<Building Leslie Barns, ca2015, by TOM TARDIF / Azimuth Geomatics & TTC>. LESLIE BARNS occupies a large piece of property at the corner of Leslie Street and Lakeshore Boulevard. It was built to service and house 100 of the TTC’s fleet of 204 Flexity Outlook LRT vehicles – otherwise known as TORONTO’s new streetcars. If necessary, Leslie Barns can handle a total of 264 Flexitys.
Unlike the older streetcars, the Flexitys have their equipment on the roof, and need a shop layout that can deal with this.
Leslie Barns occupies 26,000 square metres (6.4 acres); indoor bays for 30 Flexitys; room in the yard for another 100; 5.2 miles (8.3 kilometres) of track on the property. About 200 TTC maintenance and operations personnel work in the buildings. The facility has been operating since November 22, 2015. It opened officially the following year.
To celebrate both the Leslie Barns and the Cherry Street Flexity streetcar line, the TTC produced a campaign with the National Ballet of Canada. In a YouTube video Principal Dancer NAOYA EBE visits the TTC’s newest and most modern facility.
For complete details on the Leslie Barns and how they were built go to https://www.ttc.ca/About_the_TTC/Projects/Leslie_Barns/latest_news/2015_News.jsp
<ABOVE – My hometown – AMHERST, Nova Scotia – by JAMES FOWLER>. The bright colours are inspired by summer festivals, happiness, travel and fun. Funds from the sale of the paintings helped pay for an exhibition at the Gladstone Hotel, as well as the 8th annual ’10 x 10 Photography Project‘ book.
Its 650 seats will be filled again soon for the 2018 Hot Docs Documentary Film Festival. TORONTO’s documentary cinema has become a financial success story. It’s turning a profit! In 2016, the Festival screened a record 232 films before an audience of 211,000. In 2018, its 25th anniversary, the lineup will be even larger – 246 full-length, medium and short-length films.
<‘BIRD’S EYE VIEW OF TORONTO‘, looking northwest, postcard, 1914>
<YONGE/DUNDAS SQUARE, Gil Meslin @g.meslin, 2018>
<CN TOWER & ROUNDHOUSE PARK, Toronto Railroad Historical Association>
The O.A.A. has chosen the 2018 Design Excellence Award Winners, and three of them are in TORONTO – with some in other parts of Ontario, as well as Chile and New Jersey. Two of this year’s TORONTO projects are below.
CASEY HOUSE is a specialized healthcare facility for those with HIV/AIDS. A new addition brings much-needed space to augment a Jarvis Street Victorian mansion.
The new structure embraces the old one, preserving its qualities and organizing day-to-day activities around a central courtyard. The open space is the heart of the facility, allowing in natural light and connecting the hospital to the outside world.
LIMELIGHT AMPHITHEATRE & BANDSHELL is the focal point of Lee Lifeson Art Park in North York. It’s named after two members of the rock band RUSH who grew up in the neighbourhood. The name connects with one of the band’s songs. For a new public park, the client asked for a bold and unique identity that would relate to the theme of sound.
The Vineland Research and Innovation Centre, VINELAND in Southern Ontario, brings scientific and commercial interests under one roof. The 40,000-square-foot facility supports research, public education, and plant production. Architects: Baird Sampson Neuert Architects Inc. Image Credit: Richard Seck. Architectural Credit: Baird Sampson Neuert Architects Inc.
Double Duplex, TORONTO, is located in the Parkdale neighbourhood. The project is a response to the city’s need for alternative housing models within costly urban real estate. The site was split into two separate properties with a four-storey, 3,500-square-foot detached duplex residence constructed on the two sites. Architects: Batay-Csorba Architects, Toronto, ON. Image Credit: doublespace photography
McEwen School of Architecture at Laurentian University, SUDBURY, northern Ontario, is Canada’s first new architecture school in 40 years. Its mandate is to uniquely focus education on Indigenous, Anglophone and Francophone students. The project consists of two heritage buildings, a new studio wing and a new cross-timbered library wing. Image Credit: Bob Gundu. Architectural Credit: LGA Architectural Partners Ltd.
The 1927 Beaux Arts Wellington Building in OTTAWA with its 1959 addition, will soon become Canada’s temporary House of Commons for the next 25 years, while the original undergoes renovations on Parliament Hill. This will be the only office many parliamentarians will have during their tenure. Architect: NORR Architects & Engineers Limited. Heritage Conservation Architect: Architecture EVOQ inc. Images: doublespace photography
<Lois Andison’s “golden on sterling”, produced for MOCA’s Benefit Editions> After two years in the making, TORONTO’s Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) is about ready for its debut in the former Tower Automotive Building, 158 Sterling Road. Built in 1920, the heritage building has a long history of aluminum manufacturing, sheet-metal casting and automotive parts creating.
Sterling Road is within walking distance of 2 streetcar/bus lines, 2 stops on the the Bloor-Danforth subway (Line 2) & a GO transit station. <PHOTO by Arash Moaliemi>
‘Holding Pattern’ is one of many works of art found throughout Terminals one and three. Pearson International Airport (YYZ) is Canada’s largest and busiest. It’s the main hub for Air Canada, and was the first in the world to provide United States border preclearance. In 2018 over 75 airlines to more than 180 destinations across the world’s 6 continents arrive & depart from Pearson.
TAZEEN OAYYUM is a contemporary miniature painter and installation artist. In TORONTO her work has been shown at Pearson International Airport and the Textile Museum of Canada. Educated at the National College of Arts in Pakistan she has exhibited her work in Sydney, Honolulu, Rouen, Tokyo, Vancouver, Pakistan and TORONTO.
<THE MUSHROOM STUDIO, by Katie Bethune-Leamen, photo – Ben Thong
There’s concern in the JUNCTION that The Terracotta House, now under reconstruction, won’t be preserved as-is. The house was built by construction-yard owner JOHN TURNER. According to Terra Cotta-Artful Deceivers, a book published by the Toronto Region Architectural Conservancy, Turner’s elaborate exterior may have been a way of advertising his business.
The book calls the eccentric design a “misuse”, and as Chris Bateman of blogto puts it “across the front, down the sides, and round the back hundreds of mismatched decorative reliefs make the building look like a displaced Asian temple.” But he kind of likes it.
The Terra Cotta House, 20 Jerome Street, is near Dundas Street West and Dupont. PHOTOS – blogto, Toronto Star and 
Toronto Savvy 