A lot of Toronto Hostels claim to be “a few blocks” from the city landmark CN Tower. So we are just one of the hostels in this city to make that claim.
The difference is, we actually are only three blocks from the tower.
The imposing sutructure has always loomed large over our hostels doors and we are, quite literally, in the shadow of the imposing structure. Go out of our front door, look to the right and voila there’s the tower.There has always been a spectacular view of the tower from the hostel and you can look down on the hostel’s buildings clearly from the observation deck.
Unfortunately, that will soon no longer be the case; the view will be a thing of the past. We can thank the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) for that.
The 35th year of the Festival has seen the construction of a new home for the world renowned event. The Toronto Film Festival will now be housed about one hundred meters south of the hostels front door.
The new headquarters will have five cinema halls, two galleries, three studios, a three-storey public atrium, a centre for film students and scholars, staff offices and a restaurant, and a lounge in the heart of downtown Toronto. Comprising over 153,000 square feet of space, it will have a total capacity of 1,300 cinema seats.
But that’s not all.
As part of this one square block Toronto Theatre Festival Centre, three imposing, upscale high-rise condo towers are to be constructed. One is already up. They have already broken ground for the second.
The second tower will supplant the Corned Beef House. The 50 story residence tower will impose itself directly between the hostel and the CN Tower.
When it is completed, we will no longer be able to see that magnificent structure immmediately to the right of the hostels front door.
We aren’t moving. The tower isn’t moving. But the magnificent view from our front door will soon be gone.
That, as they say, is progress.
Soon to be lost view of Tower from our front door.