The Globe and Mail

With its many bright days and pleasurably cool evenings, Toronto's summer of 2004 has been just about perfect for rediscovering the architectural beauties of the city. As I've found while rambling among the towers at dusk, the financial district is particularly wonderful late in the afternoon, after the rush-hour surge of cars and people has melted away. The long, last rays of sunlight rake the sculpted surfaces of the older buildings, pushing out their columns, fancy doorways and windows, gargoyles and other decorations in sharp relief. The same light turns the glass skyscrapers into vast, gleaming mirrors, capturing the clear angles and edges of the surrounding city and transforming them into so many colliding spangles, sparks and fragments.