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Nathan Phillips Square, Toronto, 1988
“Ford, we are twelve; oh make us one,
Like drops within the Social River …” ~Aldous Huxley, Solidarity Hymn, Brave New World.
This tranquil winter scene, at Nathan Phillips Square, could perhaps be taken to mirror gentler times within Toronto City Hall.
Not that I paid much attention to municipal politics during my Toronto Days, perhaps simply because, relatively speaking, the business of the city was remarkable only for its dullness.
This was pre-amalgamation Toronto.*
Art Eggleton, the city’s longest serving Mayor, was into the eighth year of his incumbency. I’m sure no one at the time could have imagined a crack-smoking Rob Ford. Not in their wildest dreams. Not even the futuristic “flying saucer” design of the council chamber could have prepared for a trip to the outer limits of Crazy Town.
And how many Ontarians could have anticipated, even a year ago, the Second Coming — Brother Doug Ford as premier of the province?
Many people wonder what Ontario and its capital city will look like After Ford.
“…you all remember, I suppose, that beautiful and inspired saying of Our Ford’s: History is bunk.” ~Mustapha Mond, Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
I hope you’ll excuse this discursive introduction. It’s a bit of a stretch, I know. But I couldn’t help having a little Fordian fun, albeit at Toronto’s expense, and Aldous Huxley’s remarkable foresight is never far from mind (read how my Bible Society photo connected me to a friend of Huxley’s).
When I made the photo above, I was simply out for a stroll along Queen Street West, probably contemplating my impending return to Vancouver. I’d enjoyed many events at Nathan Phillips Square, named after the city’s 52nd mayor (1955-62).
Old City Hall, on the left, was completed in 1899 by E.J. Lennox. At a cost of over 2.5 million dollars, it was the largest building in the city at the time — in fact, the largest municipal building in North America.
In 1955, Toronto’s original Chinatown was expropriated and flattened to make way for a new civic centre.
New City Hall, designed by Finnish architect Viljo Revel in the Modernist style, opened in 1965. The final bill: $25-million. Its development, led by Mayor Nathan Philips, was not without controversy. Why wasn’t the project awarded to Canadian architects? Frank Lloyd Wright thought the design “a cliché already dated.” A slice of its curved East Tower is visible on the left.
I made several exposures at the site that morning, none of them focussed on the distinctive (perhaps clichéd) towers. My eye was drawn to the sweep of the concrete arches across the ice rink. History is frozen, along with the posture of skaters and the groundskeeper, bent over his broom.
*A series of amalgamations and annexations began in 1883, culminating in the 1998 amalgamation of City of Toronto with East York, Etobicoke, North York, Scarborough, and York, which arguably paved the way for the election of Rob Ford and his successor John Tory.