After thoughts - Doors Open 09

So I'm a little slow getting my report on Doors Open up.

I had a good time this year. I wasn't as successful as I wanted to be on Saturday but was surprisingly successful on Sunday. Part of it was having to give up on the Don Jail in favour of paying to see it later this summer. There was just no way I could take 5 or 6 hours out of the weekend to see it when there was so much more to catch. The other disappointment was the Albany Club. I should pay better attention to where the guide says small tours because they were letting in only 50 at a time and the wait was over an hour. By the time I found out, I just couldn't take that hour out of Saturday. So I got to one fewer place than planned on Saturday.

Of what I did get to, the highlights were the Stantec building which used to house the McGregor Socks factory and the Greenwood subway yards. Turns out I'm a geek who likes to see how things work. The delight on kids' faces at the subway garage as they looked at complete cars hoisted up for maintenance or painting was fun. Plus they had a miniature streetcar set running around on tracks and FREE POPCORN. More free popcorn at the Shamrock Bowling alley. But no available lanes and it's not open to the public. I'd LOVE to go 5 pin bowling there and hope they occasionally have public access nights, not just corporate functions. The wood of the alleys was gorgeous.

I also finally got to the green roof at Mountain Equipment Co-op. It was interesting but I didn't realize I'd be climbing up and down a ladder to get to it and my nerves for that just aren't what they used to be. I made it, but not without a bit of hesitation.

Not so successful on the list? The McArthur Publishing house. It was in a building I talk about from the outside and as a former publishing house employee it was fun to see all the madness of editing jobs in progress, but not much else to view.

I then went to St Andrew's Presbyterian Church. Beautiful. The 48th Highlanders' museum downstairs was a little dark and musty. Needs some flash to get the younger folk of today to go in and see it. I thought the same last year with the Canadian Military building on University.

Sunday, I had the afternoon mostly blocked off to volunteer at the TD Centre for Heritage Toronto. That meant I had only 3.5 hours to see things. Having decided against the Don, I headed west to catch the firehalls. Since I do a tour of firehalls in Old Town and I wrote a paper on them, they were a personal must.

Firehall 423 (formerly #20) was great. The bonus was historical photos, maps and copies of news stories on the walls. It's the "Junction"'s firehall and takes pride in being the archives for Junction fire history. I also got confirmation that a church that stands where Firehall 19 was, is in fact, that firehall converted! I thought so. I then headed to the Swansea station. It was not as spectacular but fun to see. What was great was all the little kids at each station absolutely captivated by the trucks and the firemen. At the Swansea hall (#425), a fire fighter was even putting kids in the driver's seat of one truck to let them pretend they were driving it. So cool to watch.

I made a quick trip into the Swansea Town hall which was somewhat depressing. They had too much on offer there. Better to pick two things and focus than try to offer things on every floor, including a wine tasting with fake wine.

So I headed back downtown to the Inglenook School. Much better. I was able to wander into the rooms and just look at the old architecture with the new art. Then I realized I still had a little time so I headed to the Distillery. Two buildings that weren't participating last year were on the list this year and I took a quick look. So thinking I'd see only two venues on Sunday, I'm happy to say I got to six.

Doors Open weekend

This weekend, May 23-24, is Doors Open Toronto. It's a day when Toronto fans can overdose seeing the insides of the more notable sites in the city.

I won't be running any walking tours this weekend because, well, I'm a Doors Open addict. There. I admit it.

I've been going since the very first one in 2000 and I've saved all the guides to the annual event. I'm just that crazed about it.

Usually I set my sights on getting to 5 or 6 buildings each of the days and find I hit the target on Saturday but not Sunday. Why? Partly exhaustion, and partly the TTC. It seems there's always something slowing up the transit on the Sunday -- be it a charity walk or construction -- so a 90 minute slot I set to visit one venue becomes 2.5 hours and at least one site must get scratched from the list.

This year, I'm purposely cutting my Sunday short to do my bit for Doors Open. I'll be volunteering with Heritage Toronto at the TD Centre on Sunday afternoon.

Anyway, having been to all of the Doors Opens, I have come up with a few tips.

1. Each festival often highlights buildings in a particular area of town. So usually there are several venues close together and I try to hit that group on the Saturday to get my tally up on day 1.

2. Highlight opening and closing times that are outside the norm.

For example, often the theatres that participate are only open from 9AM to noon, usually on the Saturday. This is because of prep time they need for the shows they're hosting. The great thing is they usually do open at 9AM, so you can start your day early at a theatre. I noticed the Canon is open this year. Well worth the visit.

I use different colours for short hours versus long hours. Yellow if it's just 3 hours or only on one of the days. Green if a building is open an hour later than the others. Most buildings this year are open 10-5 on each day.

3. Accept that Sunday traffic will usually keep you stuck in one place for a while and don't sweat it.

4. Accept too that the energy level for seeing more buildings can die around 2PM on the Sunday, if you've been out both days.

5. And let your schedule go if you luck into a free tour or special event at one venue. Take time to enjoy it.


So those are my tips for enjoying Doors Open.

The Toronto Star publishes its guide to the event this Thursday. But to see the list of buildings now, you can go to the Doors Open site or download the quick PDF list.

Walks on Victoria Day Weekend

On Victoria Day weekend, I'm leading two walks.

Saturday, May 16, 2PM
John Street
Meet by St George the Martyr Church tower,
South end of Grange Park (north of Queen and John Streets)

Monday, May 18, 2PM
Old Town Banks
Meet by the old O'Keefe Centre, Front & Yonge Streets

Each tour will last about 1.5 to 2 hours and is $7.50.