My friend Rob works at Nadurra. They're an eco-friendly hardwood flooring supplier. Last Friday he wanted to go out and shoot some places that the had supplied flooring to. In hindsight maybe we should have called first.
Our first stop was the Ontario Science Centre. They had ordered some reclaimed wood flooring for one of their projects there. It was while we were waiting for one of the department heads there that I bumped into my former colleague, Reay, and his daughter. They have a yearly membership to the Science Centre and Reay takes his daughter fairly regularly because there's a kids' section there that she likes.
After a short wait the Science Centre contact met us. He told us they were using the flooring in the Banting and Best display they were setting up. Frederick Banting and Charles Best discovered insulin in the early 1920's. It was used to treat diabetes.
Unfortunately the display (which was supposed to be a recreation of their lab) was still under construction. The only thing that was finished was the flooring. Rob mentioned it normally should be installed last so it wouldn't get damaged by anything else falling on it during the construction process.
While we didn't get to take pictures here the department head (whose name escapes me) took us on a behind-the-scenes tour of his department. It was a large workshop area where they made all the displays for the Science Centre. They had all sorts of woodworking machinery and a graphic design shop. They do everything in house. In fact they even make displays for other museums or galleries and ship them overseas. Neither Rob nor I had any idea they did any of that stuff there. It was so neat to see. The area was huge.
Our next stop was a Regent Park condo project called Paintbox (by Daniels). Unfortunately after speaking with the onsite property manager we were informed we would have to submit an application requesting permission to shoot whichever areas we were interested in and the board of managers would have to approve it.
Next we headed to the University of Toronto Mining Building at 170 College Street. They had installed some flooring on the fourth floor in one of the public areas of the student lab.
At first we tried taking the elevator up. But, you needed a card to access certain floors. So we tried the stairs next. Same deal. As we turned to leave down the stairs from the fourth floor one student was on his way up. Rob asked him how we could access the floor. He told us you had to sign out a key fob that would allow you entry. He mentioned he didn't have one either. But, he was going to call a friend (who was already inside) to open the door for him. Before he did that another one of his friends opened the door and we followed him in. We spent about 20 minutes there taking pictures.
Next stop was a private residence in the Bloor and Christie area. A young couple was in the process of renovating their house and had used some of Nadurra's reclaimed flooring. It looks great, but costs an arm and a leg (at $9-$10 a square foot).
While they were still living there, again they were still in the process of renovations. So, like the Science Centre, they weren't finished either. The couple had installed the flooring both on their main floor and upstairs. Rob and I moved some of the clutter around and I got a few reasonable shots of the dining room/kitchen area. We may return later after they finish completely.
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