Return of the Maggri-Stecchi | Part 1

My name is Morry Edelstein, I'm a practicing architect in Toronto, and, together with my friend Brian McLaren, we created this sculpture that your looking at which is a fountain in the square, and we named it Return of the Maggri-Stecchi.

In the town of York, which came before the City of Toronto, this was the original market commercial area in the town of York. And it was the site of the first public farmers market, this was also the site where public functions occurred, because it was a commercial site there were social events occurring, and there were also civic events occurring on this site such as public punishment of criminals in stocks. 

And specifically you're looking at a wall of polished granite, which faces the commercial area of Toronto and within the wall we located two open squares, which make reference to the stocks, which were used up to 1834 on this site. The wall contains a fountain. You can walk up behind the wall, you can operate the pump and the water flows from the fountain and it flows through a diagonal river to a reflecting pool, which is a reference to the lakefront. Other references: we've got a drinking fountain, we've got a steel frame which is industrial looking, it relates more to the commercial industrial waterfront of the city. On the rear of the wall you can walk up between the frame and the wall and operate the fountain, and you've got a steel grate, which you can walk on and look through into the water below. And the slate within the reflecting pool is a reference to the city grid.

Want to hear more? Check out Part 2.

Runtime 00:02:01