Crosstown Traffic


On Mother’s Day 2022, I passed an unfamiliar intersection where I saw a large glass building with the word Keelesdale on it. The image of a new glass structure partially covering the fading signage on the adjacent older brick building.

Musing on the theme of Movement for my contribution to the Spectra Fall 2022 Group show, I had a mental image of this glass building rising up among the existing buildings on the street without concern about its surroundings.

Similar glass structures are rising up among the existing buildings on Eglinton Avenue, including at Oakwood Avenue, where a once vibrant community known as Little Jamaica has been economically traumatized by endless construction (captured in work I presented in a 2019 Group Show). These new structures represent the stations of the Eglinton Crosstown Subway - generally considered the fastest form of urban transit, building them is an entirely different matter. Construction of the Eglinton Crosstown project began in the summer of 2011 and currently has not set completion date. 

For Torontonians, the Crosstown subway has become the source of jokes about its length of construction. During the recent pandemic, a popular meme was “Treat yourself like Eglinton and never stop working on yourself no matter how inconvenient it is for everyone else”. As I started photographing the stations, I quickly understood the truth in this meme. Not only had the glass stations risen without consideration of adjacent buildings, the movement of pedestrians and motorists was significantly restricted.

The following 10 images were included in a Spectra G44 Members Group show in October 2022.  Images titles are drawn from promotion text found at the Metrolinx Crosstown website.

 

Untitled (2011 to 2022?)

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Untitled (city expanding and thriving 1)

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Untitled (city expanding and thriving 2)

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Untitled (make your trip easier 1)

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Untitled (make your trip easier 2)

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Untitled (connecting communities 1)

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Untitled (connecting communities 2)

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Untitled (connecting communities 3)

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Untitled (sixty percent faster 1)

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Untitled (sixty percent faster 2)

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