To comment scroll to the bottom of the entry. Your e-mail address and URL are optional fields.
2007 06 03
Into A Crystal Darkly
Unless you arrived very early or were a special guest occupying a bleacher seat, experiencing the Crystal's opening last night was a disappointed. Most attendees watched from a few hundred metres away via a large digital screen facing west down Bloor Street. Crowd control at Bloor and Avenue road was nonexistent. People arriving from that direction slammed into a wall of media trucks, scissor jacks, and tantalizingly inaccessible, half-full bleachers. As more arrived they swelled out onto the busy lanes of Avenue Road.
Still, because most were Torontonians they overcame the awkward conditons with a quiet patience. After all, they've been waiting for this spectacle for five years now.
And a spectacle it was. The Crystal is architecture as media star having long ago eclipsed the need to actually perform the first two legs of its tripartite role of commodity, firmness, and delight.
I got into the fenced off area by getting in line at 7 p.m. and was standing just in front of the VIPwith hilary weston section. the crowd control was ridiculous- sam ething leaving the crysyal this morning ( sunday) > there was no exit route for people leaving the building.Maybe they sorted that out later. Pretty spectacular lighting – it is quite looming presence I must say. i agree with all the folk out on the streets. that is terrific. What is with the black hole called Nathan Philips square.i cycles past on the way home and it was so bleak compared to everything else. We really need to address what happens there on summer evenings. It looks grim and shouldn’t . Let’s fix it with light and open coffee houses – til late.
