morning I was presented with a perfect opportunity, one man fussed with his turban while the other man, a version of Joe Dirt, played with his rooster-comb styled haircut.

But you can only have so much fun, so we decided it was time to walk back to America, and we headed across.When we had crossed the first time a couple of hours earlier I had noticed the immigration entrance was void of any cars at all, so it was surprising on our return to come up on the bridge and see traffic stopped fully across the bridge.

As we walked on I noticed all of the entrance lanes had red lights lit, indicating they were closed. It was then I realized it was September 11th, at the time that the first airplane hit the World Trade Center.

From the walkway on the bridge you could see the immigration workers standing at attention around the flags, which were at half staff, in tribute to the tragedy.

Once they completed we walked inside where I complimented them on the sincerity of their tribute, and they seemed genuinely thankful for the compliment, and we passed quickly through and on to our car.

Our long drive back to Columbus went without event, and we arrived home safe and sound and extremely pleased with yet another fantastic road trip. This passion has allowed us to see amazing places and meet lots of cool people, and as soon as we are home we are looking forward to the next one.

Toronto – July 2008 – Hockey Hall of Fame

Art, History, Sports

Hockey is my favorite sport, Toronto is one of my favorite cities. What better than to check out the Hockey Hall of Fame in downtown Toronto. Located in an old bank, the Hall does a great job displaying the history of hockey.