Toronto Waterfront photo exhibition captures 40 years of change
Featured in the On the Edge exhibition, photographer Steven Evans’s Music Garden in Summer captures the rhythm of a concert at the Toronto Music Garden, where crowds fill the grass amphitheatre overlooking Lake Ontario. Inspired by J.S. Bach, the park was co-designed by cellist Yo-Yo Ma, landscape designer Julie Moir Messervy, and the City of Toronto. In the distance, Arthur Erickson’s King’s Landing condominium completes the scene. (Photo: Steven Evans)
Toronto’s waterfront never stops changing.
Warehouses become condominiums. Public spaces disappear under construction cranes.
Each shift reshapes how people live, work and play along the city’s edge.
A new free exhibition at TMU’s Paul H. Cocker Gallery documents these changes through photographer Steven Evans’ lens. On the Edge features 50 photographs of Toronto’s downtown waterfront.
The exhibition runs Sept. 25 to Oct. 23, Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Visitors can access the gallery through the west, east and south entrances of the building.
Four decades of photography
Evans started photographing the industrial lands south of the Gardiner Expressway over 40 years ago as a TMU media studies student. Even then, he wanted to record the overlooked details of a changing city.
A “misting feature” cools visitors in the new Harbourfront Community Square, which replaced the popular pond and skating rink at Harbourfront Centre on York Street at Queen’s Quay East.
“I was always interested in that tension between what’s gone and what’s coming,” Evans says. “It felt important to document the warehouses, the silos, the working waterfront before they disappeared, and to keep returning as the city kept changing.”
The project became more urgent after the demolition of West Island at Ontario Place. Over two years, Evans photographed the downtown lakeshore from Cherry Street to Dufferin Street.
The result? An exhibition that asks viewers to think about Toronto’s rapid redevelopment and what it means for the city’s identity - what is gained, and what quietly slips away.
A record of public space
TMU Architectural science professor Marco Polo contributed an essay to the show’s brochure. He says Evans’s work provides a crucial record.
At the opening of On the Edge at TMU’s Paul H. Cocker Gallery, photographer Steven Evans (third from left) joined Marco Polo, TMU professor in the Department of Architectural Science (second from left), DAS Chair, Lisa Landrum, journalist and editor, John Lorinc, and moderator Elsa Lam, editor of Canadian Architect magazine, for a panel discussion on Toronto’s changing waterfront and the role of architecture in shaping the city’s future.
“The waterfront is one of Toronto’s most important public spaces, yet parts of it have been reshaped by forces outside of public view,” Polo says. “Steven’s photographs offer us a way to pause, to really look, and to think critically about the changes happening around us.”
For Polo, hosting this work at TMU adds another meaning. Exhibitions like On the Edge bring real urban issues into the university, sparking dialogue beyond the classroom.
“A show like this doesn’t just show photographs,” he says. “It opens up space for students, faculty and visitors to reflect on what kind of city we want to build.”
Documenting memory, shaping the future
Architectural Science professor Julia Jamrozik curated the exhibition, with design by Hyo Yeon Tiana Lee. An illustrated brochure includes essays by Evans, Polo and journalist John Lorinc.
For Evans, the work focuses on memory, not nostalgia. By documenting Toronto’s waterfront, he hopes to encourage others to look more closely at their surroundings and to recognize the stakes of transformation.
“Cities are always changing,” Evans says. “But unless we document and share those changes, it’s easy to forget what came before. Photography helps us hold on to that knowledge, so we can have better conversations about the future.”
It’s not too late to catch On the Edge. The exhibition will run until Oct. 23 at the Paul H. Cocker Gallery, Department of Architectural Science at TMU. The exhibition is free and open to the public.
Visit On the Edge before it closes Oct. 23 at the Paul H. Cocker Gallery, Department of Architectural Science at TMU. Admission is free.