City
A CN Tower-less Toronto
The CN Tower - it's Toronto's most iconic and unavoidable building. Ever since its completion in 1976, the Tower has not only dominated the city's skyline, but at just over 553 metres, it's been a ubiquitous presence in general. And with this in mind, I've often wondered what the city might look like without it.
In fact, it was a tragedy that got me dwelling on this hypothetical scenario. After a 2002 visit to the former World Trade Center site in New York City, I couldn't help but imagine what the loss of the CN Tower would mean to my city's physical and psychological landscape.
With a brief exception when the so-called Toronto 18 were alleged to have plotted to take down the Tower, these ominous thoughts eventually faded from mind. And yet, every time I would take a photograph that included the CN Tower, it would again spark a curiosity about what the city would look like in its absence.
So, after becoming relatively proficient with the digital manipulation of photographs, I decided to go ahead and remove the Tower from a few. Liking what I saw, I proceeded to do a more extended series, of which these are some of my favourites. All of the photographs here depict a scene of the city in which the Tower is included in so-called real life.
I once heard that the 19th century French writer Guy de Maupassant hated the Eiffel Tower so much that he ate his lunch there everyday so as not to have to see it. Personally I've always been ambivalent about Toronto's most famous landmark. Sometimes I think it's quite cool, and at others, I think its vaguely 'futuristic' appearance is annoying to have to look at everyday.
Perhaps more than anything, these images were a way of asking a question about my photographic relationship to the city. I've often felt limited when continually shooting Toronto, thinking there's little left for me to contribute to the wealth of images others have shot. And, to a great extent, these images were originally quite clichéd and even touristy.
But, post-manipulation, they depict an imaginary Toronto that is surprisingly unfamiliar to me. Indeed, I've even returned to a few of them long after the removal process to find that I can't exactly place where the Tower was located. One of the reasons for this is that I've done my best to capture the city from a variety of perspectives and angles, which seems to make it more difficult to 're-place' the Tower.
A CN Tower-less Toronto is strange and a far more anonymous place. Take, for instance the image of the construction of condos southeast of Bathurst and Front: I often think this one makes the city look like one of the many Asian cities undergoing rapid expansion. But, of course, after a longer look the other landmarks give it away.
There is much debate about the manipulation of photographs. Just last week a photo essay in the New York Times Magazine by Edgar Martins was cause for great controversy when it was discovered that his photos featured a number of alterations. Well, this isn't that. I make no bones about the presence of the manipulations and have little doubt that a really trained eye could see evidence of my tinkering. But the wonderful thing about new photo technology is that, in a case like this, it can allow for the imagination of strange and compelling scenarios, which make no claim to be 'real.'
At a minimum, the depiction of this simulated Toronto has enabled me to look at my city with a fresh set of eyes.
For a look at the photos prior to the removal of the CN Tower, check out my Flickr slideshow.
Discussion
66 Comments
Sort By Oldest First / Newest First
Subscribe
After the first few pictures, I realized that in some photos I had no idea which way the camera was pointing without the tower as a bearing point.
That's how I often help tourists around the city - if it's below you that's where the water is.
I enjoyed this piece.
A lot of people don't like the CN Tower; it's phallic, looks like a rocket leaving the city for foreign lands, is rather useless, etc..
But I rather like it. As a kid adventuring around the city I rarely got lost as I could always find the Tower and know that was south. Older now, I like how when I stop to look at the built environment, the Tower is often peaking through.
Instead of digitally removing the Tower, how about some images of the city with the Gardiner removed?
Ohhhh....THAT CN Tower.
I feel the same way. I'm totally disoriented w/o seeing the Tower. These photos have become non-descript.
My problem is I have a photographic memory....the tower follows me around everywhere I go.
I'm also totally disoriented by these photos. Shows how much it defines our urban landscape...
i've found that the more i travel around the world the more i appreciate the CN Tower. a Toronto without the CN Tower is an unthinkable horror.
Wow, I never thought I cared for the CN Tower much, but those photos make Toronto seem really boring without it.
Toronto boring?
Bite your tongue!
I completely agree; this kind of shows that Toronto is in danger of being a little bland with-out the tower. We need more giant structures and features, and less moose. Whatever happend to that terrible ceramic moose campaign?
Also, it would be interesting to see a digital manipulated toronto with many CN Towers (as if they were the norm for businesses and condos). Then we'd have a unique, albiet ridiculous, city.
The funny thing about the tower when photographing the city, it is either so easy to include it in a shot, or easy to avoid it entering into the frame altogether I find. I would suspect that to mean that it is a largely unobtrusive piece of architecture, and that's what I like most about it. However when looking at the city from afar, Toronto is not Toronto without it. The city looks that much smaller if it were missing from the landscape. I find the city looks its biggest traveling south along say the DVP and west along the Gardiner well before Yonge, and the tower has everything to do with that. Nice article.
I completely agree; this kind of shows that Toronto is in danger of being a little bland with-out the tower. We need more giant structures and features, and less moose. Whatever happend to that terrible ceramic moose campaign?
Also, it would be interesting to see a digital manipulated toronto with many CN Towers (as if they were the norm for businesses and condos). Then we'd have a unique, albiet ridiculous, city.
Very good piece, and unusual too. :)
The CN Tower is an ugly hold over from the " atomic " age of the late 1960's. If they tore it down, I wouldn't miss it in the least. It's like something from Niagara Falls. Take it down. Erect something keen and interesting like the Statue of Liberty or the Eiffel Tower.
You'd all find a different landmark in the city if the tower wasn't there you wouldn't be walking around lost.
Now this is an interesting thought: how would you differentiate major North American cities without their landmarks? The architecture and perhaps the way the streets are organized I guess, but I could hardly recognize Toronto without the CN Tower in the photos above.
I love the CN Tower. Every time I see it, it makes me smile. And of course it's the first thing I can see when I'm returning to Toronto after being out of town - it's how I know I'm Home.
I couldn't imagine the city without it. Thanks for the essay, this was fascinating!
Every major city has a big structural penis of some kind. (Ours even has two sports testes on either side.) While it may not be the prettiest tower in the world, you test proves that a castrated city is a dull-looking one.
I feel the exact same way. As soon as I see it, I smile and am reminded of my home. I love the CN Tower, everytime I'm around it I have to stare... I don't know how many pictures I have of it. Thanks for this post, it's so strange to see the city without it, looks kinda bare.
if terrorists take down the CN Tower, they must replace it with another iconic tower.
Im as proud a Torontonian (Besides having those jackass CUPE douches hijack our city the past 6 weeks) as there is...but honestly the Skylon in Niagara Falls beats the CN Tower. Mostly for masjestic views. They get to see beautiful Buffalo and to a lesser degree some water falls. All we get in Toronto is a view of some nude bodies at Hanlons Point or Vaughan. Blech!
No way man. We must leave it as a big empty hole for years on end as all levels of gov't bitch and moan over what should be there. Thats the only real way to pay tribute.
this whole concept of an article is kinda disturbing.
are you trying to tempt fate or something?
I'd hate to imagine the CN Tower without the artsy LCD night lighting installed a couple years ago...
it would be so sad to go back to the old (no) lighting concept of the CN Tower, how boring...Toronto definitely needs more innovative lighting of buildings. I'm happy to see the CN tower lead the way - it's a sight to see and great for city pride and tourism!
Your comment was enlightening.
For your slideshow, it might be interesting to show the altered picture and then fade it into the original picture where the tower exists. I'm willing to bet it will be popping up in locations people were not expecting it to.
The CN Tower visible on the Toronto skyline identifies the city for me whenever I fly in. The Royal York used to have the designation. That and the Skydome, until they get hidden by the growing condos and office buildings around them. Even with the growth of buildings, the CN Tower remains.
Wow, without seeing the CN Tower and the Rogers Centre, it looks like an American city. it feels so weird.
Because it is a (North) American city, possibly?
Yeah, Toronto kind of looks like a mid-sized mid-western city in the states.
But you know, without the CN Tower we'd have the Scotiatower or Bank of Montreal in its place. If we'd grown up without it it'd be fine.
Heh, now imagine living in Toronto before the CN Tower, you move away and live somewhere else for a few years, a decade or two. With no internet and toronto not being too exciting, you don't hear much about home. You come back and BAM! What the hell is that?! Amazing!
Great article. I love the CN Tower and I always have.
I have lived in Toronto my entire life and yet I still make sure to visit the observation deck once a year.
The funny thing I noticed about your altered photos is that when you remove the CN tower, the Toronto skyline appears to be bigger to me than usual. I think the BMO building, Scotia tower and all other buildings in the city for that matter look smaller than they really are sometimes because of how ridiculously tall the CN Tower is.
i use it as a point of reference to things... helps orient me. most days i dont' notice it but when i drive or walk by, its pops into view, its kinda cool :) every city should have its iconic thing - paris' eiffel tower, new york - empire state, statue of liberty etc, beijing - great wall etc.
Mississauga's point of reference...
airplanes landing or taking off at its north-east corner.
Not even close. Its the CN Towery looking do-hickey at City Hall that Hazel comes out of like the Pope, gin in hand.
I really enjoyed this concept for an article. I think it is really interesting to see Toronto without the CN Tower because I can not remember it that way. As has been said, it's hard to recognize the city without it. I like having an iconic tower but I really think they need to modernize it a little. I'm not quite sure how, but I just think its rather bland looking!
Luciano Galasso
I have to agree... the city does look rather bland without the CN tower.
Great concept and good job manipulating the photos!
Just to echo what others are saying, it really is amazing how little personality the Toronto skyline has without the CN Tower.
Now this could be because the CN Tower becomes the focal point of so many Toronto skyline photographs. In the photos at the end that don't have the CN Tower erased, the tower often acts as such a strong compositional element; even if it's only at the edge of the frame it is really anchoring the image. It could be that the city seems so bland in these pictures because the pictures were composed with the CN Tower in them; they fall down without it acting as a crutch.
It could also be that all the rest of the architecture of Toronto uses the CN Tower as that same crutch...
I think the city would look different than in those photos had the CN Tower not been built. Most likely, a tower like Scotia Plaza would have been designed to be more iconic.
Coming from saskatchewan, Ive always found the CN tower amazing, and now that I live here every time I see it I feel like I'm home and I can breath a sigh of relief. Cheesy I know, but the CN tower represents the power of this city and Canada to me. I agree with others comments, a wall of condos for a skyline(ala Vancouver) just makes you look like a developing Asian city. I love The CN tower and now that it has lighting, it makes me proud.
Funny story, my mother in law from northern Alberta kept asking why all the buildings in town had a spire coming out of the top. She kept seeing the top of the CN tower behind buildings and thought it was part of the building, she also claimed the Calgary tower was taller.
The elevation of Calgary is 1139 metres or 3736 feet, Lake Ontario is 75 metres or 246 feet above sea level (Keele & Steeles is at 270 metres or 885 feet).
The CN Tower is 553.33 metres (1815 feet) tall. The Calgary tower is 191 metres or 626 feet. So doing your math, it will depend is you include the ground elevation or not.
wow i felt lost looking at the pic's, could not tell what point of view of the city i was looking at!
If anyone remembers speakers corner, on city tv, there was a guy who did a bit on it waaaay back in the nineties, where he was pretending he was coming back from the future, and he was like, "woah, is that the the cn tower??? But the tower fell in the war of (some year ), what year is this???!!! Have I landed in the mulroney years??? Oh NOOOOO!!!"....
He had 3 pairs of ray-bans on, which is how you knew he was from the future.
I still remember that. WISH someone from city would dig in the archives and find that. That would make my year.
I used to live in NYC and watched the WTC come down.
So if something happened to the CN Tower, I'd think, "Maybe it's me."
The trouble with the CN Tower relative to the WTC is that other than as a visual icon, it serves little function for everyday Torontonians--you'd need some Skydome/CBC/Metro Hall/Convention Centre type combo destruction to strike the same kind of gravity...
I also think a lot about the CN Tower in relation to the World Trade Centers - after having been to Ground Zero and having read some oral history from people who were there during and after the attacks, I've given some pretty serious thought as to how important landmarks can be for the psychological well-being of a city's citizens.
Until I moved in Toronto in 2007 I'd never lived anywhere really where a significant landmark was visible from virtually everywhere in the downtown core. The closest was in Montreal where the cross on the mountain is visible from most places east of downtown, but it never held the same significance for me. I like the CN Tower - I like that a touristy thing still has a real presence in the lives of those of us who live here. I can't imagine our city without it, really.
I love the CN Tower ... it's my beacon.
Put it back! Put it back NOW!
I agree with the people that have said the city seems very bland without the CN Tower. When you think of NYC and the loss of the Twin Towers, it certainly took something away from the skyline of the city, but they still have some iconic skyscrapers in they city that you KNOW you're in New York (Chrysler, Empire State, that building they show in the opening credits of Law and Order that looks like they cut the top off at an angle...), just to name a few. Alas, in Toronto we lack really distinctive architecture for our skyscraper, there's the TD towers, but they have a version of that in New York as well (right? at any rate it's only really recognisable from the ground level).
In brief, yeah it would be a terrible tragedy if we lost the CN Tower, but we shouldn't rely on it as being our only distinctive tall building...lest we become some generic booming Asian city!
Hm, when I re-read my comment, especially my last line, it makes it sound as though we need to build some better looking skyscrapers in case we ever lose the CN Tower. That's not what I mean! You know what I mean... right?
I lived in the Toronto area several times in the last 20 years, and remember the front page of the Globe when the top was completed. We are coming as tourists this week - my daughter thinks the buildings in Ottawa and Kingston are big and is very excited about seeing the Tower. Try explaining to a kid standing at the base of the tallest building she's ever seen that she's about to see one almost 10 times taller... It's a marvel, let's keep it.
Fantastic! Love your work.
nthing the comment that the skyline looks generic without the tower. Whether you like the look of the tower or not, it is undeniably and unmistakably Toronto. Like a mole on someone's face becomes a part of them after a while.
It makes me wonder if you could do a companion project where you took the removed CN towers from those photos and inserted them into photos of other cities - would they then look like Toronto? What would happen if you showed those photos to people on the street and asked people to tell you where they were taken from? Hm... I might do that myself actually.
wheres my x-ray of the CN tower
I wish I could have gone to NYC in 2002. I should have gone...but my parents did not want to take me and my brothers after we got into an argument (like siblings never fight...). Seven years later I still have yet to visit NYC. At least I have been to Toronto. It was a lot of fun. I would have gone this summer, but there was a garbage strike (and the looonie crept up a bit). Toronto is such a beautiful city. I enjoyed it more than Windsor (although they have Walkerville beer and Papa Cheney's). Toronto was affordable. Even though I just spent $500 US to replace my broken rear windshield I was still able to go an enjoy it (despite the rough economy). One day I will see NYC. Until then Toronto is the closest (not geographically- that would be Parsippany, NJ (In 2006 we did not take a bus trip to spend a day NYC while waiting for our Suburban to be fixed. Instead we saw the stupid 2nd pirate movie.) place to it that I have been.
Our skyline really depends on the tower for prominence. But even without the tower our skyline is notable. Only North American cities with bigger/better skylines are New York and Chicago. And if you removed the sears tower, Chicago would be far less noticeable then it is.
Wow Nice pictures this is a really good article. I m glad to have read it. I m looking forward for more of your articles…………. I really enjoyed reading it. It’s good to know that there is much more knowledge to gain on this topic. Just keep posting your good work and keep enlightening your readers. Thank you..
marvelous pictures (NYC)....... I loved reading your blog and I found it very interesting. I m really impressed with your work. I loved your idea about the whole thing. I am happy I went through your blog. It has helped me a lot….
Awesome post...... For many people who never had been Toronto this site is simply the best one to go through. I would surely recommend this blog to all my friends. The sky scrappers were simply outstandingly marvelous........
Mind blowing pictures. I m very impressed with the above blog. It was quiet interesting too. The blog was very enlightening, and in a way it really helped me gain some insight on this topic…….
So, the problem with your answer is that he was talking about whether one *tower* was taller than another, not what the elevation was. Epic fail.
I've bashed a lot of articles on blogTO, but not this time. Great concept, great commentary and really interesting photos. Thanks Derek.
Jonathan Castellino, you bum, you could learn a thing or two from Derek.
Interesting subject. I m really glad to read your blog. I m impressed with your good work. I have gone through many blogs but I found yours the most interesting…. I m looking forward for more of your work…
The pictures are so beautiful. I enjoyed reading your post. It was very interesting. Thank you for posting…..
This is one of the best pictures i ever seen. I m absolutely thrilled to get to read such a good blog. The amount of information that I gained is really great. This is an absolute masterpiece. I m really impressed. I would love to read more of your blogs. Please keep posting…….. Keep up the good work………..
Some pictures are amazing and some pictures are terrifying .... I loved reading your blog and I found it very interesting. I m really impressed with your work. I loved your idea about the whole thing. I am happy I went through your blog. It has helped me a lot….
I m really impressed with your work. I m glad to have read this article. It was a great way of putting forward your ideas on this subject…… I m relieved to find such good work after going through such pains in searching for the appropriate matter for my project……. Congratulations.