“Cities of the Future” at Canary Park in Toronto

The Newinhomes.com team was fortunate enough to be invited to the opening night of “Cities of the Future,” an art exhibit at the Canary Park presentation centre featuring exclusively the photography of the locally famous Tom Ryaboi.

The exhibit featured Ryaboi’s photography from his travels around the world, and obviously highlighted the constantly changing Toronto streetscape. People in Toronto first took notice of Ryaboi’s photography when he started scaling buildings to get perspectives on the city that the average person had never experienced, unless they were also half-spider and went to great lengths to elude security guards.

“When I'm shooting on a roof I take my time and try to ‘sink’ into my surrounding, coming up for air whenever I see a shot. The city is quiet when you are on a high roof and you get to appreciate it from a completely different mindset. Almost like watching the countryside from a mountain,” Ryaboi told Huffington Post in an interview about a year ago.

Ryaboi wasn’t the first in the world to engage in the act of rooftopping, but he arguably took the best photos while doing it! Rooftopping is defined as “the heart-stopping photography movement which involves thrill seekers climbing to the top of city skyscrapers, hanging off the edge and taking pictures of the spectacular view beneath them,” (Google Definitions) and Tom Ryaboi is credited as a leader of the movement.

The exhibit also featured an interactive installation by artist and painter Fabio Giampietro, visual artist and interaction designer Ilaria Vergani Bassi, and creative developer Paolo Di Giacomo, called “Aletide: the interactive swing,” which allowed guests to experience the sensation of vertigo without being hundreds of feet off the ground. Of course, we gave it a shot, and we have to say, it’s definitely an interesting experience. You put on a pair of headphones before you start swinging towards a giant screen. The faster you swing, the more intense the sound effects become and the faster the screen mimics a falling sensation. If you’re looking for the rush or peacefulness that Ryaboi raves about, this is the safer way to find it.

(L-R) Ilaria Vergani Bassi, Fabio Giampietro, andPaolo Di Giacomo

Canary Park

Reaching just 15 storeys, Canary Park isn’t exactly Ryaboi’s dream spot, but we have to say, the views of the city and Corktown Common are pretty incredible from the top. Canary Park is actually made up of two buildings, the shorter reaching 11 storeys. There are 429 units throughout the condo, and 25 percent of them have sold.

Canary Park features 50 units available through Dundee Kilmer’s innovative MyHome program, which you can learn more about here. Ken Tanenbaum, Vice chairman of Kilmer Group, told Newinhomes.com that he expects the majority of these MyHome eligible units to sell closer to occupancy because first-time buyers usually don’t have the financial stability to purchase far in advance.

When we last visited Canary Park just a few weeks ago, EllisDon was putting on the finishing touches, getting the building ready to hand over to TO2015, the organization in charge of managing and operating the Pan Am and Parapan Games. On the building tour, Jason Lester, President of Dundee Kilmer explained that both Canary District Condos and Canary Park will be finished with the essentials, like a bathroom and drywall, and not until the grounds are handed back to Dundee Kilmer will the market condos be fully finished with kitchens, flooring, and other appointments.

Dundee Kilmer will hand over the Canary District grounds to TO2015 by the end of this year, it will be returned to them in September 2015, after the games. It will take approximately six months for the the condos to be fully completed, and homebuyers should be moving in by the spring of 2016. Between 2016 and 2020, you can expect three more market condos to launch, featuring a total of 1,100 new units.

For more information about Canary Park, visit the presentation centre at 398 Front Street East Monday to Thursday from 12 to 6 pm, and weekends and holidays from 12 to 5 pm. Call 416-603-7576 for more information. And don’t forget to check out “Cities of the Future.”