I think the city could use a new land-mark. A mountain, maybe. Not a mountain like the one at Canada’s Wonderland or Disneyworld but a real mountain – made of real earth and real stone. It could be built from the earth excavated for new building foundations and clean concrete and brick rubble from newly demolished buildings could be used to stabilize the mountain – a little like the Leslie Spit, except vertical. It would be a mountain for everyone to enjoy, and would topographically link us to Montreal and Vancouver – closing the cultural divide a little. The mountain would be a park with plenty of trees and wildlife, hiking trails to enjoy, and the views from the top would be wonderful. Above all, the mountain would have to be able to be seen from everywhere in the city.

It would be a fun place, and if it was tall enough, displace the CN Tower as the tallest thing around. It’d be a new place, Toronto. [ Andre D’Elia / superkül ]

1. I’m going to dig out my copy of Baudrillard’s Simulations and challenge your suggestion that it is possible to build a ‘real’ mountain. Such a mountain could be ‘real’ only in the Baudrillardian sense; that is, as a simulation. And in this sense, why bother with all the concrete and fill? Why not project a digital image of a mountain on the side of the Manulife Centre, or purchase a set of virtual reality suits so that we might feel all the sensations of altitude sickness and vertigo without ever leaving the ground?

   Posted by Amy Lavender Harris  on  03/01  at  10:03 PM

2. The toboggan hill at Front and Spadina by Concorde-Adex/Doug Coupland comes close to this idea…

   http://readingt.readingcities.com/index.php/toronto/search/toboganning_to_the_waterfront/

   Posted by  on  03/02  at  08:57 AM

3. They built a mountain of a hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea. Ryugyong Hotel—330-metre-tall pyramid-shaped building. 3,000 rooms. Supposed to have 7 revolving restaurants, but they didn’t finish it.

   It looks very landmarkish:

   http://googlesightseeing.com/wp-content/ryugyong.jpg

   Posted by Shawn Micallef  on  03/02  at  11:01 AM

4. Thanks for sharing that image. The building is far better in its unfinished state – looks like a ruin. It could be a very cool sci-fi movie set.

   Posted by  on  03/02  at  11:24 AM

5. In the uTOpia book, it was suggested that Scarborough be turnbed into a mountain.

   I would love a mountain in this city. Take an old industrial are/business park and blow it up and start the filling. You could encourage people to brink their own mortar or bags of top soil or stuff dug up from their back yard. You could give out cards that read, “I helped make Mount Toronto.”

   Posted by matt  on  03/02  at  12:57 PM

6. I was thinking maybe liberty village would be an appropriate site – it would be a good reason to get rid of the shoddy development going on there.

   Posted by Andre  on  03/02  at  01:08 PM

7. Though a mountain as high as the CN Tower is more likely hyperbole than a real proposal, I think you could have a mountain, say, on the site of the current island airport that would provide views of the city and water, with new recreational activities.

   Posted by  on  03/02  at  01:11 PM

8. The highest point in Malta is the mountain called Maghtab—it’s the dump, and it continues to grow (like a volcano!). The coastal road curves around it, so close….and the beach nearby is close because of leakage.

   Check out the beast here:

   http://www.maltapolitics.com/maghtab.jpg

   Posted by Shawn Micallef  on  03/02  at  02:35 PM

9. This city is a mountain I

   c

   l i m b

   every day. Every

   staircase

   streetcar subway entrance

   beckons like a chasm and my

   hiking boots

   drinking water map of secret passages

   are charms against the

   roaring

   blackened caverns

   I must enter and descend.

   Posted by Amy Lavender Harris  on  03/02  at  03:35 PM

10. The only place that I imagine would be both big enough and currently uninhabited enough would be the awfully named Parc Downsview Park.

    It could be rather nice really – and with a base like that, it could grow to quite a size.

    Posted by St Dan  on  03/02  at  08:47 PM

11. Yes, Toronto can have a mountain.

    But it certanly is a mountain of grotesk architectural purposes. Oh gosh, what is happening with the real architecture? Where are the real Architects of this land?

    Posted by  on  03/03  at  07:54 PM

12. Toronto (okay, technically, Etobicoke) already has a mountain in Centennial Park. The elevation’s not that high but it must be a mountain because they use it for skiing and it has chairlifts and everything. Plus, rumour has it, that they built it out of trash (really!):

    http://www.toronto.ca/parks/recreation_facilities/skiing/centennialski.htm

    Posted by Holland  on  03/08  at  11:30 PM

13. Earl Bales Park also has chairlift, but that’s hardly a mountain.

    Posted by St Dan  on  03/08  at  11:36 PM

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