LCC municipal

@lccmunicipal

London County Council, Greater London Council, pre- and post-1965 boroughs in London (+ occasional forays outside of the capital). Municipal stuff from the past that lives on today. Oh, and new towns, shopping centres, infrastructure etc. lccmunicipal.com

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LCC municipal@lccmunicipal· 18d

Staying on the waterfront, I was intrigued by this, which seems to be part of Bregman+Hamann’s late 1970s 33/55/65 (otherwise monolithic) Harbour Square development. This lower rise section hides a car park possibly? NB the London Borough of Camden used to do this type of thing for social housing…

A low rise block of apartments with trees in front. It stretches along the waterfront and the flats are stepped back in successive tiers of terraces, giving each flat some outdoor terrace space.

LCC municipal@lccmunicipal· 18d

This mega block of condos at One York Quay is by Clark, Darling, Downey and dates from the early 1990s. Unsurprisingly, it doesn’t warrant a mention in the architectural guides, but I rather liked the colourful window frames…

A view looking up the side of the tall tower block. The window frames are red, blue and green and stand out against the light coloured concrete (?) cladding.

The entrance to Number One York Quay. A whiff of developer’s post-modernism. Above the entrance canopy is a grey wall rising four floors punctured only by small windows, reminiscent of a prison ship. Above this, a three storey glass wall in green gently curves out over this, softening the whole effect.

A view looking up the side of the tall tower block. To the left, the window frames are red, blue and green and stand out against the light coloured concrete (?) cladding. To the right, facing the waterfront, more of the elevation is given over to glass. Blue panelling separates the windows on this section.

LCC municipal@lccmunicipal· 18d

The Roy Thomson Hall from 1982, by Arthur Erickson with Mathers & Haldenby: a friendly spaceship landed among the tower blocks.

A hat-shaped dome, covered in a grid of triangular glass sections. It is surrounded by tower blocks and the CN Tower can be seen behind.

LCC municipal@lccmunicipal· 18d

299 Queen Street West: built in 1913-15 for the Methodist Book and Publishing Company, this was originally a factory and office combo. “Garbed in Gothic fervour” according to McHugh and Bozikovic. The steel framed building was designed by Burke, Horwood & White.

A five storey building on a corner plot. The building as elaborate pale brown/yellow terracotta cladding. The cladding is highly decorative.

The entrance to the building with a gothic church feel to it, reflecting its original religious association. The front door is under a wide Gothic arch.

LCC municipal@lccmunicipal· 18d

Ok, a short break from buildings, and time for some trams…. The Toronto Transit Commission runs a fleet of Bombardier Flexity Outlook tramcars which started entering into service from 2014. Here are some of them in various downtown locations.

Tramcar 4645, a Bombardier Flexity Outlook. The vehicles wear a smart red and white livery, the colours of the Toronto Transit Commission (I believe red and white features elsewhere in Canadian life as well).

Tramcar 4418, a Bombardier Flexity Outlook. The vehicles wear a smart red and white livery, the colours of, among other things Canadian, the Toronto Transit Commission.

Tramcar 4406, a Bombardier Flexity Outlook. The vehicles wear a smart red and white livery, the colours of, among other things Canadian, the Toronto Transit Commission.

Tramcar 4404, a Bombardier Flexity Outlook. The vehicles wear a smart red and white livery, the colours of, among other things Canadian, the Toronto Transit Commission.

LCC municipal@lccmunicipal· 18d

Mark Osbaldeston’s excellent Unbuilt Toronto gives a full account of the Eaton’s retail group’s plans to redevelop their city centre site from the late 1950s onwards. The mammoth scheme pictured below was cancelled in 1967, paving the way for the present day centre.

The cover text is “Mark Osbaldeston Unbuilt Toronto : a history of the city that might have been”. The black and white cover image is of an architectural model of the site where the new city hall would intimately be built. It is rendered here as an empty plot.

Osbaldeston, Mark, 1966-
Unbuilt Toronto : a history of the city that might have been / by Mark Osbaldeston.
ISBN 978-1-55002-835-5
Dundurn Press, 2008

A photo of the architectural model of the scheme. The text reads: The Eaton Centre seen from the south. The new department store and mall are on the southeast corner of the site, the largest retail complex in the world. In response to complaints from council, the fifty-seven-storey office building in the southwest corner of the site would later be reduced to forty-four storeys, but at the price of the City Hall clock tower. [Archives of Ontario, F 229-501-135; the original author used the image with permission of Sears Canada Inc.]

LCC municipal@lccmunicipal· 18d

Another shopping centre that features in that thread is the Eaton Centre, in the heart of the city - so of course, I made a pilgrimage. The first picture is the postcard and the subsequent ones are my photos of the foliage-reduced current centre…

A postcard of the Eaton Centre in Toronto. It is a large city mall based along a main central spine that raises several floors and has a wide steel and glass barrel-vaulted roof. The space is light and airy and there are lots of indoor trees on the ground floor. The postcard is probably from the 1980s or early 90s.

The steel and glass barrel-vaulted roof from below. The scene is of a busy shopping mall with lots of shoppers and workers milling around at lunchtime.

LCC municipal@lccmunicipal· 18d

I’m going a bit off piste now… You may be aware of my ongoing shopping centre postcards thread: the Yorkdale Centre has featured quite a bit. I whizzed past it on Sunday evening on the way from the airport and was surprised to see the white block of John Andrews’ former Simpsons store survives!

A 1960s postcard featuring the Yorkdale shopping centre, an out of town mall design for the age of the car. At the top is a picture of the Eatons store and at the bottom the Simpsons store. These two department store groups were the anchor tenants and the joint developers of the mall. Both stores are windowless (other than at ground floor level) boxes.

The former Simpsons store photographed at night from a speeding taxi!

LCC municipal@lccmunicipal· 18d

On the side of the University’s Sidney Smith Hall is this rather nice sculpture - it is Walter Yarwood’s Horizon and dates from 1964.

A flattish bronze sculpture about 14 foot long attached to the side of a building. It comprises various rectangular blocks, some with circles cut out of them broadly placed in a line. A thin horizontal element runs across some of it.

LCC municipal@lccmunicipal· 19d

Alsop and Robbie/Young + Wright’s OCAD Sharp Centre for Design. A cousin of Alsop’s Peckham Library!

The building is a large flat cuboid on brightly coloured stilts that hovers above an older building.

LCC municipal@lccmunicipal· 19d

The fire station is a charming little building - the tall tower was once used to hang and dry the fire hoses. The original 1876 building was by Hancock & Townsend, of which only the tower remains. The remainder is by Mancel Willmot (1890). There is a modern 1975 addition to the right hand side.

The building is in yellow brick with some red brick decoration. Patricia McHugh likened it to a child’s anthropomorphic Lego set creation.

LCC municipal@lccmunicipal· 19d

So, the neighbouring fire station has an interesting piece of municipal history attached to it - the coat of arms taken from the long gone town hall of the former Yorkville municipality.

The coat of arms is attached to the outside of the fire station. Per Patricia McHugh: Represented are initials of the town's first councillors and symbols of their vocations: beer barrel for the brewer, jack plane for the carpenter, brick mould for the builder, anvil for the blacksmith. and bull’s head for the butcher.

LCC municipal@lccmunicipal· 19d

Sticking with books, here is Yorkville Public Library from 1907. It’s by Robert McCallum and is an example of an Andrew Carnegie Foundation-funded library. It forms a nice little civic grouping with the neighbouring fire station (more on that later):

The building is in a classical style with a large porticoed entrance

The library and neighbouring fire station. The buildings are on a tree-lined street and are surrounded by modern glass fronted tower blocks.

LCC municipal@lccmunicipal· 19d

This thread is far from comprehensive and is biased towards my interests (sorry) - municipal bits and bobs and post-WW2 stuff. Here is Philip Carter’s 1995 Lillian H Smith branch library, complete with bronze griffins either side of the entrance.

A view of the building’s corner from across the street. Described by Bozikovic as a ”late and very good example of Post-Modernism …. The chunky massing and large windows make it hard to read the scale - it resembles a Renaissance Revival house blown up to four times its natural size … With its typically Postmodern grab bag of stylistic references, it's hard not to like:
How many Toronto buildings are guarded by pairs of bronze griffins?

A close up of the arched entrance with bronze griffins either side. The brick is a pale yellow colour.

Described by Bozikovic as a ”late and very good example of Post-Modernism …. The chunky massing and large windows make it hard to read the scale - it resembles a Renaissance Revival house blown up to four times its natural size … With its typically Postmodern grab bag of stylistic references, it's hard not to like:
How many Toronto buildings are guarded by pairs of bronze griffins?

A zoomed-in shot of the upper floor and Reid. The top level is dominated by yellow and grey brickwork in a diamond pattern.

Described by Bozikovic as a ”late and very good example of Post-Modernism …. The chunky massing and large windows make it hard to read the scale - it resembles a Renaissance Revival house blown up to four times its natural size … With its typically Postmodern grab bag of stylistic references, it's hard not to like:
How many Toronto buildings are guarded by pairs of bronze griffins?

LCC municipal@lccmunicipal· 19d

I’m grateful to the assistant in Indigo Books who tracked down the last copy of Patricia McHugh and Alex Bozikovic’s Toronto Architecture (top tip: it lives in the Travel Guides section and not Architecture, which is a different floor altogether…). I will be dipping into it heavily in this thread:

The cover of Patricia McHugh and Alex Bozikovic’s Toronto Architecture, A City Guide. The cover features the underside of Alsop and Robbie/Young + Wright’s OCAD Sharp Centre for Design

LCC municipal@lccmunicipal· 19d

The Medical Sciences building itself is a piece of bulky brutalism from the late 1960s with Ted Bieler and Robert Downing contributing to the exterior design.

A large building of multiple adjoining cuboids in concrete with a decoration of many vertical concrete bars of varying length. The building is by the snappily titled Govan Kaminker Langley Keenleyside Melick Devonshire & Wilson with Somerville McMurrich & Oxley

The vertical concrete bars of the external adornment in close up

LCC municipal@lccmunicipal· 19d

Ted Bieler’s Helix of Life from 1971, outside the University of Toronto’s Medical Science’s building.

Ted Bieler’s Helix of Life is a freestanding concrete sculpture - a representation of the double helix of DNA. Two thin concrete spirals which touch at ground level and two thirds of the way up.

LCC municipal@lccmunicipal· 22d

The pleasingly retro logo of the Toronto Transit Commission:

LCC municipal@lccmunicipal· 22d

I didn’t get any further than the main reception, but still got to see some of the nice details inside. Those lovely wooden doors with the T-shaped handles, the great tiled floor and David Partridge’s amazing Metropolis nail sculpture.

The lobby floor is main up of long irregular strips of Italian Carrara marble.

Large wooden double doors in the lobby entrance. The door handles make the shape of a T when the doors are closed (each door having an inverted L shape, with one in reverse, as a door handles)

A curved staircase in concrete with slender wooden handrails

David Partridge’s Metropolis, a large wall mural/sculpture made of nails protruding from the wall. A circular feature is at its centre.

LCC municipal@lccmunicipal· 22d

Viljo Revell’s Toronto City Hall from 1965 - right next door to E J Lennox’s Old City Hall!

Per Wikipedia: The Neo-Expressionist Modern design resembles no other building in Toronto. The design is two curved, asymmetric towers surrounding a saucer-shaped council chamber amphitheatre atop a two-storey podium.

A concrete pillar with VILJO REVELL 1910-1964 ARCHITECT carved into it

Per Wikipedia: Old City Hall was designed by architect E. J. Lennox in a variation of Romanesque Revival architecture known as Richardsonian Romanesque. Developed by Henry Hobson Richardson, this variation highlights bulk and massiveness as well as different sculptural features. The Romanesque style originated in Europe during the 11th and 12th centuries and had characteristics such as square towers, asymmetrical massing, stone carvings, round arches, and heavy stonework. During the mid-1800s, this style was revitalized in Western architecture. H. H. Richardson contributed dormers, circular towers with conical roofs, and the use of different-coloured stone for the revival style that bears his name.

LCC municipal@lccmunicipal· Jul 12

Today’s reading is this beautiful 2024 book covering NYC’s MTA public art commissions from 2015 to 2023. It’s by Sandra Bloodworth and Cheryl Hageman. I know “lavishly illustrated” is a cliche, but it really is… Featured here are works by Vik Muniz, Xenobia Bailey and Yayoi Kusama. Grab a copy!

The cover features Equal All, a mosaic by Nick Cave. The title is Contemporary Art
Underground
MTA Arts & Design
New York
Sandra Bloodworth
Cheryl Hageman

Copyright © 2024 The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and The Monacelli Press

An image of Xenobia Bailey’s Funktional Vibrations, a colourful work based around circular mandalas with a cosmic vibe.

Text: The Manhattan terminus for the 7 line was the first new station added to the New York City subway system in twenty-five years. 34th Street-Hudson Yards Station, designed by Dattner Architects, opened in September 2015, extending subway service to the Far West side of Manhattan. The station offers easy access to the Javits Center, the north end of the High Line, and Hudson Yards, a part of Manhattan that has been developed at an astonishing speed.
The Hudson Yards neighborhood is now a major destination for shopping, dining, and the arts. The Shed, designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, can physically transform to meet the ever-changing needs of the performing and visual arts space. Nearby the High Line Plinth, on the spur at 30th Street and Tenth Avenue, offers a public venue for contemporary art. Nestled among numerous high-rises featuring luxury apartments and office space with waterfront views, art galleries and art fairs are making their home in Hudson Yards too. In an area that until recently lacked subway access and greenspace, Bella Abzug Park, formerly known as Hudson Park and Boulevard, now provides an urban oasis above the station. Glass canopies designed by Toshiko Mori Architects define the station entrances at street level. At the heart of this vibrant new arts scene, prominently featured in the 34th Street-Hudson Yards Station, is the artwork by fiber artist Xenobia Bailey, whose colorful crochet and needlecraft pieces have been featured in exhibitions, television, and film.

Copyright © 2024 The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and The Monacelli Press

Perfect Strangers during fabrication at Mayer of Munich's studio.
Photo: Sammy Hart.

The photo is taken from above and shows a mosaic of a man in brightly coloured clothes holding a book. Containers of brightly coloured mosaic tiles surround the incomplete work.

Copyright © 2024 The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and The Monacelli Press

A two page spread featuring Yayoi Kusama’s A Message of Love, Directly from My Heart unto the Universe, 2022, Grand Central Madison, Long Island Rail Road. It is a mosaic stretching the length of a long underground walkway wall. It features smiling suns, rayed-amoebas, snaking shapes, pumpkins and many dots.

Text: Acknowledged as one of the world's most popular artists, Yayoi Kusama is best known for her compulsive mark marking and installations that walk the line between illusionary and hallucinatory. Kusama's Infinity Mirror Rooms and polka-dot motifs draw a crowd.
Kusama moved to the United States from her native Japan at the age of 27 and spent a formative period in New York beginning in 1958. She was a frequent subway rider, and in November 1968 staged a brief but memorable nude happening in a subway station. The unsanctioned performance piece lasted only a few minutes; she fled when the police arrived.
For fifteen years Kusama immersed herself in the groundbreaking art scene of New York and Europe, but she was unable to gain the level of art world attention accorded her male friends. Kusama later returned to Japan in 1973, and she later voluntarily placed herself in a psychiatric institute in Tokyo where she has lived since 1977. Working daily in her studio across the street, she channels her inner world into brightly colored art. Kusama has a gift for turning her own feelings into a cheertul, spiritual affirmation for others.

Copyright © 2024 The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and The Monacelli Press

LCC municipal@lccmunicipal· Jul 7

Some other examples nearby. They liked their coat of arms tiles in St Marylebone!

LCC municipal@lccmunicipal· Jul 7

Thank you - I did photograph that once because I was equally obsessed with the mosaic tiling below!!

LCC municipal@lccmunicipal· Jul 4

Kingston bollards!

A cast iron bollard. The top is pale blue and features three silver salmon (the symbol of Kingston) and the letter “K” in red. The thin pole of the bollard is white with a helter skelter coiled pattern.

LCC municipal@lccmunicipal· Jun 27

Here goes:

LCC municipal@lccmunicipal· Jun 27

The first Labour GLC administration in 1965 had ambitious urban motorway plans. But the public mood had changed by the early 1970s, the lived experience of Westway being one (but by no means only) nail in the coffin of those plans. By 1973, the campaign message was firmly anti-motorway:

A Labour campaign poster from the 1973 GLC election (which Labour would go on to win) featuring a North Kensington residential street overshadowed by the elevated Westway motorway. The text says: Save London
from Motorway Madness
Vote Labour
Greater London Council Election Thursday April 12th

LCC municipal@lccmunicipal· Jun 27

It’s Saturday Morning Municipal Street Lighting Nerd Club. Here’s one for fans of 1960s & 70s post top lanterns. All the classics from Phosco, Eleco, Thorn and GEC! From Thamesmead to Brookside Close via many municipal leisure centre car parks…

Six post top lanterns. Left to right: Phosco P178, Eleco PT 1179, GEC Z5713, GEC Z5678, Thorn Gamma 6, GEC Z5680

LCC municipal@lccmunicipal· Jun 26

I’m not a brand ambassador for www.booksaboutart.co.uk (although happy to be considered for the role, of course…), but they are serving up this book on Resopal, the German plastic laminate (for just £10), and I am slightly obsessed. Some fantastic photos. Link to book in alt text

Blue Resopal in use in a motorway service station in the 1970s

https://www.booksaboutart.co.uk/products/original-resopal-the-aesthetics-of-the-surface-1

Hardcover | 22.86 x 1.91 x 30.48 cm | 192 pp | Jovis | 2006 | 9783939633044

Orange Resopal in use at Bad Neuenahr swimming pool in the 1970s

https://www.booksaboutart.co.uk/products/original-resopal-the-aesthetics-of-the-surface-1

Hardcover | 22.86 x 1.91 x 30.48 cm | 192 pp | Jovis | 2006 | 9783939633044

Resopal used to create murals. Top is an orange/yellow affair showing a simple representation of two people on a background of geometric shapes. Bottom is a blue and green composition, also featuring geometric shapes. Both are Armin Wermann murals at the Kusel School Centre in 1982.

https://www.booksaboutart.co.uk/products/original-resopal-the-aesthetics-of-the-surface-1

Hardcover | 22.86 x 1.91 x 30.48 cm | 192 pp | Jovis | 2006 | 9783939633044

LCC municipal@lccmunicipal· Jun 26

It survives in the doors to the Civic Centre (or it did the last time I was there)!

LCC municipal@lccmunicipal· Jun 26

Crikey, it will soon be the tenth anniversary of this. Here was its first outing in 2016: