{"id":2110,"date":"2011-01-03T00:00:53","date_gmt":"2011-01-03T05:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mondomark.com\/wordpress\/?p=1438"},"modified":"2011-01-03T00:00:53","modified_gmt":"2011-01-03T05:00:53","slug":"the-hearn-modern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=2110","title":{"rendered":"The Hearn Modern?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Last week, the Star\u2019s Christopher Hume wrote a piece regarding the Hearn Generating Station, built to power Toronto with coal, then natural gas, and then decommissioned and shut down in 1983, after which it became another abandoned industrial site visited by urban explorers, and movie companies wanting a unique location.<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s Bruce Willis actioner, Red<\/strong> (to be released Jan. 25), used the facility, and images from the station also appeared in Robert Fantinatto\u2019s 2005 documentary, Echoes of Forgotten Places<\/a><\/strong> [M<\/a>] (Scribble Media), but Hume\u2019s piece was written to provoke thought into reusing the site for other purposes besides scrap metal.<\/p>\n

It is reportedly gigantic \u2013 three times bigger than the power station reconditioned into London\u2019s striking Tate Modern<\/a> art gallery \u2013 but exactly what Toronto may do or can do or is willing to do is a quandary, because of leases, money, filed permits, potentially toxic land, the somewhat bleak, functional design inherent to industrial behemoths, and friendly mayor Rob Ford (ahem).<\/p>\n

But let\u2019s set aside politics and focus on the gi-normous building that few have seen up close, but a building that has an important historical connection to the city. Is it worth saving? Is it indeed safe to reuse for art, sports, or some giant film production hangar? Or can it be appreciated for its industrial beauty – something few might believe exists outside and within its walls.<\/p>\n

Hume\u2019s piece<\/a> is worth reading, as well as peeking at the (too short) video, plus Chris So\u2019s 360 degree virtual reality tours of four key areas, replete with peeling paint, dim sunlight, and aspects of industrial gear frozen in time when the humans left. There\u2019s also a recent follow-up article by Michael Cook at The Vanishing Point<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Wikipedia entry<\/a> on the Hearn has some stats, but there are some links at the end to photo essays. Charles Bodi\u2019s<\/a> images look like CGI creations, but the mass of tubes, steel, wires, and girders are all real, and they just go on and on. Talk about density and textures.<\/p>\n

Lastly, there are also images on Flickr<\/a>, and two visual blogs: ntropy.us<\/a>, and roadwolf.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Why should a hulking industrial relic matter?<\/p>\n

Toronto has a long history of killing its past because of eying valuable land over historical buildings, condos that will net more profit over a turn-of-the-century house, and a poor sense of history on behalf of politicians.<\/p>\n

Now go back to images of the Tate Modern<\/a> again, and think about what could<\/em> be done with the Hearn \u2013 for art, commercial, or mixed use \u2013 instead of opting for the scrap metal solution, and leaving the land to rot while entities figure out what to do with it.<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mark R. Hasan<\/strong>, Editor
\nKQEK.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor’s Blog on the abandoned Hearn Generation Station, and links to striking photo-essays…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[248],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-y2","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2110"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2110\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}