This project is a contemporary survey of a unique element in Toronto’s urban fabric. Cutting diagonally across the city’s street grid, the lower stretch of Weston Road is a major traffic artery but also the spinal column that connects a series of distinct neighbourhoods.

The project, which has grown to include 500 images, covers the types of residential, commercial, industrial and institutional architecture, as well as the transit infrastructure to be found on the lower 7 kilometer stretch of Weston Road, beginning in the redeveloped Stockyards District and passing through Mount Dennis and the former town of Weston.

 

 

As my photos show, the communities in Weston and Mount Dennis still have an architectural presence on the street, while other parts of Weston Road reflect the haphazard expansion of the City of Toronto into its near suburbs during the 20th century.  After the establishment of Metropolitan Toronto in 1954, local governments concentrated on making it easier to get around by car.

 

The complete domination of lower Weston road by the automobile is, however about to be challenged by improvements to public transit. When it opens in 2022, the Mount Dennis LRT terminal at Eglinton Avenue will also be the second largest intermodal hub in the city after Union Station.

 

My project includes views of typical neighbourhood streets, whose quiet and well ordered aspect may well be disturbed by development pressures associated with improved access by transit.