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Power Houses: Toronto Hydro’s Camouflaged Substations

Steve — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 18:00:41 +0000

Hiding in plain sight to provide energy and light! That’s not Toronto Hydro’s motto but it could be – for the better part of a century, the Canadian utility’s policy was to design hundreds of electrical substations so that they would “blend in” with their surrounding neighborhoods. Though many have been decommissioned, many more remain.

Edwardian Electrical Edifices

(image via: John FitzGerald)

Toronto Hydro was established in 1911, the year in which electrical power from the massive new generators at Niagara Falls first lit up Toronto’s downtown streets. It became quickly apparent that (a) a network of substations was required to complete the emerging power grid and (b) Toronto’s citizens were not amenable to having ugly conglomerations of metal, wire and ceramic resistors plunked smack dab in the middle of their neighborhoods.

(images via: BlogTO and John FitzGerald)

Toronto Hydro set up an in-house team of unnamed architects whose purpose was to “clothe” the substations in the fashionable brick, masonry and woodwork of the day. The earliest stations, of which Duncan Station at 29 Nelson Street is the oldest (1910) still standing, were generally larger than homes and aped the size, shape and style of Toronto’s fancier office buildings and industrial warehouses.

(images via: BruceK and JohnnyGEO)

As these structures weren’t actually homes and businesses, sharp-eyed passersby noted a few differences that immediately set the substations apart… like bronzed, weathervane-equipped exhaust vents on the roof of the 2357 Danforth station (circa-1926) and ubiquitous “Keep Out!” warning signs displayed on all of them.

Glengrove Substation: “The Castle”

(images via: PhotoSensitive and BlogTO)

Up until the advent of the Great Depression, most of Toronto Hydro’s substations tended towards the grandiose both in size and style. The Glengrove substation at 2833 Yonge Street (south of Lawrence) opened in 1930 and was the penultimate expression of this philosophy.

(image via: Toronto Star)

Known colloquially as “The Castle”, the ivy-covered sprawling stone complex would look right at home on an English baronial estate. Oak doors, leaded glass windows and rough-cut stone walls all contribute to a real atmosphere of grandeur made even more majestic when night falls and interior lighting switches on automatically.

Stealthy Salt Boxes

(images via: BlogTO and Alice in Search of a City)

Things changed before and after the Second World War when a more subdued design ethos took Toronto Hydro back to its original mission re the substations: blend them in and avoid obtrusiveness. The new “plain jane” look was driven by economic concerns pre-war; then post-war when Toronto’s emerging suburbs began sprouting smaller, simpler “Salt Box” homes designed for the requirements and incomes of returning soldiers. Plain maybe, but note the white picket fence at 640 Millwood in midtown Toronto.

(images via: Toronto Star and TheStar.com)

Ironically, some of these substations have outlived their original neighborhoods and today find themselves standing out like sore thumbs after the surrounding homes have been sold off and knocked down. The sad remnant above stood on the southeast corner of Pharmacy and St. Clair Avenues in east central Toronto for decades until it was finally demolished in late 2010.

(images via: BlogTO and Google Maps)

We can attribute some of the credit for Toronto Hydro’s suburban aesthetic to one Harold Bodwell, a utility employee charged with the task of designing substations for Toronto’s new neighborhoods. Bothwell not only specified the style of the neighborhood substations but also dictated the grounds be landscaped and regularly maintained.

Oil’s Well That Ends…

(image via: Jon Lasiuk)

Things don’t always go as smoothly as Toronto Hydro would like and when rare accidents like the transformer vault fire above occur, the substations’ covers are blown sky high. Watch a video of the “event” here.

(images via: Jon Lasiuk and CityNews Toronto)

“Transformers are actually filled with mineral oil, no longer PCB’s,” explained TFD Division Commander Andrew Kostiuk, “and if it gets hot enough to catch fire it’s quite a spectacular fire.” So much for being good neighbors.

Hiding On Plain Sites

(images via: BLDG Blog)

Toronto artist Robin Collyer was the first to document the phenomenon of Toronto’s urban and suburban camouflaged substations, photographing a number of them in the 1980s. Collyer’s use of soft focus and black & white film creates an aura of timeless mystery around these stealthy structures.

(images via: BlogTO and International Metropolis)

Nearly 300 of these substations were built on residential streets in central and suburban parts of the Greater Toronto Area over a period of nearly a century, and about 85% of them are still in use. Roughly 45 of the substations have been decommissioned for one reason or another and a few have taken on new lives as retail shops – one north Toronto substation is now used by a religious denomination for their meetings others (the example above hails from the city of Windsor) have become small quaint stores.

Modern Electrical Living

(images via: BLDG Blog and CCCA)

One might say Toronto Hydro’s neighborhood substations are a collective working museum of the past century’s architectural styles and trends. It’s a concept easier said than done: the camo cladding has always come second to the main mission of providing uninterrupted electrical service to Toronto’s varied neighborhoods – a very close second, by appearances.

(images via: BlogTO and International Metropolis)

Years and decades pass but Toronto Hydro’s substation designers move with the times, not against them. The past half-century has seen faux-Georgian mansions with gabled windows and triangular plinths above the “door”, 1950s & 1960s ranch style spreads (another example from Windsor shown above) with asymmetrical rooflines, post-and-beam construction and decorative brick screening, and finally post-modernist 1980s styling that eschews brick altogether in favor of organic concrete and glass block accents.

(images via: Toronto Star and Paul Henman)

Other Canadian and American cities (New York City comes to mind) have employed urban camouflage techniques to put neighborhoods over infrastructure but Toronto’s record in both quality, quantity and history is particularly outstanding. Though individually these urban & suburban electrical substations are easily missed, together they represent a surprisingly studied effort by a large, faceless corporation to take into account the sensibilities of their residential customers. Shocking, eh?

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ZAP! 27 Vintage Sci Fi Damsels In Distress

Marc — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 18:00:23 +0000

Vintage science fiction has as many damsels in distress as it has lurching robots and rubber-masked aliens. Despite the huge pantheon of films and novels about futuristic exploits, there’s always one thing that remains the same: There’s a beautiful woman who needs saving.

(Images via vinmag, entertainment-memorabilia, jungcurrents, theinvisibleagent)

King Kong is likely the most famous woman-snatching creature in film, but he’s far from the only one. A quick tour of film posters from the last 40 years reveals an incredibly narrow artistic focus. Whether the creatures come from the middle of the earth, or a radioactive spill, or simply emerged from a silver shuttlecraft, the poster will always be the same.

(Images via zimbio, newhaven, fridaynightboys, thescarymarys)

It’s not possible that so many films, B-rated or not, would have such consistent and cliched art direction, right? Wrong. One must give credit to the marketing teams of the time; they knew what sold.

(Images via wrongsideoftheart, pulpinternational, longstreet, oldfilmposters)

It’s no secret that a woman in trouble feeds directly into the adolescent boy’s biggest heroic fantasies. A damsel in distress, mixed with the right combination of special effects and mutant monsters, produces pure science fiction gold.

(Images via zimbio, originalvintagemovieposters, izreloaded, moviefone)

All a movie really needed in order to grab a young boy’s attention is a lot of latex masks, some billowing fog, and a women dressed in her finest. The lower the budget, the better.

(Images via monsterwax, fridaynightboys, beautyandterrordance)

Outrageous concepts abound in vintage sci fi films. These fun, over-the-top features were drowning in alien beasts and ray guns, and influenced an entire generation into loving space operas.

(Images via moviefone, vinmag)

Some of the best posters hearken to the popular comics of the time. Epic, painted scene with larger than life characters were enough to lure any kid into stopping for a quick flick on a summer day.

(Images via robotvsbadger, futurechimp, wheredangerlives, gorightly)

It’s easy to feel a bit frustrated at the sheer number of these cliched works of cover art, but it’s also important to remember the audience they were targeting. Modern sensibilities are much more sensitive to the equality of women, though this wasn’t an entirely foreign concept to film audiences in the last few decades.

(Images via wheredangerlives, squidoo)

There are some women who exert a lot of power in these vintage films. Of course, the woman is either a deadly alien, or wearing some kind of futuristic bikini, or both… Maybe women empowerment was a bit foreign in these days. Baby steps!

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Korean Twin Towers Fail to ‘Cloud’ Memories of 9/11

Steve — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 18:00:51 +0000

Korean Twin Towers FAIL? It would definitely appear so, though Dutch architects MVRDV strenuously deny any connection, inspirational or otherwise, with New York City’s lost World Trade Center towers. “The Cloud” is due to rise in Seoul by 2015 – that is, unless a storm of controversy blows the plan away.

Seoul Food for Thought

(image via: DQNplus)

Imagine if you will, an architectural combination of Moshe Safdie’s Habitat 67 (below) and a pair of towering skyscrapers. The result will likely resemble “The Cloud”, an ambitious high-rise apartment building designed by Dutch architects MVRDV. Current plans predict the post-modern structure will occupy a prime portion of the Yongsan Dreamhub project in Seoul, South Korea, by its 2015 completion date.

(images via: Rezendi and The Blaze)

The Yongsan Dreamhub project is an extension of Seoul’s business district; the master plan is one of 40 projects currently overseen by Studio Libeskind.

(images via: Archivenue and DesignBoom)

How incongruous is it that Daniel Libeskind, chosen to to oversee the rebuilding of the World Trade Center, is also associated with a building design that to many invokes the fiery destruction of the World Trade Center’s twin towers on September 11th, 2001.

Big H with ELL to Pay

(images via: Domus and WN.com)

On the face of it, the H-shaped “The Cloud” displays both practical design considerations and a visible form that places it firmly in the so-called “deconstructionist” aesthetic common to many of Daniel Libeskind’s works. Libeskind, however, has no direct connection to this part of the project as it was subcontracted out to Dutch firm MVRDV.

(images via: Architizer and Archinect)

“The Cloud” is no small undertaking. The 54-floor and 60-floor towers rise to heights of 260 meters (853 ft) and 300 meters (984 ft) respectively, offering 128,000 square meters of living space. Roughly halfway up the towers centered around their 27th floors, a 10-story “cloud” connects the two towers in a similar fashion to the ground-level common plinths found in many multi-building developments.

(images via: Archinect and The Pop-Up City)

By raising the plinth skywards, the formerly occupied ground floor space is freed for other purposes, in this case a landscaped public garden designed by Martha Schwartz. Over 14,357 square meters of amenities are located in the connecting cloud including a wellness center, conference center, fitness studio, pools, restaurants and cafes.

(images via: DQNplus and Occult Propaganda)

The top surface of the tower-connecting cloud is also utilized and features an extensive series of easily accessible public and private outdoor spaces, open-air patios, sun decks, gardens and swimming pools. What could possibly go wrong?

Al Clouda?

(images via: Google+ and 911WhoDidIt)

Call it a mass case of pareidolia (seeing faces and images where none exist) or an unintentionally evocative design, but a furor quickly arose when images of “The Cloud” were first published. Regardless of intent, the resemblance of MVRDV’s design to New York’s twin WTC towers in flame is obvious – no matter that said resemblance appears even closer once one is made aware of it.

(images via: UC21blog and VRForums)

MVRDV (architect Winy Maas, above) was seemingly caught unaware by the disturbingly evocative similarity of “The Cloud” to the 9/11 disaster and have strenuously protested claims their design intentionally imitates the lost Twin Towers in flame. To quote a posting on MVRDV’s facebook page, “A real media storm has started and we receive threatening emails and calls of angry people calling us Al Qaeda lovers or worse. MVRDV regrets deeply any connotations The Cloud project evokes regarding 9/11, it was not our intention.”

(images via: Pop-Up City, ABC News Radio and Inhabitat)

The posting continues, “The Cloud was designed based on parameters such as sunlight, outside spaces, living quality for inhabitants and the city. It is one of many projects in which MVRDV experiments with a raised city level to reinvent the often solitary typology of the skyscraper. It was not our intention to create an image resembling the attacks nor did we see the resemblance during the design process. We sincerely apologize to anyone whose feelings we have hurt, the design was not meant to provoke this.”

(image via: Home Theater Forum)

Beyond the above apology, MVRDV is distancing themselves from the ruckus by stating any decisions regarding the implementation of their design are strictly for the client to decide. That being said, Seoul is a long way from Manhattan and those who will live in and around “The Cloud” may not have negative feelings about the building’s appearance. Even so, would you want to live in a building that looks like the scene of a massive terrorist attack – or a 1974 Hollywood disaster movie?

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Star Cars: 10 Past, Present & Future Robot Space Rovers

Steve — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 23:21:21 +0000

Not since Evel Knievel have wheels flown so far: robotic rovers designed to travel over unearthly alien terrain where no one has gone before, and where no roads await their wheels. Led by the “red rovers” of the former Soviet Union, these 10 roving robotic space explorers are driven to roll back the mysteries of our nearest planetary neighbors.

Lunokhod 1 (USSR, 1970-71)

(images via: Aerospaceweb, Wiedenhoff and Lunar Networks)

Lunokhod means “moon walker” in Russian but we can call it “the little red rover that could.” Overshadowed by the hugely publicized American manned lunar landing just over a year before, Lunokhod 1 was nonetheless a triumph of engineering (especially that of the Soviet variety) and holds the honor of being the first remote-controlled rover to land and operate on another heavenly body.

(image via: NASA/NSSDC)

Lunokhod 1 was launched on November 10th, 1970, and the Luna 17 spacecraft carrying it made a successful soft landing on the Moon one week later. Though designed to function for three lunar days (about 3 months), Lunokhod 1 surpassed all expectations by roving a total of 6.55 miles (10,540 meters) over a period of 11 lunar days: almost one full Earth year.

Lunokhod 2 (USSR, 1973)

(images via: Lunar Networks, Wikipedia and StampRussia)

Emboldened by Lunokhod 1′s success, the USSR tweaked the rover’s basic design somewhat and sent Lunokhod 2 moonward just over a year later: the Luna 21 spacecraft landed on January 15th, 1973. Like its predecessor, Lunokhod 2 was designed with a round, clamshell lid which was lined with solar panels. The lid was opened during the lunar day and closed at night, when onboard radioisotope generators kept the equipment warm.

(image via: Elias_Daniel)

Lunokhod 2 operated through the better part of 5 lunar days and covered a total distance of 23 miles or 37 km; ground controllers lost contact with it in early June of 1973. It’s thought that the open clamshell lid may have brushed the rim of a crater, causing moon dust to fall onto the rover’s components and prevent necessary cooling. In 2010, researchers studying images returned by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) found the final resting places of both Lunokhod rovers.

PrOP-M rovers (USSR, 1971)

(images via: Hoga.pl and CyberneticZoo)

The Soviet PrOP-M Mars mini-rovers were about as basic as you could get. Toaster-sized and equipped with a pair of ski-like flanges instead of wheels, the rovers were designed to explore the area immediately adjacent to the lander while remaining attached to the lander via a power and communications cable.

(image via: CyberneticZoo)

Two PrOP-M rovers were launched to Mars: one was aboard Mars 2, which crashed on Mars in late November of 1971. The second rover aboard Mars 3 safely soft-landed on December 2nd, 1971 but contact was lost with the lander just 14.5 seconds after landing. Only one image was sent back to ground controllers, which showed almost no detail and very low light levels: it’s thought that the lander’s communication systems were knocked out by a severe dust storm.

Sojourner (USA, 1997)

(images via: Aerospaceweb, Science Photo Library and Smithsonian NASM)

One of the highlights of NASA’s Mars Pathfinder mission was the Sojourner rover. The six-wheeled robotic explorer weighed just over 23 lbs (10.5 kg) and was 26 inches (65 cm) long. Sojourner was equipped with a three-camera imaging system, an Alpha Proton X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) and a Wheel Abrasion Experiment used to analyze Martian rocks. It’s advanced (for the time) onboard computer featured a 100 kHz Intel 80C85 CPU with 176 KB of flash memory solid-state storage and 512 KB of RAM.

(image via: NASA)

Sojourner was extremely successful, functioning for 83 Mars days following its landing on July 4th, 1997 and sending back 550 photos back to Earth. Like its namesake parent mission, Sojourner was the “pathfinder” for larger and more powerful rovers to come.

Spirit (USA, 2004-2010)

(images via: Daily Galaxy, National Geographic and How Stuff Works)

Spirit MER-A (Mars Exploration Rover A) landed on Mars on January 4th, 2004, and continued to function for an unprecedented length of time with last contact being received in March of 2010. Along with its twin rover Opportunity (MER-B), Spirit drove a total of 4.8 miles (7.73 km) and had its life extended several times after accidental cleaning of its solar panels by Martian dust-devils.

(image via: NewScientist)

A series of events including a broken wheel, being mired in deep sand and having to drive in reverse indicated the toughness of the rover in an unimaginably harsh environment. In fact, the last four months of Spirit’s “life” were spent immobile, stuck in sand with only 4 wheels capable of function.

Opportunity (USA, 2004-Present)

(images via: NASA Space Place, EarthSky and National Geographic)

At press time, NASA’s Opportunity rover is the only man-made object currently functioning on the surface of Mars. Landing on the opposite side of the planet from its twin rover, Spirit, Opportunity (officially MER-B) rolled off its lander platform on January 25th, 2004, and has since covered more than 21 miles (34 km) on its ongoing journey of exploration and discovery.

(image via: NASA/APOD)

Opportunity has so far outlasted its makers’ survival estimates by a factor of 30, and spent the better part of two years in and around Victoria Crater where it inspected layered outcrops that indicate Mars had a much warmer and wetter history than previously thought. Opportunity (and Spirit as well) incorporate aluminum salvaged from the World Trade Center in their construction. The metal was used to craft shields that protect cables on the rovers’ drilling mechanisms, and display the American flag as shown above.

Curiosity (USA, 2012)

(images via: CSMonitor, Space.com and Crunchyroll)

America’s latest (and by far the largest) planetary rover, dubbed Curiosity, successfully launched on November 26th, 2011, as part of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission to the Red Planet. The estimated landing date for MSL and its SUV-sized rolling cargo via the unproven “sky crane” method is August 5th of 2012.

(image via: Space.com)

Curiosity weighs a mammoth 1,984 pounds (900 kg) – that’s right, a ton! It’s 10 feet (3m) in length and is powered by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) similar to those which powered the 1976 Viking landers. The 10.6 pounds (4.8 kg) of plutonium-238 dioxide inside the RTGs negate the need for solar panels and should provide more power over a longer period of time.

Chang’e 3 (China, 2013)

(images via: ECNS.cn, Moon Daily and Pakistan Defence Forum)

China has grand plans afoot for exploring the Moon and planets, but before a foot falls on the lunar seas, man-made wheels will chart the ground. The six-wheeled Chang’e 3 lunar probe’s rover, currently undergoing durability and endurance testing in the deserts of western China, is scheduled to touch down on the Moon sometime in 2013.

(image via: Pakistan Defence Forum)

The Chang’e 3 rover is being developed independently by China and will incorporate state-of-the-art intelligent robot technology that will allow it to explore and analyze an area up to 16,400 feet (5,000 m) from its lander.

Chandrayaan 2 (India, 2014)

(images via: Lunar Networks and Shashi Kumar Aansoo)

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) scored an astronomical coup in 2008 when their Chandrayaan 1 lunar orbiter found strong evidence of water ice at the Moon’s north polar region. Now ISRO is preparing to follow up on that mission with an even more ambitious one: Chandrayaan 2, a lunar lander carrying a wheeled roving vehicle. ISRO is working with Russia’s Roscosmos to develop the combined orbiter-lander-rover mission scheduled for late 2013 or early 2014.

ExoMars (EU/USA, 2019)

(images via: NewScientist, Just Matt’s Blog and DLR)

ExoMars is an ambitious, two-part mission developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) with cooperation and participation by NASA. The mission involves an orbiter with a static lander to be launched in 2016 and a second launch two years later that will deposit the ExoMars rover on the surface of Mars in 2019.

(image via: Space CPST)

The ExoMars rover is a six-wheeled vehicle weighing approximately 650 pounds or 295 kg, which places it roughly between NASA’s MER rovers and the Curiosity rover size-wise. The rover’s most distinguishing feature is its autonomous software package that will allow the rover to make independent navigation decisions without any input from ground controllers on Earth. The rover can travel around 330 ft (100 m) daily and is being designed to have a working lifespan of about 218 Martian days (over 200 Earth days).

(image via: Geocaching)

Robot rovers make excellent pathfinders: where rovers go, Man will follow. It’s a sensible strategy for any space-faring race, which raises the question: if (or when) aliens send their roving explorers to Earth, will we be able to recognize them for what they are? Somehow I think we’ll have no trouble at all.

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Holiday Giants! 31 Out Of Control Decorations

Marc — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 18:00:26 +0000

The holidays are just around the corner, which means the decoration pros have already spent the last 6 months carefully constructing a 60 foot high Santa Claus to grace their front yard.

(Images via getsurrey, johnhardys, wilmingtonrealestateguide)

A ten foot Christmas tree is great, but a 50 foot tree is better. Thousands upon thousands of lights and ornaments go into creating these holiday works of art.

(Images via haha, email-junk, newsgd, bbc)

Here’s hoping to a winter wonderland with plenty of snow for the sculpting! It makes sense that Santa would be one of the most popular sculpture subjects at competitions around the globe, but the sheer size of some of these are a true testament to how large an influence Santa has on popular culture.

(Images via incredibleworld, nocaptionneeded)

If the Santa Claus at your local department store isn’t enough jolly for you this Christmas, take a trip to a Santa Clause convention, where the most die-hard Santa Claus representatives span as far as the eye can see.

(Images via snopes, seawayblog, ecofriend)

These truly monumental trees require the help of an entire community to be set up properly. Huge cranes, enormous lights, and thousands of ornaments combine into a beautiful sight to see.

(Images via firefinance, incredibleworld, blachere)

Beware of the 50 foot Santa! An inflatable Claus, a gigantic marionette, and an illuminated piece of art are only a few examples of Santa fanatics who may have gone a tad too far… or maybe not far enough?

(Images via gothamist, giantsnowglobe, zimbio, aworldwithin, businesstraveller)

That snowglobe sitting on the shelf just doesn’t look the same anymore, does it? These fanciful decorations are the perfect avenue for creative advertising in a mall lobby, or for some serious holiday decking out for any public space.

(Images via windowseatblog, indyposted, shayries, examiner)

There would be a lot of incentive to be nice this year if Santa was clomping around like a monster from a Japanese horror movie. This is the closest that Santa comes to frightening children.

(Images via archifame, gadling, cross-currents, schlisselaw)

What better way to light a menorah than with a flamethrower. Just kidding! But seriously, these amazing celebrations of Hannukah are more than just impressive to behold.

(Images via indyposted, commercialholidaydecorations, clusterflock)

As the saying goes, “with great trees come great ornaments”. These are fit for a gigantic Christmas tree, that’s for sure.

(Images via izismile)

It’s true that sometimes the holidays can get weird, but hopefully only in a holly jolly way! Happy Holidays!