As a new fan of your site I'll say that the shot was worth it. You are soon going to be Toronto's unoffical photo laureate if you keep coming up with photos like this.

Gotta say the shot looks really messy (visually) but thats what makes it. I don't know why but when i look at it, it looks more like a slice of a sedimented rock, excellent photo, you've done it again

The story is as good as the photo; and the photo is really good!

I'd say it was worth it!

Dude, this shot rocks, it was worth it!

Oooh, it was worth it, for sure...
And in the "this reminds me of..." comment style:
This reminds me of some panoramic pictures in front of MQ in Wien. Two of them are about disasters' results: one with an earthquake in Turkey and one with a typhoon in USA.

Different floors - different life. I like the shot.

I think you achieved remarkable clarity under the conditions. What I like about the shot is that it has the feeling of a 2 dimensional collage. Bravo! I look forward to your daily postings - please don't stop!

definitely worth it! I have been eyeing that building for a while now, wondering how one could get a good shot ot it - and you did it!

Hmmm. This looks familiar! :-) http://www.wickens.ca/sm/archives/000668.html
You were braver than I, however, in scaling the fence for your art. Great job.

Sam this is a facinating shot!! It has so may elements to it that stir ones imagination of everything that has happened here. Hope somebody rescues the railing on the top floor!!!

it looks like a collage.

Interesting shot, but it's too bad you couldn't get more of that pretty light in it... in the end it makes me think of a messy Mondrian, if Mondrian ever could be messy.

Where did you put the tripod, on the handle bars?
This shot is a shot of a glorious disaster, a true cacophony.

The extra mile taken will always show up in the result.

Oh yeah, it's actually a demolition site, not a construction site.

/splits hair for fun

For serious, worth it.
First glance it looked like a house boat stacked on static caravans and porta cabins.

I think it was worth it. It's a good photo. It would be a good candidate for the flash mask.

Eye-opening, to me, because it shows what radically different spaces can inhabit a single building. We would never know this, if the building hadn't been cut-open. Thank you for making the extra effort to capture this shot!

Richard
St. Louis

As usual, interesting and beautiful shot ! :)

It was brilliant putting a picture with such detail. But just to put a bit of skeptism on this site: it looks a little unsettling. If you stared at the picture long enough, you seem to expect something jumping out of the shadowy parts of it.
Perhaps I'm just a bit of an obsessive-complusive, but the botton left corner of the picture shows the surrounding dirt, gravel and junk makes the picture a little less perfect.

There's something special in the last comment which didn't occur to me until I read it... In some ways this reminds me of an opera set for a beginning scene, where various singers pop out of doors in an odd sequence, ultimately winding into a trio.

Were you playing with us when you said you weren't sure it was worth it?

Like everyone else said, i think the trouble was worth it. The contrasting detail of each floor makes it look almost like a dollhouse, albeit one after Ken or Barbie have had a rough day indeed. Alternately, you could think of it as a half-finished Lego building (particularly with all the primary colors!). Very cool.

Today was the first I logged onto your site, after reading the article in the Globe last week. I will be checking it out on a regular basis.

Then - I started checking previous day's photos, and I couldn't beleive this one!! It's the view out of my son's apartment, where I saw this building just yesterday. It's worth keeping an eye on, to see what happens next. Send us an update.... Barbara

Sam I thank you for taking that picture, I wanted to take pic of this same building that you took picture. That place it was IT night club and I had many wonderfull times there, including black out party, which was right after black out. I was sad to hear it was going down :(

I can't believe such nice place was it before and now it turn apart...

I like it.

the picture is fabulous. it was worth it.

PS I must add that contrary to an above poster I like the bottom left corner of the picture that shows the surrounding dirt & gravel - it helps me get a handle on what is a very busy picture by establishing a ground level and also showing that the building used to extend outwards towards the viewer. it also helps in piecing together what might have been and placing the jumble of elements in a context that makes them fit together better (i.e. a demolition site rather than colourful derelict houseboats one on top of the other, which was my original impression). I really love this photo.

worth it :)

This building was used for the interior - and some of the exterior - scenes for Atom Egoyan's film "Exotica". It was an interesting building and added a certain interest to that section of Church street that will soon be gone. Too bad.

I think it was worth it. I love those colors.

worth it for sure. reminds me of a comix artist named bill seinkewics who does a lot of cuckoo in the attic representational buildings about to topple over for teetery psychodramatic effect in books like stray toaster and big numbers.