The Mies van der Rohe building in downtown Toronto
(in the Toronto Dominion Square)
The Christmas tree has tiny lights, lit up even during the day
I went to the Toronto Dominion Centre yesterday to sit by the skyscrapers and to have a warm cup of soup, when I noticed broken glass. As I approached closer, there were police guarding the square and a yellow ribbon closing off a large area surrounding the square.
"What happened?"
"We have broken glass" said the reticent policeman.
I stood around, and realized that something had fallen from one of the buildings. Listening in to some conversation, it became clear that it was a piece of glass from a window.
I had my camera strapped around my neck, so I took some photographs. I then sat a distant away, still in view of the buildings, and warmed up with my soup.
I persisted, and asked another policeman what had happened.
"Are you with the media?"
"No, I take photographs of the city, I can show you if you want. I'm here to take a picture of the Christmas tree."
(In fact, I have taken many photographs of the area, and posted them here, here, here, here and here. As far as glass skyscrapers go, I think it is one of the successful ones.)
"A piece of glass fell off one of the buildings."
"Wow! Is everything OK."
"Yes, it was the internal glass. We're OK, but we'll close off the area for a while."
"Thanks!"
Imagine the sturdy, beautiful, still-standing architecture of the pre-modern era which I recently posted about here, here, and here falling apart like this. Despite their lack of maintenance and care, these buildings are STILL standing. And with all the attention the TD Center gets (it is in the rich, fiancial district of the city) it is falling apart!. Imagine these glass skyscrapers lasting this long. In fact, I was downtown Toronto today, and the area around Mies van der Rohe skyscraper was closed off because a glass window had fallen down on the pavement!!!!
Judith from Galliawatch recently wrote to me, after I posted my Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Erie photographs:
I hope you are well, and despite the bus error have fond memories of your trip. The cities you visited unfortunately are no longer what they once were. Will they come back to life, stimulated by intelligence and caring? Or will they continue to decay? Until we are rid of the destructive elements of our population the answer is not positive.I replied to Judith:
Laura at The Thinking Housewife also commented on the decline of these cities on her blog. I guess it is not news, I remember reading about Detroit for many years, about its horrible degeneration.Here is what Laura from The Thinking Housewife posted on her site, including my photo of Cleveland, and a comment from Jewel, a reader:
But, I also think we should show off these cities, and their sturdy and beautiful architecture (can you imagine the terrible glass sky-scrapers lasting this long?).
Can I use your comments for a post I will write on this (not-so-new) phenomenon, and what I think the cure is?
By the way, some degenerate was standing many feet away from me, watching me, while I was at the one of these sites in Cleveland.
I stood there and "out-stared" him, and waited for him to leave. He did, eventually. But, it was still dangerous, which I didn't realize was an issue there (like downtown Phillie - amidst those lovely buildings!)
Your link to Reclaiming Beauty’s article on Cleveland made me think of the trend in photographing dying cities, namely Detroit and Philadelphia, and the beautiful ruins left behind after years of fiscal mismanagement. Even in ruins, so much of what was once beautiful stands as a silent condemnation of the present culture that espouses ugliness.Here is the awful promotional video, suitable for a degenerating city:
Here’s a hastily made tourism video inviting you to visit Cleveland.
Still, my thoughts hold. These cities have beautiful buildings, and they can still be salvaged, unlike the glass skyscrapers for which I don't see a long future at all. With a little imagination, some dedication, and a lot of perseverance, I think we can reclaim these architectural heritages.
The really sad part, though, is that the Board of Education building in Cleveland (I posted on it here) is being transformed into "luxury condominiums." I understand that urban designers are trying to get money into their decaying cities, but turning heritage buildings (the Board of Educaion building was constructed in 1931, after the Classical, Beaux-Arts style, as the Board of Education) into homes for the rich is not the route. Why not allow this building to resume its former function?
Of course, this requires much more than renting out to the rich. It means building some kind of community which will invest in the area besides setting up a gated residence with bullet-proof cars and alarms to ward off dangers. It means people living together and building together. I suppose the idea is that if the money comes then other amenities will also arrive: shops, restaurants. Schools. Too quick a fix, I say, which looks at the problem in a narrow, isolated way.
Plus, downtown should be for the people, for everyone. This blogger agrees with this. And if one feels that one cannot go downtown because it becomes, however subtly, out-of-bounds, then it still remains the ghost town that it is now.
Former Cleveland Board of Education building, with a statue of Lincoln
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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