Anyone who has spent at least 50 hours studying 20th century architecture would recognize Albany’s Empire State Plaza as Le Corbusier’s brainchild, a one-block model of his Radiant City, except it’s not. It was a poorly-executed urban renewal project under governor Nelson Rockefeller supported by Albany mayor Erastus Corning II, Read more…
After the French stole this tract of land from indigenous people, the king granted it to Monseigneur François de Laval in 1674. In 1801, Joseph Papineau, a Lower Canadian legislator, bought the land and developed it. He sold it to his eldest son in 1817, who in 1855, named his Read more…
My visit to the textile museum was brief so I wouldn’t get ticketed for parking overtime in downtown Toronto. It’s nearby the Campbell House Museum so the two make a good geographical pairing. The main exhibition area showed Inuit textile art, something I found quintessentially Canadian. The gallery that shares Read more…
Its been half a decade since my first visit to the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto. I came by bus last time, but even though I drove this time I still had to transfer onto a shuttle bus to the rear entrance. I didn’t enjoy seeing the exhibits in reverse. Read more…
The Aga Khan Museum in Toronto is Canada’s largest museum dedicated to Muslim culture. Photography isn’t permitted in most of the museum, so I can’t show you ancient Quran manuscripts or the 16th century marble fountain. The only gallery where photography is permitted is the ceramics showcase. Islam is present Read more…
On the short of Lake Erie, Fort Erie stares down Buffalo with its might 18-pound cannons. Soldiers from all over Europe, including Swiss mercenaries, fought for Britain against the rebellious 13 colonies. But in 1814, the Americans captured the fort and used it as a base for attacking the British Read more…
Perhaps the smallest museum in Toronto, but not the least interesting (that award goes to the Toronto Police Museum). The Toronto Railway Museum makes its home in a railroad roundhouse shared with restaurants and bars. The roundhouse used to serve nearby Union Station, it’s an excellent example of adaptive reuse Read more…
Queen’s Park is officially known as the Legislative Assembly of Ontario – the province’s elected lawmaking body. Here, which parties sit on the left or the right depend on who is in power, the majority sits on the left and the minority on the right, so the two sides have Read more…
While all the nice national museums are in Ottawa, the nice provincial museums are up to just as high a standard in Toronto. The ROM is the biggest brother of the provincial museums in the city. Spanning three maze-like floors, the museum tells the story of Earth from the age Read more…
Anyone who has loved the Corning Museum of Glass in New York has to pop up to Toronto for the Gardiner Museum of ceramics. It displays ceramicware from all over the world throughout all periods of human history. Porcelain was a luxury item during the 17th and 18th centuries and Read more…