Toronto Glass Forest — Downtown Canyon

Description

Toronto’s downtown financial district contains Canada’s highest concentration of office towers — the ‘glass forest’ of the King Street West and Bay Street corridor includes over 20 towers exceeding 200 metres in height, making it one of North America’s most significant urban skylines. The CN Tower — at 553 metres still the tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere — provides the definitive vertical anchor above the surrounding tower cluster. This photograph was made from a position on Front Street looking north at the peak of the afternoon trading day — when the glass facades of the financial towers reflect the maximum amount of sky in their mirror surfaces, creating the characteristic effect of a forest of blue-sky rectangles at varying angles. The photograph was made on a clear winter day when the exceptionally crisp Canadian light creates maximum definition in the reflective glass surfaces. The CN Tower’s position — set back from the financial core on the waterfront — places it as a background element rather than a foreground intrusion.