td centre less more

The Toronto skyline was just turned into a giant light show

Minimalism isn't the first word that comes to mind for most people when looking at the skyscrapers around King and Bay.

Architecture buffs, on the other hand, might understand why the words "LESS IS MORE OR" would be blasted across the TD Centre for most of Labour Day weekend.

You see, the first part of this aphorism is often associated with Mies van der Rohe, the celebrated modernist architect behind the Toronto Dominion Centre's cluster of sleek towers.

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Canadian artist Aude Moreau channeled the late architect's catchphrase as part of a massive, illuminated skyscraper installation celebrating the TD Centre's 50th anniversary.

So, from Saturday until Monday, between sunset and sunrise, this is what downtown Toronto saw:

Calling it "the largest public art project of its kind undertaken anywhere in the world," organizers say that it took months of preparation, the cooperation of tenants across the complex, the help of five electrical contractors, and enough volunteers to open 6,000 window blinds across five massive skyscrapers.

People online have called it everything from "badass" to "whimsical," though there has been some confusion over why the word "or" appears after "less is more."

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According to organizers, Moreau added the fourth word to invite viewers to "reconsider the values of openness and transparency in the modern world" and "to complicate the phrase, leaving it open to a multiplicity of viewpoints."

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Cool.

Lead photo by

Cadillac Fairview


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