Six Points Interchange Reconfiguration is now underway

View looking east toward Six Points Interchange Reconfiguration prpoject, July 15, 2017. Jaan Pill photo

I attended a public meeting – in the form of an open house – at a Lithuanian   church located east of the Six Points Interchange some time back. I was pleased to receive an email today (July 14, 2017), indicating that construction at the Interchange is now underway.

Click on the photos to enlarge them

Click here for an update on Start of Construction >

I am impressed with everything I have heard about this project.

Some years ago I organized, with Etobicoke-Lakeshore MPP Peter Milczyn’s Office, a Jane’s Walk at the Six Points Interchange.

MPP Milczyn, who was closely involved with the development of the project starting many years ago when he was a City of Toronto Councillor, did a great job as the Walk Leader on that day.

At the public meeting that I attended more recently, one person was explaining, to small clusters of people, that the way that Dundas St. West is being configured is (and I am paraphrasing) “all wrong.” However, I later had the opportunity to speak, later at the same public meeting, with a planner, connected with the Six Points Configuration.

The detritus that emerges from the past has its own narrative of forms to share: Part 1. Jaan Pill photo

I asked her about the points that I had heard, from the person who as not impressed for the plans regarding Dundas St. West. The planner explained to me that there had been a thorough Environmental Assessment, as part of the planning of the project.

At that time, a broad range of options were considered, from a broad range of angles, in order to determine which configuration of roads would work the best, taking account of a wide range of goals and needs.

The planner also noted that all of the information, related to the Environmental Assessment, is available at the Six Points Reconfiguration website. I thought she gave a good answer. I was pleased that I had the opportunity, to first have a conversation with the critic, who was performing his civic duty in expressing his views and concerns, and then to have a conversation with one of the planners, who was there to answer questions at the public meeting.

The detritus that emerges from the past has its own narrative of forms to share: Part 2. This image appeals to me, because of the manner in which a linear form has been folded upon itself, to create a spiral with gestural qualities. Jaan Pill photo

I’m pleased to know the project is now underway.

Detritus that emerges from the past

The passage that follows below is an additional text from July 15, 2017.

I have visited the Six Points construction site regularly in recent years. I recall there was a bird – it was a duck, as I recall – that had made its home at, had adopted as its habitat at, a body of water that was in place at the Six Points site for some time. The bird appeared to me to be contented, happy with its home. It lived there for weeks on end. The body of water is long gone, as is the bird. At that time there were sections of woods still in place in the area, as well. Now the woods are gone.

I am wondering what the rest of the story of the bird may be, as in: Where did it get its start in life, where did its parents go, and what were the next steps in the bird’s life, after the body of water was gone? The body of water may now be part of an underground, manufactured waterway. I do not have evidence regarding the matter, however.

New foliage growing profusely from tree stump, July 15, 2017. Jaan Pill photo

At the Six Points Interchange construction site, which I visited on July 15, 2017, I came across a clearcut along an embankment alongside Dundas St. West. The view reminded me of times when I worked in the interior and coast of British Columbia in the early 1970s. When you see a clearcut anywhere, if you’ve had experience in the bush, the memories of past clearings come to mind at once. That’s what the photos, at the end of this post, are about.

Six Points site, July 15, 2017. Jaan Pill photo

One of the things that I noticed, on my recent visit to the Six Points site, was a bursting forth of leaves emerging from a tree stump. A person’s interest in such an image – of leaves bursting profusely out of a stump – can be viewed as corny, or sentimental, or poignant. It can be viewed in any of a number of ways, that is to say, depending on the frame of reference that a person brings to such an image.

I had seen this stump some weeks earlier. I did not recall much in the way of growth on top of the stump, on that occasion. Now, I saw that new growth was bursting forth, in a spectacular fashion. I saw that as a straightforward expression of, and illustration of, the intrinsic enthusiasm of nature. We can frame the image, that is to say, as each of us does please to frame it.

Updates

Of relevance regarding the above-noted 1936 Berlin photo album project is the work of August Sander:

August Sander: People of the Twentieth Century. A Photographic Portrait of Germany

Also of relevance is the work of Thomas Struth:

On Thomas Struth’s “Museum Photographs”

A July 24, 2017 New York Times article is entitled: “Exposing Life Behind the Berlin Wall.”

An Aug. 2, 2017 Guardian article is entitled: “Igor Golomstock obituary: Cultural historian who explored the use of similar art to promote differing totalitarian regimes.”