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 zarathustra
Location: Toronto, ON
Gender: Female
 |  | brick works redux
< on 1/9/2006 12:26 AM >
|  | | | okay, so today was the 1st time i had ever gone urban exploring, and the site that i chose was the don valley brick works. despite walking over an hour to get there and being completely exhausted, it was well worth it!!! i went during the day and there were some people walking their dogs. other than that though, i had a lot of privacy to do my thing. it took a while for me to find an entrance into the place but when i got in it was like finding the holy grail...
i admit i wasn't prepared for my first ue. on my way to the site, i stopped by a dollar store and got myself 2 flashlights, but both didn't work and i ending up walking thru the blding in the dark!  i wasn't afraid. there was some light coming thru the cracks and ceiling so it wasn't like i was in complete darkness. also noticed that i wasn't the only person to walk thru the site that day. i noticed some fresh foot tracks in the snow, where there is some open space...sort of like a mini industrial courtyard.
anyway, i had a lot of fun. went up the stairs and traversed the whole factory, overlooking everything below. awesome! then sat down and had myself a ham and cheese sandwich and some cashews before leaving.
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oldtimer
 
Location: Toronto
Gender: Male
| | Re: brick works redux
<Reply # 1 on 1/9/2006 12:35 AM >
| | | | Excellent. yokes is the preeminent tour guide. Next time you go let him or myself know. We always manage to find new corners we haven't been in.
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TheFirstCause
 
Gender: Male
| | Re: brick works redux
<Reply # 2 on 1/9/2006 12:36 AM >
| | | | I was their a couple days ago, my first time checking it out. I loved the shredded up wall/ceiling on the North side. That was probably my favorite part of the whole place. Though my friends and I didn't explore the whole West section of the building.
TheFirstCause
Writer/Director/Actor
www.the5thrangers.com |
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Walking Talking Poison
Location: Big Island, Hawaii
Gender: Female
| |  | Re: brick works redux
<Reply # 3 on 1/9/2006 12:48 AM >
|  | | | Posted by zarathustra
okay, so today was the 1st time i had ever gone urban exploring, and the site that i chose was the don valley brick works. despite walking over an hour to get there and being completely exhausted, it was well worth it!!!
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YIKES, thats a long walk! Sounds like you had a good first time out though, gratz! Im going to go up there in a couple of months. Seems like a very cool place!
<.·´¯`·.WªLkïng¯|¯ªLkïngPoïsØN ¸.·´¯`·.¸> |
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sigma
 
Location: Toronto
Gender: Male
There is no Now
| | | Re: brick works redux
<Reply # 4 on 1/9/2006 12:59 AM >
| | | | Good to see others enjoying the Brickworks and appreciating the space. We are pretty lucky to have a location like this in Toronto. Toronto is notorious for erasing allot of its historic industrial past. Enjoy it while its in this decaying state.
[last edit 1/9/2006 1:00 AM by sigma - edited 1 times]
IDN Books | Prints | IDN Spotlights | Photo Gallery | My Flickr |
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zarathustra
Location: Toronto, ON
Gender: Female
| | Re: brick works redux
<Reply # 5 on 1/9/2006 1:01 AM >
| | | | haha. yeah, i'm so exhausted! walked back home as well. but i liken it to a pilgrimage that i had to take...sort of like my mecca.
i'll definitely go back again next sunday. hope to see some folks there
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yokes
Location: Toronto
Gender: Male
I aim to misbehave
| |  | | Re: brick works redux
<Reply # 6 on 1/9/2006 1:10 AM >
| | | | congrats! the brickworks is the place I take first timers to. such a wonderful place.
"Great architecture has only two natural enemies: water and stupid men." - Richard Nickel |
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Roadwolf
   
The Wolf!
Location: Buffalo, NY (formerly Toronto, Canada)
Gender: Male
Living on the Road and Rails.
| |  | | Re: brick works redux
<Reply # 7 on 1/10/2006 1:11 PM >
| | | | yes the brickworks is a great place to take first-time UE'ers.
Add me on Skype or Steam: Roadwolf611
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mortimer
Location: teronno
| | | Re: brick works redux
<Reply # 8 on 1/10/2006 4:44 PM >
| | | |
| also noticed that i wasn't the only person to walk thru the site that day. i noticed some fresh foot tracks in the snow, where there is some open space... |
There's usually a number of people wandering through on the weekends. I was in there Sunday late morning reshooting a couple old photos on larger format film, but I was only in the main kiln room. I showed a random stranger how to get in (on that day, the entrances change every time I go). I did hear voices from the other side of the building, so there were a few more people wandering around at noon. Glad you enjoyed your trip.
yep. |
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Roadwolf
The Wolf!
Location: Buffalo, NY (formerly Toronto, Canada)
Gender: Male
Living on the Road and Rails.
| | | | Re: brick works redux
<Reply # 9 on 1/10/2006 5:00 PM >
| | | | this kind of proves that a UE location doesn't need to be boarded up carefully and locked down due to dangers. there are many dangers in the brickworks. but I have never really heard of anyone getting seriously hurt there. and on any given weekend I estimate atleast 50 to 100 people go thru there. and most of them are just random photographers and such who arent always aware of the dangers of such buildings like Urban Explorers (should be).
Add me on Skype or Steam: Roadwolf611
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Lynx
Location: North York
Gender: Male
:do not cry out or hit the alarm
| | Re: brick works redux
<Reply # 10 on 1/11/2006 7:17 AM >
| | | | I was down there just a couple days ago too, showing my friend from montreal around, it was ficken muddy though so he didn't seem to enjoy it much, lol but I love the place, it's quite nice, even just to walk around the park and footpaths. but i seriously must go back there sometime again with my cameras
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fedge
Location: Gaud Corners, Ontario, Canada
Gender: Male
you blight up my life™®
| | | Re: brick works redux
<Reply # 11 on 2/13/2006 5:48 AM >
| | | | The Final Say
By Peter Worthington
One of the little-known jewels of Toronto is the old Toronto Brickworks, off the Bayview Extension which, since the mid-1990s, has been turned into a marvelous network of paths, bridges, man-made ponds and wetlands for birds and humans.
There is nothing to match it in the city.
While it has won awards for excellence and innovation, it's mostly dog owners who appreciate its value and who make the area a key part of their daily lives.
It is our dog's favourite place, and although leashes are required, Murphy, like most dogs that walk their owners there, would prefer to range free. In summer, she eyes the ponds yearningly.
The transition of the Brickworks from an abandoned quarry and buildings that once produced bricks for the mansions of Toronto into an oasis for birds and small animal life, was inspired by landscape architect Michael Hough, whose vision has added much to Toronto.
It's hard to exaggerate how precious today's Brickworks is, especially in the spring and summer when, each year, red-winged blackbirds increasingly take charge, and an assortment of herons, ducks, turtles, muskrats and other birds and wildlife establish occupancy. Nature in the middle of the city.
All this is about to change.
A local environmental group, Evergreen, has grandiose plans for the Brickworks -- a $50-million project that some of us who treasure the Brickworks as it now is, fear will change it forever. And not for the better.
Plans are to use the existing buildings to house boutiques, a restaurant guided by master chef (and showman) Jamie Kennedy, along with ceramic facilities, organic gardens, winter skating, teaching and tour facilities, and so on. It's hoped that these changes will attract 250,000 visitors annually.
The thought of a quarter-million people a year trudging the existing Brickworks paths is depressing.
What about the quiet? The birds, the pristine environment, the leash-free dogs?
Tim Trow, president of the Toronto Humane Society and a member of the citizen's advisory committee at city hall for the Brickworks, is uneasy. His failure to get assurances from the mayor and Evergreen people that the Brickworks won't become an elite commercial plaything for the trendy, has induced him to say the THS opposes the proposed changes.
Michael Hough is more optimistic.
He realizes that there's never been enough money to finance the Brickworks' return to nature -- ever since Ontario's former NDP government turned the facility over to the city.
Attracting more people attracts more money, but a projected 250,000 visitors will require raised walkways, or more fencing on paths, more controls to protect wildlife. And, of course, mandatory leashes on dogs, which is the rule now but not always obeyed.
Hough says a couple of unleashed dog areas are planned at each end of the Brickworks. That seems a fair compromise, on condition there's a pool in the dog area for them to cool off in summer.
Pool is vital
Hough said a proposed pool was vetoed because of costs, but hoped it could be reactivated (he, too, is owned by a dog). I'd argue a pool is vital.
When I ventured that dogs off the leash didn't do much harm, I was quickly corrected. Hough said a handsome blue heron that took up residence in a Brickworks pond, was killed by a big dog. End of argument. Leashes are necessary.
As for the future, while the idea of 250,000 people a year tramping around is almost as depressing as the thought of boutiques, the fact Michael Hough is involved in advising and planning is reassuring. Were it not for him, there'd have been no Brickworks sanctuary that is, or should be, the pride of Toronto.
http://torontosun....02/12/1437842.html
18-odd Years Of UER-ing! |
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Axle
Location: Milton, ON
Gender: Male
Sieg oder Tod
| | Re: brick works redux
<Reply # 12 on 2/13/2006 1:04 PM >
| | | | The brickworks are great. I went there back in January for the Toronto UE meet. On request of Boffo I didn't put my photos into the LDB, but you can view 'em here:
http://luyckxnet.no-ip.org/urbex-milton/gallery2/v/dv-brickworks/
Fedge: Another distillery district, just what Toronto Needs. *no heavy sarcasm* I don't think it will survive, transit out that way is sketchy
Celer at Audax
Para la Victoria Siempre Alemanes! |
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Axle
Location: Milton, ON
Gender: Male
Sieg oder Tod
| | Re: brick works redux
<Reply # 14 on 2/13/2006 3:25 PM >
| | | | That was done with the help of CyberShoe.
Celer at Audax
Para la Victoria Siempre Alemanes! |
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oldtimer
Location: Toronto
Gender: Male
| | Re: brick works redux
<Reply # 15 on 2/13/2006 8:35 PM >
| | | | Blue Herons are evil. They pick up (i.e. decimate) all fish from ponds. Even ones that may have been stocked there on purpose to try and revitalize the wildlife there. As pretty as Blue Herons are, they are pretty destructive that way. Dogs don't go after fish directly - at least most don't. LOL. So their presence actually enhances the overall diversity of water species and dependent ones such as turtles and on and on. Lamenting the demise of one flying rat Blue Heron is typical tree-hugger short sightedness. Oh yeah that's right, Hough said the bird was handsome.
What's this nonsense about "there's never been enough money to finance the Brickworks' return to nature". Yet there is enough money to build bridges and coffee shops. How about just leave the place alone. That seems to me the cheapest alternative. Meddling twits. Nature can do quite nicely without boutiques, restaurants, ceramic facilities, organic gardens and winter skating, thank you very much.
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Lexi
Location: Oslo, Norway
Gender: Female
I'm getting old.
| | Re: brick works redux
<Reply # 16 on 2/13/2006 9:30 PM >
| | | | Posted by zarathustra
okay, so today was the 1st time i had ever gone urban exploring, and the site that i chose was the don valley brick works. despite walking over an hour to get there and being completely exhausted, it was well worth it!!! i went during the day and there were some people walking their dogs. other than that though, i had a lot of privacy to do my thing. it took a while for me to find an entrance into the place but when i got in it was like finding the holy grail...
i admit i wasn't prepared for my first ue. on my way to the site, i stopped by a dollar store and got myself 2 flashlights, but both didn't work and i ending up walking thru the blding in the dark! i wasn't afraid. there was some light coming thru the cracks and ceiling so it wasn't like i was in complete darkness. also noticed that i wasn't the only person to walk thru the site that day. i noticed some fresh foot tracks in the snow, where there is some open space...sort of like a mini industrial courtyard.
anyway, i had a lot of fun. went up the stairs and traversed the whole factory, overlooking everything below. awesome! then sat down and had myself a ham and cheese sandwich and some cashews before leaving.
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... Are you from MP.net?
[15:00:33] <SeeThirty> cause you're not likely to be anywhere that other people haven't been who didn't have protection
[15:00:41] <SeeThirty> still better safe than lexi |
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|FPI| Building 19
Location: Oshawa, Ontario, Canada
Gender: Male
Whitby is where it all began...
| | Re: brick works redux
<Reply # 17 on 2/14/2006 7:42 AM >
| | | | Can someone give me directions to the Brickworks before they shut it down? I've read in a couple different places that it's a really cool place to go. I don't know Toronto the best though.
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Sidler
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Gender: Male
| | Re: brick works redux
<Reply # 19 on 2/14/2006 10:24 AM >
| | | | I don't see much that looks industrial on that page... is this it?
[Edit: I can't get it to zoom in or post a new marker, but what looks like it is on the map...]
[last edit 2/14/2006 10:30 AM by Sidler - edited 2 times]
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