Thursday, April 24, 2014

Geese Within The Mall

In the Eaton Centre downtown in Toronto, a flock of Canada Geese have been suspended for many years above the various levels of the mall.


These are fibreglass sculptures by the artist Michael Snow, collectively called Flight Stop. 


The geese are life sized.


Another view of Old City Hall in Toronto, taken from the side of the new City Hall (a.k.a. the place where a certain notorious crack smoking drunkard mayor shows up from time to time and acts like a child throwing a tantrum).  Old City Hall is built in the Romanesque Revival style, and dates back to the end of the 19th Century. Its continued use today as a courthouse is a good thing; I like the look of the building, whereas the present modernist City Hall is a product of its time (the Sixties were not a good time for architecture, let's just put it that way).


The carvings around this door caught my eye downtown in Toronto as well. This is the entrance into a branch of the Canadian Imperial Bank Of Commerce. We tend to call it the CIBC, just as we've taken to shortening all bank names in the last twenty years.



36 comments:

  1. How lovely and elegant are those geese!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I do love those geese in the Eaton Centre!

    ReplyDelete
  3. It has been over 20 years since I was in Toronto let a lone the Eaton's center I am not a fan of cities but great shots ! Thanks for sharing , have a good day !

    ReplyDelete
  4. Toronto is a great and nice city I would like to go there. I have been in the USA but not in Canada.

    Tomás.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The geese are blooming marvellous!

    ReplyDelete
  6. There is some fantastic architecture in Toronto. City Hall? What were they thinking?
    Jane x

    ReplyDelete
  7. I love Canada geese! Seeing this makes me want to see Fly Away Home again....

    ReplyDelete
  8. Linda: it is a creative use of otherwise empty space.

    revrunner: indeed!

    EG: the artist did good work with the arrangement.

    Country Gal: thank you.

    Tomas: it is pleasant...despite the mayor.

    Ciel: I think so!

    Jane: they weren't!

    ReplyDelete
  9. i love the geese! and that bank is pretty grand!

    ReplyDelete
  10. love that doorway! and the geese in the atrium area, too!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I absolutely agree with you about the Sixties and I must say that mayor of yours was much more picturesque than our grayish ones...

    ReplyDelete
  12. I've been in that mall. It's very attractive.

    ReplyDelete
  13. @Norma: they're quite ornery birds!

    @RedPat: we'll have to agree to disagree on that one!

    @Tanya: they don't make them like that anymore.

    @Tex: I saw that doorway, and knew I wanted to photograph it.

    @Luis: thank you!

    @VP: I'm glad he's not my mayor, but the jackass is dragging the country through the mud by default.

    @Sharon: I think so, and it's very busy!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Geese! Finally you show us your country's famous geese... Wait, they aren't real!

    ReplyDelete
  15. I love the first shot of the geese.
    But actually I prefer to see them in real life, even when they are more messy. We have a lot of Canada geese in our region each winter. I've made several photos of them this year too.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I like the geese and you don't have to worry about them pooping on you. I agree, the architecture of the ;60's was not very attractive. Nice shots.

    ReplyDelete
  17. the geese sculptures are really cool

    ReplyDelete
  18. I like the first shot, very surreal.

    ReplyDelete
  19. So relieved to find out these geese are sculptures! Once went to lunch inside a tall open-air atrium in Atlanta to find real birds flying around. Our restaurant had awnings over it, fortunately.

    ReplyDelete
  20. I love those geese sculptures, I would probably go to the mall more if we had one of those hanging for the ceiling.

    ReplyDelete
  21. The geese look realistic in your shot. Like everyone else, I prefer the sculpted ones to the feathered ones in this situation, for the same reasons.
    And I have to wonder what was going on in the 60s to make so many turn their backs on the solid, older architecture. It seems like a rampant, thoughtless "out with the old" approach.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Norma I love that movie especially the last part where she is flying with the geese by herself and the song and landscape brings tears to my eyes.

    William you are so lucky to live in such a beautiful city filled with places of art like this Mall.

    cheers, parsnip

    ReplyDelete
  23. @Linda: as a matter of fact, I took shots on Monday of a perfectly cooperative pair of geese along the river. Shots to come in May....

    @Jan: they're striking birds. And sometimes they're in a good mood, other times, not so much.

    @Judy: thanks!

    @Marleen: that appears to be the consensus!

    @Gerald: I still remember the first time I saw them in childhood.

    @Karl: that's what I was going for!

    @Cheryl: one does have to have precautions for that!

    @Denise: there are swans in a local mall here in Ottawa. I ought to photograph that.

    @Kay: it's something similar with our National Arts Centre. The acoustics inside are fine, but the building as a whole just feels off putting, but that's just the way the architectural style was in that era.

    @Parsnip: thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  24. I think I prefer your flying birds to mine. Bird poop not pretty to photograph

    ReplyDelete
  25. I love those geese sculptures in the mall! I tend to agree with you about sixties architecture too.

    ReplyDelete
  26. I trust the floors remain clean.

    ReplyDelete
  27. I remember when those geese were installed - it was quite exciting!

    ReplyDelete
  28. I agree with all above William.. But I did smile at your reference to your favourite Mayor :)

    ReplyDelete
  29. Fantastic idea! Love all the geese.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Nice memories. I went to nursing school in Toronto - Ryerson, and enjoyed my few years there very much.

    ReplyDelete
  31. That's my old city! Lord save it fro mFord!

    ReplyDelete
  32. @Jane: definitely.

    @Lois: they're quite a treat to see.

    @Bob: very much so!

    @VioletSky: I imagine there would be an uproar if the mall ever decided to take them down.

    @Grace: oh, I despised that man, and was glad when he died of cancer. Now his asshole brother swindled his way into the premiership of this province. Karma should come along and send another terminal case of cancer into the Ford family so Doug can join Rob in hell.

    @Jose: thank you!

    @Joan: I've stopped in at Ryerson once or twice.

    @Jennifer: lord save it from Ford 2.0 who doesn't seem to understand his job and only wants to sledgehammer the city that rejected him in the mayoral election.

    ReplyDelete