Monday 15 September 2008

Sun mural

Updated 16/09/08 re mural info site

Al Parker's two-page flashback to 1993 and the unveilling of John and Alexandra Hood's elaborate Toronto Sun mural fails to mention the mural's future.

With the Sun building up for sale, most likely to condo developers, what will become of the siblings' 180-foot wide mural that marked the 20th anniversary of the Sunday Sun and the 200th anniversary of the founding of the Town of York?

(The Old Town Toronto web site provides a slide show and Mike Filey's capsule comments for all 32 of the vignettes represented in the 25-foot high History as Theatre mural.)

"I'm proud of the work," Hood says in the Sunday Sun piece. "It stands up."

The question is where will the 4,000-square-foot mural stand, if at all, once 333 King Street East is sold and vacated?

Can the Front Street mural be moved to a resting place for facades and murals, say Guildwood Village or The Distillery?

Or is it destined to be levelled with the rest of the building?

The mural being a reflection of Doug Creighton's grand way of thinking and the "old ways" Sun, we get the feeling Quebecor would prefer to see it levelled and forgotten.

A Save the Mural campaign should be launched to prevent the much appreciated and historically relevant mural from being demolished.

If it can be saved, secure its future before the bulldozers take aim.

2 comments:

  1. I see that this post is a couple of years old - but is there any further development on the potential destruction of this mural?

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  2. As of today, this mural is about 1/3 gone. Yesterday that entire wall was covered with a blue tarp, and today men on a raised platform were chipping it to pieces and tossing down the loose bricks. The entire wall from ground to roof is being knocked down. So, it seems there will be no restoration or preservation of the mural.

    I understand that south wall will contain entrances to new LCBO and Dollarama stores. Since the mural did not begin until 10 or 15 feet from the ground I thought there would be room to punch in the entrances beneath it, but I guess they have bigger plans, perhaps an all-glass front or additional setback on the rather narrow sidewalk.

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