Will Bay Street ever run out of room for more skyscrapers? Apparently not, as shown by photographer Elizabeth Jones's aerial shots taken exactly a quarter-century apart. Just about every tower tells a story-both about the edifices themselves as well as the fortunes of the tycoons who've built, won and lost them over the years
May 21, 1984
Exchange Tower
In the 1980s, it housed the offices of Paul Reichmann of Olympia & York and the Toronto Stock Exchange trading floor. Then, in 1992, O&Y collapsed. The TSX is still there, but closed the trading floor in 1997
The western waterfront
There was a time when Lake Ontario was actually visible from Lake Shore Boulevard. That was before a series of condo projects went up, several of which were built by developer Huang & Danczkay
Toronto Postal Delivery Building
Trizec Properties tried to buy the art-deco gem in 1990, but no deal closed. Instead, it was renovated and renamed the Air Canada Centre in 1995. It's been a less-than-lucky locale for the Raptors, the Leafs and the airline
Toronto Island Airport
Once home of the upstart City Express airline (b. 1984, d. 1991), now home to upstart Porter Airlines (b. 2006). Tip from Porter's playbook: Before taking off, win part of a $35-million settlement after the city forbids a bridge to your terminal
Dominion Bank building
Stately head office of the bank from 1914 until 1967. Purchased in 2000 by developer Harry Stinson, who also owned the former Nag's Head tavern next door, a rugged, Bay Street watering hole popular in the 1980s
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Who's got the biggest bank tower?
How the banks ranked in revenue
1 BMO (First Canadian Place) - 3
2 CIBC (Commerce Court West) - 2
3 Toronto-Dominion (TD Centre) - 5
4 Royal Bank (Royal Bank Plaza) - 1
5 Scotiabank (44 King St. West) - 4
May 21, 2009
Scotia Plaza
Completed in 1988, the red-granite-clad bank tower was briefly the site of developer Robert Campeau's war room during his ultimately disastrous $7.8-billion (U.S.) takeover of Federated Department Stores
Brookfield Place
BCE Place, as many still call it, was built by BCE Development, an arm of the sprawling conglomerate created out of Bell Canada in the 1980s. When BCED sank in 1994, Bruce Flatt (now chief of Brookfield Asset Management)scooped it up
Rogers Centre
Led by Hees-Edper's Trevor Eyton, a group of investors persuaded Ottawa to pony up for the Blue Jays' fancy new field in the 1980s. The cost: $600 million. The Dome has since sold for: $191 million (1994), $80 million (1999), and $25 million (to Ted Rogers in 2005)
Bay Adelaide Centre
A commercial real estate slump halted construction in 1991, with only foundations and a five-storey concrete stump in place. Brookfield Properties managed to top off a new tower last fall, just in time for yet another slump
1 King West
Remember the Nag's Head tavern? Harry Stinson built a hotel on the site in 2005, an ultra-thin 51-storey tower that incorporated the renovated Dominion Bank building. It was seized by Stinson's main financial backer, theatre impresario David Mirvish, in 2007
Who's got the biggest bank tower?
How the banks rank in revenue
1 BMO (First Canadian Place) - 4
2 Scotiabank (Scotia Plaza) -2
3 Toronto-Dominion (Canada Trust Tower) - 3
4 CIBC (Commerce Court West) - 5
5 Royal Bank (Royal Bank Plaza) - 1