Battered TORONTO sign to be replaced by permanent new letters -- at a cost of $760,000

Thestar.com
Sept. 22, 2020

The TORONTO sign in Nathan Phillips Square, a social media superstar that seems beloved by almost everyone except city councillors, is officially here to stay.

Mayor John Tory announced Thursday city crews have started installing permanent, sturdier illuminated letters to replace the beaten-up, patched-over ones erected five years ago as a temporary Pan Am Games installation.

The original sign, the brainchild of city of Toronto marketers inspired by I AMSTERDAM in the Dutch city, was to be dismantled after the Games. But residents and tourists refused to lose the go-to social media stop for selfie-takers.

In less than a year it racked up more than 122 million global “social media impressions” -- views and online shares. Lights in the letters were dimmed or colours changed to note the city’s reaction to world events, including tragedies.

But the letters especially the Os which can be climbed on, became scuffed and worn, and lights inside the letters sometimes failed. City council in 2016 balked at spending money to replace and improve the $100,000 installation.

One councillor volunteered to fix the TORONTO sign himself, another wanted to “privatize” it, while a third proposed the city try to sell it. Who other than Toronto would want to own a huge TORONTO sign was never clear.

But council eventually agreed to issue a tender for a company to make a new sign, paid with city reserve “rainy day” funds. Unit 11, a Toronto-based design and fabrication supplier for the entertainment industry, won the contract.

The city said the new sign will be easier to clean, waterproof, and have “augmented lighting capacity and other creative features to support public engagement and interaction.”

It will retain a maple leaf installed in 2017 to celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday, and a medicine wheel added in 2018, in consultation with the Toronto Council Fire Native Cultural Centre, to honour National Indigenous Peoples Day.

The city’s cost for design and construction is $490,000. Removing the old sign, installation, wraps, a three-year maintenance contract help bring the total cost to $761,842. Toronto is welcoming public donations to help defray the costs.

In a statement, Tory said: “As we embark upon the work to rebuild our city from the significant impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is fitting that installation of the new, more durable Toronto sign is underway.

“I know when we get through this, Toronto will shine brighter, just like the sign itself. Like our iconic Toronto sign, together, I am confident that we will rebuild a Toronto that is inclusive, dynamic and resilient.”

Other Canadian cities, including Mississauga and Ottawa, followed Toronto’s lead with signature signs of their own, part of an international trend.

But the sign that started it all, in Amsterdam, is gone. It was removed in 2018, after 14 much-photographed years, following a petition from a city councillor.

Councillor Femke Roosma said at the time: “The message of ‘I amsterdam’ is that we are all individuals in the city. We want to show something different: diversity, tolerance, solidarity. This slogan reduces the city to a background in a marketing story.”