Now only a few months old, the St. Clair Mural has become a staple to the atmosphere and energy of the Yonge + St. Clair community. Images of the mural dominate the intersection’s geo-tags on social media, and it has received international recognition and praise. It’s improving on what’s an already great contemporary scene growing in the community. Last week, one of the St. Clair Mural’s major collaborators, the STEPS Initiative, celebrated their 5^th Birthday on the rooftop patio of Yonge + St. Clair’s Scallywags with cake, music and live painting by local artist Nick Sweetman.

It was a rainy Thursday evening at Scallywags, but the atmosphere was light and jovial as key members of the project and the community came together to celebrate STEPS and the St. Clair Mural.

The STEPS Initiative is a Toronto-based charitable public arts organization that has become known for leveraging unlikely sites for cultural projects. “We enjoy working within the existing built form,” explains Alexis Kane Speer, founding director of STEPS, “working with the age and infrastructure of a space in areas that don’t typically hold cultural projects.”

One of those areas ended up being the western facing wall of 1 St. Clair East. “It’s all about how together we can leverage our built environment as a host to new cultural spaces and conversations,” continues Speer. “The conversation about this new cultural space at Yonge + St. Clair started when site partner Slate Asset Management recognized what they had in front of them – a giant blank canvas. They understood the role that public art plays in city building initiatives, and we feel fortunate that they decided to do so with STEPS.”

“They were incredible partners in making this project possible, and were supportive in every stage of this project’s development, including reaching out to their business partners in the area when we needed to garner additional sponsorship to make it possible.”

Alexis spoke often to how fortunate she felt towards all the supporters, artists, funders, and community partners STEPS had worked with over the years. “We felt very fortunate to have a great public response to this project when we set up tables in libraries and office lobbies to survey the community about what they wanted to see on that wall.”

When you take a closer look at the mural’s design, you will see recognizable Toronto landmarks like the CN Tower, St. Lawrence Market, and the Royal Ontario Museum, mixed with the A-frame architecture that is very characteristic of Yonge + St. Clair, and local businesses like Scallywags. The city’s vast green spaces and ravines are also illustrated in the form’s curvature, which are all reflections of what the community shared with STEPS by participating in community surveys.

“This mural is a perfect example of what’s possible when a strong public, private, and community partnership comes to life. It took over 10 months of hard, hard work to bring a design that is truly reflective of Yonge + St. Clair,” adds Speer.

“It is a step towards creating an identity for this neighbourhood and this city,” preached Ward 22 City Councillor Josh Matlow, who spoke at this event. “It’s the first step in showing the world that we are a creative, vibrant centre of arts and culture.”

Alexis was proud of how STEPS has evolved and changed the makeup of the city since its founding in 2011. “We have always been shamelessly attracted to challenges, especially ones that push ourselves and others in the cultural development and business sectors to think outside the box,” or in the St. Clair Mural’s case, the wall.

“So let’s allow art to do what art does best – start conversations, challenge the way we organize our community, and ask if there are other ways of building and maintaining our cities,” concludes Speer.

“It’s been a wild ride and we’re excited to see what the future holds for us.”

This week the Yonge + St. Clair Blog spoke with Andrew Moor, CEO and Director of Equitable and EQ Bank, a bank with roots in the neighbourhood since the early 1990’s.

We sat down to talk about EQ Bank, the rise of mobile in Canadian banking, and his feelings about Yonge + St. Clair. Andrew Moor joined the company in March of 2007 and in his tenure has seen the assets under Equitable grow to $14.4 billion, establishing Equitable as a major participant in Canadian banking.  

What sets Equitable and EQ Bank apart from other banks?

We’re what you’d typically call a challenger bank, or a bank with no branches. Equitable is the 9^th largest bank in Canada, but we operate entirely through digital and brokers, with the majority of our employees working out of the Yonge + St. Clair office.

What effect has smart phones had on the banking industry?

It has had a massive effect. EQ Bank is the first bank in Canada that was born in a mobile world, and the traditional set up of even online banking – sitting at your computer – is no longer the climate. Everything is moving towards becoming more phone-enabled; being able to sign up for an account, manage and monitor transactions, depositing cheques remotely, and EQ Bank was founded with mobile banking in mind.

Although, there are limitations with digital banking – you can’t write cheques or receive paper statements, but it’s a step towards the future and thinking about banking in a new way.

Mobile is the wave of the future. 

How does going mobile from the beginning separate you from the big banks?

With EQ Bank having a much smaller rental footprint, none of those street front location costs play a factor and it allows us to do things like offer the highest savings account interest rate in the country, or avoid charging fees for e-transfers – we even allow our customers to pay their bills through their saving accounts.

We have a great situation at Yonge + St. Clair, as we can run our entire bank from floors 3 through 8 at 30 St. Clair West. When you think about the cost that the big banks have to bear with having all those branches, with the advertising positioned as “come on in and we’ll take care of you.” It’s enormously expensive to deliver good service without either the product suffering, or the customer paying for it in some way.

So does this mean that EQ Bank doesn’t offer chequing accounts?

The one big thing we do that is unique in the Canadian marketplace is that your payroll can come into your savings account with a 2.0% interest rate on it, and you can pay your bills and send money to your friends directly out of that same savings account.

Most other banks require you to move money between savings and chequing accounts, but why is that? Our worldview on the matter is that fewer and fewer Canadians write cheques so it doesn’t make sense for most to have two accounts.

We’re trying to change that view of how banking should work.

You’ve mentioned the 2.0% interest rate from your Savings Plus account. EQ Bank generated a ton of buzz when it released that account last year. How has the reaction to this savings account educated Equitable about Canadians and their finances?

What it showed you is that Canadians are not necessarily satisfied with the options provided by the big banks and they’re prepared to try something new. We certainly hoped that would be the case when we launched the digital bank, but it turned out that Canadians were really looking for better solutions.

I recall reading that EQ Bank had to establish a weekly cap to the number of accounts it could open when it launched due to demand, is that still happening?

That was such a strange thing to happen – who has ever heard of a queue to sign up for a bank account? We did indeed have to set up a digital line-up to deal with demand at the time, but today anyone can visit our website and sign up.

What’s next for EQ Bank?

We’ve really only taken the first step in what’s going to be a long journey. Our goal is to become the bank that is widely regarded in Canada for offering the very best product and service to Canadians. It’s a pretty lofty goal, but we think we’ve got some great infrastructure to do that – we’re built on a great technology platform and have wonderful people that are committed to that cause.

In the next few years we want to keep on delivering new products and services that make sense for everybody, and work towards being known as a safe, simple, and trustworthy bank.

Any tips or advice for young Canadians just starting out on their financial journey?

Shop around. Don’t just walk into your parent’s bank branch and think that they will have all the answers for you. Go and compare and see if there are better answers out there. I really do think that a majority of Canadians are too complacent about their banking, but like buying anything else, you have to shop around and see what the best option is for you.

What drew Equitable to establish their Corporate Office at Yonge + St. Clair?

We’ve actually been here since 1992 and what drew Equitable to establish their office here was because many of our customers on the savings and GIC side were thought to live in midtown, so it was an effort to be more convenient to the customer.

We actually just renewed our lease at 30 St. Clair West as we really do enjoy the area; it has great transit connections, it’s a good location for employees that live uptown and downtown to commute to, and it’s a place that has its own unique feel. It’s not lost in the canyons of downtown Toronto, with a very unique neighbourhood character to it. It’s kind of cool in some ways.

You also have a lot of other facilities around here like the Goodlife Fitness, Moksha Yoga, and many other things that people want. Yonge + St. Clair has everything we need without being swallowed up in the downtown noise. 

What’s your favourite lunch spot in the area?

Capocaccia for sure. Go down and see Sal at Capocaccia, he’ll look after you. [laughs] 

[Laughs] Thanks Andrew. 

Cheers.

Images provided by EQ Bank

A few buckets of paint. Two paint brushes. Hundreds of spray cans. That’s what it took for UK street artist Phlegm to complete the massive 8-storey mural that now rests on the west side of 1 St. Clair West. It’s truly a sight to behold. From a distance, the 8-storey  human form can clearly be seen sitting back in a contemplative pose. But the power of the piece is in the details that slowly emerge as you draw closer. Let’s explore how the St. Clair mural came to be.

Phlegm is an anonymous street artist hailing from the United Kingdom’s own Steel City, Sheffield. Phlegm originally gained prominence through his ink drawings and comics that portrayed highly detailed figures and characters that drew the viewer in. It was not until he started painting his creatures as murals that he received more widespread fame. He has received worldwide recognition for his fantastical scenes of curious beasts, mystical contraptions, and shrouded figures. His pieces can be found all around the world – across England, Germany, Norway, Australia, and now, Toronto, Canada.

Over the course of just twenty-eight days Phlegm arrived to the site and painted from 8AM until the sun baked him and his assistant, Stephanie Bellefleur, off the wall. Phlegm would burn through around 10 spray paint cans a day, adding detail to the mural at a rapid pace while Bellefleur assisted with the logistics, such as working the swing stage, managing supplies, and providing an artistic second opinion when needed.

But how did this project come to be?

In partnership with the City of Toronto’s StreetARToronto program, the project was initially conceived and co-funded by Slate Asset Management, which owns all four corners at Yonge + St. Clair. Slate was looking for something big to kick off a campaign that will revitalize the neighbourhood and foster a new vibrant culture. “We saw a tremendous opportunity as the whole  area  had  been  overlooked –  we  didn’t  see  any  reason  for  that,”  said  Slate Managing Director, Lucas Manuel.

With StreetART, Slate also brought in award-winning public arts organization, the STEPS Initiative, to produce the public art landmark on the western wall of their 12–storey building. STEPS is a Toronto-based organization that allows citizens to take action in creating more vibrant and connected communities through what they call ‘public space ARTivism.’ CBRE, CIBC, Rexall, and Dulux paints also generously supported the project, with Ward 22 City Councillor Josh Matlow giving a strong endorsement. “Yonge and St. Clair is one of Toronto’s most desirable neighbourhoods, and creating a landmark piece of public art in collaboration with one of the world’s most influential street artists, reflects the area’s unique geography.”

In regards to the piece itself: “I chose to work with the human form because it’s really what the city is,” explained Phlegm during an interview with STEPS prior to the project “We view it from the inside as a small part looking out at this huge, almost unfathomable complex network. Like a body, a city has all its functions.” Phlegm sought out to create a piece that integrates the natural urban elements and lush landscape of the Yonge + St. Clair community as an important part of Toronto.  Amidst iconic Toronto landmarks like the CN Tower, Royal Ontario Museum, and Gooderham Building, sits the local Yonge + St. Clair pub, Scallywags – a nod to the neighbourhood and the venue sitting right below the piece, with a direct view from their rooftop patio.

“Roads move through it like arteries.” Phlegm continues, “the geology of land informs the shape of the city like a skeleton. Buildings fill the space like skin and muscle. The movement of water and waste, the parks and green space like lungs.” With STEPS, Phlegm’s design was surveyed with extensive outreach to the Yonge + St. Clair community to help determine how the piece can best reflect the neighbourhood. The pensive figure is the collective result of hundreds of community input surveys, conducted both online and in person. With the addition of Toronto landmarks, the city’s extensive ravine system is also represented in the work.

“I like to imagine the huge population of a city, not just now but by everyone who has ever lived to make it what it is today,” finishes Phlegm. “A city is really just a mark left by all those billions of people that added to it and made it what it is.” And now Phlegm has left his mark on this city.

[arve url=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/Lw63FMPENhQ” mode=”normal” autoplay=”no”]

To read more about the project, please visit the news section of YongeStClair.ca.

Somehow in the last 20 years, Yonge + St. Clair became a bit of a desert. It became a shell of its former self. The who’s who didn’t leave, but they stopped playing here. The tower cluster remains, reminding us that Toronto knew that transit-oriented development was well before it became a buzzword – but the energy is gone. It went to Yonge & Bloor and Yonge & Eglinton, as well as to other parts of the city. But Slate Asset Management hopes to change  this. Over the last few years they have acquired many of the towers in the area and have already begun to make some much needed investments.

One of those investments is a new brand and identity for the neighbourhood. They hired Toronto’s blackjet Inc. to imagine what this might be and how it could respond to the rich history and character of the neighbourhood.

The Yonge + St. Clair Blog spoke to Art Director Cameron Ward of blackjet about the new look.

Can you tell me a little about where the design came from?

The design came out of a single idea. Yonge and St. Clair is, in the simplest terms, an intersection. It’s where these 2 iconic streets meet. But at the same time, we wanted to embed the eclectic vibe of the area into this simplicity. There’s a lot of character and history in those 4 corners. Our design is a testament to that.

We also wanted to convey confidence. In our minds Yonge and St. Clair – what it was, what it is now, and what it’s becoming – is a confident neighbourhood.

And there’s an architectural relevance too. Our client owns 8 buildings at the intersection so the revitalization will obviously come through in the built form. Gensler [Architecture Firm] and IBI [Group] are already working away. The renderings look great. The designs are really clean and timeless. Like the branding. Hopefully.

It’s very bright.

[Laughing] Yeah they’re actually neon pantones. The colours were chosen to juxtapose the black and white photography we’re using in a few executions. And they definitely pop against the greys of the environment. These aren’t colours that occur often in the city. They’re confident colours.

You mentioned Gensler Architecture Firm. They’re working on the exterior of 1 St. Clair East and the exterior and lobby of 2 St. Clair East. IBI Group has already completed the new lobby of 2 St. Clair West. How do you see the branding living in these spaces?

I actually have a background in architecture so I know how important the details are. These projects are thoroughly designed from top to bottom so we need to be strategic in the way we incorporate the branding. It can’t be something we plaster all over the place, it has to be subtle.

An objective of any branding is to create cohesion. In this case it’s a little difficult because we’re not just looking to make street banners look like transit posters. We’re making sure 8 office towers have some of the same DNA. And we need to maintain the integrity of the architects’ designs. So it’s going to come through in the details. It would be easy to toss big plus signs on the walls and call it a day, but that’s not our approach.  And it wouldn’t look very good.

The branding will be present but it won’t be obvious. You might need to keep an eye out for it. We’re still working on some elements. I can’t say much more but it’s going to be really cool.

C’mon.

[Laughing] It’s going to be good. I’ll leave it at that.

Thanks Cam.