Yardstones, Toronto

Yardstones, 2015 (detail of block #1 of 3)

Size: 6m x 3.5m x 3m, 4m x 5m, x 4m, 2m x 6m x 2m

Location: The Yards condo development, Toronto

Client: ONNI Group

Material: Shotcrete and cast pigmented concrete over steel frame

Yard Stones consists of three large stones bearing the physical imprint of the buildings at nearby Fort York National Historic Site. The stones recall that the land they now sit on is infill and used to be part of Lake Ontario and their manufactured surfaces reflect the newly developed Fort York neighbourhood. 

Yard Stones was commissioned by ONNI, under the direction of art consultants Catherine Williams and Rina Greer, as part of the City of Toronto’s Percent for Art programme.

The tallest of the three sculptures announces the entrance to the park from Lannuzzi Street. Standing at almost twenty-feet tall, the rock has a fragment of the Fort York mess hall cut into its side. Nearby, the largest of the rocks is located at the centre of the park and bares an imprint of the brick storehouse built at Fort York in 1814. The third, with a relief of the stone wall surrounding the fort, sits adjacent to Bathurst Street. This third rock is long and low—acting as both an inviting landmark and gentle buffer from the street. 

3D scans were produced by laser scanning Fort York’s buildings and the data was then integrated into computer-generated models. These models were then used to create the moulds for the blue-tinted GFRC through a 3D milling process. The grey concrete portions of the sculptures were built using a metal framework covered with hand-applied shotcrete. All three structures were then treated with an anti-grafitti coating.