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Spadina LRT Public Art program
Project Background
Selection Process

The Toronto Transit Commission's Spadina LRT Public Art Competition awarded eight public art commissions for Spadina Avenue complementing the transit line.

The art program was sponsored by the TTC with funding from the Province of Ontario and The City of Toronto.
The Spadina LRT public art program was administered by Art Consultant Rina Greer.

The commissions include art and a parkette concept for the Bloor/Spadina intersection (one commission), a sculpture colonnade mounted on 20' high poles positioned at intervals on the median down the centre of Spadina (four commissions), and community markers, one commission each for Kensington Market, Chinatown and the Fashion District.

The art program is intended to express the character of Spadina Avenue by celebrating its rich history and cultural heritage. Its mandate is to create a vibrant new streetscape by giving form to Spadina's communities, past and present, with their different voices and histories. This program seeks to identify the varied communities, industries and institutions which co-exist on the Avenue. It acknowledges the history and heritage of the diverse peoples who have come to Spadina in successive waves before moving on to other parts of the city. The art program sites also identify the various neighborhoods existing today, including the Art and Fashion Districts, Chinatown, Kensington Market and the University District.

Spadina LRT Public Art Program:

1. Bloor Parkette
(southeast corner of Bloor Street West and Spadina Avenue)
The artist team of Susan Schelle & Mark Gomes, with landscape architect advisors Ferris + Quinn Associates Inc.

Susan Schelle and Mark Gomes make reference to a sense of play, specifically the playing of games, and the original Carolinian Forest shoreline, the symbols and fossilized presence of the past amidst the contemporary landscape of the urban park. The beginning of the game is the board, as referenced in a checkerboard plaza, oriented on a right angle axis. Seating and playing surfaces are provided at the corner by granite playing pieces reminiscent of a dominos game, its pieces defined by the imprints of the Carolinian Forest. The existing Hydro vault and TTC vent will be masked by low landscaping and the introduction of a 'bridge' walkway spanning east/west across the structure, providing a vantage point to look down upon the vent grill, which will be softened by the addition of stainless steel leaf cutouts from the Carolinian Forest, scattered across the grillwork as if blown by the wind. The landscaping of undulating grass and trees, by Ferris + Quinn Associates, stretches over the plaza, creating inviting places to gather.

2. Pole Colonnade

Zone One - (Sussex Street, Harbord Street, Willcocks Street)
Stephen Cruise

Stephen Cruise's images (fabricated in bronze) have evolved from a study of their specific locales. At Sussex Street are the Sussex Rooster and Sussex Spaniel, both registered breeds in England, originating in the south England county that the Toronto street probably took its name from. At Harbord Street, Oak/Book and Crown/Beaver/Book images reference the components found within the 'arms' of the University of Toronto granted in 1917. At Willcocks Street the Sundial refers to the original use of Knox College Circle as an ornamental garden. Dr. Baldwin deeded the garden to the city as a park in 1865. At the same street, the Bottle/Mold image refers to the city's first dairy, City Dairy Co. (1905), and the production of penicillin at the Connaught Laboratories at Knox College.

Zone Two
(College Street) - Tom Burrows
(Sullivan Street) - artist team of Shirley Yanover & David Hlynsky

On the platform south of College Street, Tom Burrows depicts (in aluminum) the images of the Rooster and the Hen, symbols in many cultures of honour and merit as well as being a food staple the world over, acceptable to all the great religions of the world. The folklore of the fowl is also expressed through literature, from children's stories (Chicken Little and The Little Red Hen) to Chaucer's Chaunticleer and Pertelote in Nun's Priest Tale. The fowl is also found as expressions in language, superstition and ritual in China, Hungary, Poland, Moravia, Slovakia and Japan.
At Sullivan Street, the artist team of Shirley Yanover & David Hlynsky use the windows of Spadina's neighborhoods (in powder coated steel and aluminum frames with fibreglass images) to frame and reflect Spadina's vitality and to infer the mid-street continuity of surrounding neighborhoods. To the east, facing south, a Chinese dragon passes through a window beneath a spray of fruit blossoms, reminders of the energy of spring and hope, birth and renewal which signify the enormous potential of the newly arrived. To the west, facing north, is a companion window, a cornucopia beneath a ripening grape arbour, which serves as a reminder of the energy of harvest and a reflection of Mediterranean and European traditions fulfilled in the New World.

Zone Three - (Queen Street, King Street, Front Street )
Randy & Berenicci

The artist team of Randy & Berenicci have created a group of monuments (in stainless steel silhouettes) celebrating the cultural and ethnic history of Spadina Avenue. The monuments represent the people and events chronicled in existing public domain images that record the changes to the neighborhood throughout this century. The structures supporting the vignettes recreate the shape of the original Hydro poles, whose function to carry and transmit power and communications is maintained in a metaphorical sense, transmitting the history of the neighborhoods. Replacing the glass insulators of the original poles, overscale cast glass birds sit on various support struts, adding an element of three dimensionality and an air of whimsy.

3. Community markers

Kensington Market (Baldwin Street and St. Andrews Street)
Artist team of Shirley Yanover & David Hlynsky

The artist team of Shirley Yanover & David Hlynsky summarizes the market's variety of activities, from its grass roots international trade, represented by the marker at Baldwin Street, to the best of domestic harmony, represented in the icon at St. Andrews Street. The Baldwin Street globe (powder coated aluminum) represents the home we all share, with orbiting images of what we need to survive. The images (powder coated aluminum) circling the globe are inspired by photographs of the Market's windows and signage. The artwork evokes global commerce on an intimate scale, a pictorial language that transcends multilingual chaos by reducing trade to a few essential appetites. The St. Andrews marker, a cat on a kitchen chair, is a poignant representation of the spirit of Kensington. Cats rule supreme in the market. They are its security guards and they keep our laps warm in winter. The artwork is a monument to their simple but essential contribution to human well being.

Chinatown (Dundas Street intersection)
Millie Chen

Millie Chen creates allegorical gateways into the environment of Chinatown, using the supporting poles as part of a calligraphic notation. The sculptures are based on the Chinese character for 'gateway'. By weaving in and out of one another around the poles, four venerable mythological symbols (in fibreglass) -- Feng Huang (associated with the Phoenix), Long (Dragon), Sun Hou Zi (Monkey King) and Qilin (associated with the Unicorn) -- flow together to form 'gateway.' This linguistic character denotes not only past but also current contexts. It has the same meaning in other East Asian lexicons, such as Korean, Japanese and pre-historic Vietnamese. This is of consequence not only in terms of the evolution of language but also of contemporary cross-cultural pollinations. The area of Chinatown encompasses numerous cultural influences, past and present, and even though predominantly Chinese, heralds Toronto as an urban centre activated by its great diversity of people. The gateways signal the metaphorical transition of one community into others. Members of the Chinese community contributed additional funding for the project.

Fashion District (northwest corner of Richmond Street and Spadina Avenue)
Stephen Cruise

Stephen Cruise's monument to the fashion industry, a 9' high stack of coloured buttons capped by a bronze thimble, reflects on the contributions of its workers and on the presence of 'touch' in the making of garments. The sculpture will be flanked by two tree pit buttons, with accompanying trees, creating a new plaza space for this area as well as a focal point for traffic travelling west along Richmond or north on Spadina. The tree pit buttons also function as a seating area, encouraging short term usage of the site.
The City of Toronto Fashion Industry Liaison Committee was a major donor to the project.

Project Background

As part of the approvals process for the construction of the Spadina LRT, a Streetscape Study was required that addressed urban design decisions that would affect the redesign of the street to accommodate the new line. In 1993, a Streetscape Design Study Final Report was prepared by the consultant team of duToit Allsopp Hillier, DS-Lea Associates Ltd., Lawler/Dean Research, Patricia Fuller, Nadine Chan and Jamelie Hassan. The study was conducted under the Toronto Transit Commission's direction and a Technical Advisory Committee was convened with members from The Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto, The City of Toronto, The Ministry of Transportation and various public utility agencies.

The design study included proposed streetscaping that addressed sidewalk and trackbed pavements, street lighting, landscaping, street furniture, public signage, transit platforms and shelters and public art.

The neighborhoods and businesses had an active role in the formation of the public art program. Over an 18 month period, four community working groups consulted with the design team to develop creative ideas and practical solutions for Spadina's streetscape. There were initial working group meetings followed by community workshops (all four groups meeting together) during the three phases of the study: Site Analysis and Data Collection, Options and Concepts, and Preliminary Design.

In Spring 1996, community focus groups were again convened to reassess the projects in light of budget reductions made necessary by current economic conditions. The Spadina LRT Public Art Program reflects the input of the communities that they impact.

Selection Process

All the projects were run concurrently, with advertised open Requests for Qualifications from artists. All projects were conducted in two stages. Each project was adjudicated by a separate jury, composed of community members, arts professionals, artists, landscape architects and historians, as appropriate. Each jury met twice: once to select the finalists from the Request for Qualifications and once to select the winner from among the finalists. The winners were subject to ratification by the Toronto Transit Commission.

The juries for each of the projects were as follows:

Bloor Parkette:

• Jessica Bradley, Curator of Contemporary Art, Art Gallery of Ontario
• John Hillier, Landscape Architect, duToit Allsopp Hillier and member of Spadina Streetscape Design Study team
• Micah Lexier, artist
• George Stephenson, Sussex/Ulster Ratepayer Association and community member
• Susan Purvis, artist and community resident

Pole Colonnade:

• Alan Barkley, President, Ontario College of Art & Design
• Kim Adams, artist
• Rosemary Donegan, author of Spadina Avenue
• Robert Jekyll, craftsperson and community resident
• Andre Rosenbaum, owner of The Rivoli and The Queen Mother Cafe and community resident

Community Markers:

Included three core jurors plus the following two community representatives for each competition:

Core Jurors:

• Gary Michael Dault, writer and art critic
• Nadine Chan, artist and member of Spadina Streetscape Design Study team
• Stacey Spiegel, artist and Adjunct Assistant Professor, School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, University of Toronto

Kensington Market:

• Bob Wilson, Kensington Market Business Association
• Pat McKendry, Kensington Market Working Group
  Chinatown:
• Lee Kei Yeung, Toronto Chinatown Development Association
• Dannie Tong, Toronto Chinese Business Association

Fashion District:

• Carol Outram, Director, Design Division, Canadian Apparel Federation
• Susan Langdon, Director, Toronto Fashion Incubator