CN Tower: Now in Strawberry, Lemon, Lime, and Grape

You're welcome :-)
Amazing what you see driving down the Gardiner at 11pm at night. Unfortunately, the LuminaTO pulse streaks didn't show up in the photos.

The CN Tower is so drab looking otherwise that I think this looks tres awesome. One of my favorite things to see while traveling through Europe was how some cities would light up their castles and parliament buildings on weekends in varying lightshows. If I started to pour the haterade on this, I'd be kinda hypocritical.

If the tower is illuminated red, and the Dome purple (as it often is), are people that lived through the 80's going to write city hall in disgust because the two "clash"? ;)

Stepped out onto my balcony last night and caught this show totally by surprise. I have to say the photos don't quite capture how cool it actually looked - the colours pulsed and shifted, and occasionally they scintillated with a whole bunch of different colours at once - the overall effect was surprisingly cool. Yes, not everyone is going to agree about the choice of colours they see, but keep in mind these LEDs can shift between MILLIONS of colours, so we're not stuck with any one of em - you'll see one up there you'll like. Plus, with a bit of skill, they can program a pretty neat light show. Sorry not to conform to the typical "oh my god, if it's new, it must be derided" school of thought on this, but I hate that old wasp-y Toronto pessimism. I'm as cynical as they come, but I liked this. Bring on the new.
And put a kicking sound system in to pulse this along to! Skyline rave, here we come....

I think it looks great. In Auckland, New Zealand, where I've lived the past fifteen years, there are similar coloured lights on the Sky Tower.

At Christmas, the tower is green and red. During Breast Cancer Awareness month, it's pink, etc. Of course, New Zealand's national colour is black, for which they can simply turn the lights off. ;-)

One question though: What's the energy consumption for the lighting? They have carbon offsets factored in, I assume?

I'll have to wait till I see it in person, but the pictures make it look pretty impressive.

That looks awesome! I can't wait to see it all the time. All the colours look great. It reminds me of the Target building in Minneapolis, where the top of the building has a light system that changes patterns, designed to imitate Northern Lights: http://www.martinpro.com/casestory/casestory.asp?id=588

I'm glad we are finally doing something with our beautiful tower, I'm not convinced however, that this is the right thing to do. I wish the panel that decides these things would consider sharing the responsibility of coming up with concepts, an open source mentality, rather than the traditional closed doors method with big, and usually disappointing, reveal. I feel that Torontonians have always wanted our tower to have a greater, Eiffel Tower esque, night presence, it's just a shame that "they" didn't tap into the rich creative community that recognize Toronto, and the CN Tower, as home.

That's what I think,



Mike Dudek

Wow! Those two new photos have convinced me; I like it! I can't wait to see the different light animations in person.

I agree with Japhet, too. There's too much resistance against things new and different in this city, especially when it comes to architecture. LuminaTO, Nuit Blanche, and other festivals that have made a different take on the city's public spaces have shown that change can be a good thing.

I'd be happy to see Pulse Front become maybe a weekly event, or return for holidays like Canada or Victoria Day.

I live right next to the tower and was watching the entire show last night, and I think its amazing. Finally doing something with the CN tower other than just blinking lights for planes. The CN tower is supposed to be a show of Canada's and more so Toronto's diversity and strength, its about time we show it off a little more!!! Very cool, and I cant wait to see some more!!!

This looks soooooooo cool! I can't wait to see it on a regular basis.

I vote for a night where they light up the CN Tower and the Skydome both in purple and play classic Prince from the loudspeakers all night long.

Seems like the lights are being very well received by many people out there.

When I first heard about this I was pretty skeptical of how it might turn out but this looks much better than I expected.

Wasn't the CN tower an engineering marvel when it was first constructed 30 years ago? Wasn't it daring and bold for a city to have such a ridiculously massive tower right in the middle of its downtown core? It gave Toronto an identity and a great view of the city. This new design goes a long way to recapturing that daring, bold feel to me and as somebody else said... it's a whole lot better than plain old concrete.

I like it.

I love the colours. The Eiffel Tower is a beautiful structure by day, and at night they not only illuminate it with regular white lights, but every half hour or so they put on CRAZY GLITTERING LIGHTS OF MAJESTY(tm) for five minutes. It really works. I want Toronto to have a little of that glitz and glamour. Why not draw more attention to the tower? It's a symbol of our city and deserves a little fun... Jerrold makes a good point however, it better not clash with the dome.

I like the lights on the CN Tower !
It makes it more visible by night, instead of a just a gray concrete building with 2 flashing lights

The colors of the CN tower reflect that Toronto the gay capital of the world !!!

I like the pictures, but no... not for Toronto. What are we Las Vegas? The mayor says we are short 1 billion dollars a year, and so... we up the tax's of Torontonians, and spend at least 40 million dollars putting up these lights? What, and who are thinking? I barley even live and Toronto and I understand what they are feeling. Liek could they have atleast made it more sophisticated? CLASSY NOT TRASHY!

Jillian, it's something you definitely have to see in person first (or on video). The animation/lighting transitions are pretty cool.

I'll be attending their media launch Thursday where I'll (hopefully) get some video of the whole thing. That'll probably give you a better idea of what to expect.

I think its really cool! I stepped out onto my balcony about 2 weeks ago, saw it, and was mesmerized. I like that it modulates, changes colour, and be programmed to show patterns/ripples/animations. It uses a fraction of the energy than the previous lighting system, and it only stays on for a few hours every night. Kudos!

hey Paul what's your back ground? Everyone else seem's happy with what they see.

Does it change from red and white ever? Where are all the other colors as in the photos?

Very nice this blog =)

i love u canada !!!!!!! it rocks

They are in fact lighting it Purple on Purple Day, 26th March 2009, not in honour of Prince but to raise awareness of Epilepsy. See http://www.purpleday.org/ and www.epilepsytoronto.org/
Lavender is the international colour for epilepsy.

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Hi. I was wondering if I could use 1 or 2 of the pictures for a project at school I'm dooing on the CN Tower. please write back!