Maple Leaf Mills/St Marys Cement repairs to window area

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After many years of completely smashed out windows the warehouse part of the old Maple Leaf Mills  site – now used by St Marys Cement has had the window fenestration area repaired. Much the original window opening  has been filled in by plywood sheeting while a small area has a new window inset

24 Comments

I would have liked to have seen the old warehouse windows restored or fixed, it gave the building character. The plywood/undersized window combo just looks sloppy. I hope they aren't finished with these repairs.

… in accordance with the bylaw, now that's funny.
You can never get rid of graffiti, it always returns within days. Cleaning it off turns it into a blank canvas.

There is no bylaw forcing a business to remove graffiti. Insurrance carriers are the ones that make you do that. And there are products that you can coat your walls with to prevent graffiti and make it washable by garden hose.

The best course of action would be to invite artists to do a legal mural on the wall maybe promoting the junction or the businesses there. Graffiti artists respect legal murals and don't usually paint over them. It worked for the Dupont foot bridge.

Woops – sorry I think only Thierry is supposed to be able to understand complex urban ideas like graffiti projects. Its good that he has a place to feel like a real man.

I hate the fact that people think that cleaning graffiti off walls is a waste of time, if it is done immediatly after the fact, sure it may take a few times but eventually the graffiti "artists" will feel that it's a waste of spray paint to mess up your walls.

Lol, re-run I would LOVE to meet you.

As to your comment, yes CLEARLY the removal process works. Look at the path… they've painted over some of the tagged buildings several times now… only to have to paint them again…. and again. In my world, we call that a waste of time and resources. In your world you call it "fighting graffiti".

Potato / Potato.

PS. Community murals are hokey and cheesy looking. And if you've been under the Dupont bridge lately you'd see what people think of these community murals (ie. someone has defecated on one of them.. directly on the wall. Check it out…. North side two or three panels in, been there a couple weeks now).

can we move this to constructive conversation about the merits, everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

It is possible to have a difference of opinion and get understanding from the differences.

my two cents

Here is an example of a successful project that I worked on where we took Bell phone boxes that were previously tagged up and had artists paint them legally and supported by Bell. http://styleinprogress.ca/bellbox.php

Here are hundreds of legal murals that were endorsed by the building owners and 100% legal. We cleaned the whole stretch of Queen West alleys from Spadina to Bathurst. Toronto Police were partners on this as well.
http://styleinprogress.ca/graf.php

We could have something like this in the Junction, the railpath, the Keele Wall, lots of places.

As for Theirry… that mural with the feces is very old.. 15 years maybe. The one across the street with the bikes will hold up nicely for a long time… the one on the north side was a kids project and very sloppy i.m.o.

If you want a project like this in your area drop me a line… I've done 6 years worth, 100% legal and endorsed by Toronto Police

Sonny P can you, for the blog, differentiate between "tags", "bombs", and "murals"? Please and thanks.

One place that's an amazing opportunity for a mural is the Canadian Pacific underpass on Runnymede Road between Dundas and St. Clair. The wall is massive and sees its share of graffiti. Sadly, the City started to use black paint on a white wall, and it has become an eyesore. I'll contact my councillor, but others should too. Keep that location in mind along with the others you mentioned.

Thank you rerun and A.R.

Tags are done by people looking to get their name up on anything and everything they can. The one that stands out the most in the Junction is probably "Tokyo Night Train" http://www.flickr.com/photos/jenpix/1365992075/in/set-72157601032423689/ and also this one (Dupont/Old Weston) http://www.fabricated.ca/photos/index.php?showimage=506 When people talk about gang graffiti often times its just one person looking to put their name on everything. Very compulsive and very addictive.

Bombing is tagging on a larger scale. Usually large bubble letters done on a train or wall or some high profile area. It's a 'bomb' because its done fast and without too much detail and in one or two colours. The goal is to get in and get out with speed. Usually spells out the name or the artist or the crew they represent.

Murals are what you see in the Queen West alleys. These are multicoloured large scale productions which are usually preplanned in a notebook. The Keele wall is a good example of murals and bombs.

There are also 'Rollers' which are huge words that can take up the whole side of a building and done exclusively with a paint roller, sometimes taking advantage of negative space. You see a lot of these on the tops of buildings in China town. I've seen people do these in broad daylight with a paint suite, bucket and roller. This video shows a lot of rollers in our area mostly around the bike path. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNxLKUlGMfI

Much like the Scarborough SRT line, The junction and Keele is a notorious area for graffiti of all kinds and its been that way for a very long time. The buildings along the bike path have been painted for years maybe even pre 1980's!

It would be great to organize a painting of all the factories and buildings along the bike path. As it stands now somebody will do a piece, it gets buffed out (painted over by the owner) and then another graf writer hits the buffed area.

By allowing a legal mural you can cut down on your yearly cleanup and paint costs, have a mural of your choice which promotes your business (the artist pitches the idea to the owner to be ok'd) and have it respected by other writers and last years. It's also a good look for the community and gives a kid a chance to have legal artwork that they and the owner can feel proud of. If somebody by chance does tag over it often times the original writer is more than happy to correct the vandalism.

A good example of this is the wall that we commissioned for Sneaky Dee's. If you recall that wall was filled with ugly graffiti for years. The current legal one provided by SIP has been standing 4 years untouched by vandals.

This building was CP rail property until Feb 2010 St Marys Cement was only leasing the west side gout of silos
After Feb Lafarge Nort America is the new operating company for those silos only the rest is owned by a private company
If you can set the record straight
St Marys cement is not the owner of that property
Thanks

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