So next weekend I’m heading out for the Doors Open Toronto event. This is the oldest Doors Open Day event in North America and Toronto has been hosting it since 2000. I’m going with my girlfriend who is a fabulous photographer and a number of the locations will have photography exhibitions so it should be a great weekend. This year there will be over 150 buildings to choose from – many of the city’s unique and historically significant buildings will be open to the public. And yes, there are even a couple of Buddhist temples open!
The launch is on Friday night at the Royal Ontario Museum which will give us an opportunity to see the latest exhibits. Some of my favorite not to be missed spots are:
Elgin Theatre Toronto and Winter Garden Theatre
This building opened in 1913 and was originally built as the pantomime and movie theatre Loew’s. The two theatres are the last surviving Edwardian stacked theatres in the world. Of the two the upper Winter Garden is my favourite – it has real preserved leaves and branches hanging from the ceiling and is intended to resemble a garden at night. Coloured glass lanterns hang from above and the hand-painted screen boasts a luscious landscape designed to induce dreams. The Winter Theatre was mothballed in 1928 and didn’t open again to the public 1985 after a restoration that took two and a half years.
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health Historic Walls
The southern brick face of the CAMH was built by unpaid asylum patient labourers from the then Provincial Lunatic Asylum in 1860. The barriers surrounded 50 acres of the asylum. In 2007 restoration work was started by CAMH clients who were employed but this time paid! Sounds like an M. Night Shyamalan film!
Todmorden Mills
The history of Todmorden is closely tied to that of the Don River and the Valley. Although the buildings survived the construction of the DVP, the river was moved away from the site and the mill building seems strangely landlocked. If you follow the road back to the parking lot, you’ll cross a bridge that goes over what used to be the Don River. The site is also home to the lone remaining station from the Belt Line Railway, transplanted from Queen Street a few kilometres south.
I’ll also be checking out:
Kadampa Meditation Centre Canada, Riwoche Tibetan Buddhist Temple of Toronto and the Toronto Necropolis and Crematorium.
If you are interested here is the link, enjoy!!! http://wx.toronto.ca/inter/culture/doorsopen2011.nsf/BuildingsAll?OpenView
