About the Vanishing Point

I find those things that have been physically rendered underground, or otherwise rendered by architecture and human geography to the least visible margins of our constructed landscapes, both particularly fascinating and particularly powerful as tools for rethinking the cultures and institutions through which we order and do things. My underground experiences began while I was exploring creeks in the western suburbs of the GTA, and they have shaped so many things that I have done since then.

I think that there is immense social value to be gleaned from revealing and rediscovering infrastructure and other places that we've been made and induced to ignore. When I've been asked to talk about my work with sewers, this is what I've generally focused on, and it's one of the arguments that I want to continue to make with this website in its current edition. As I recently told a journalist, I think that our cities are more productive, more democratic, more sustainable, and more secure when we are collectively aware of and understand the infrastructure that serves us, whether in our buildings, on our streets, or under our feet. Resurrecting an understanding of and an experience with sewers as physical places, rather than just as abstract and largely unknowable networks, should be a key element in pursuing a public (rather than just expert-focused) dialogue about what to do about the future of urban watersheds and urban wastewater management. And I believe the same holds true for other aspects of our urban infrastructure and the wider built environment.

About the New Website

The Vanishing Point started life six years ago as little more than a place where I could post my latest exploits, whether underground, in ruins, or up in the air. From 2004 until very recently, this domain has hosted basically the same site, incomplete and archaic, and written in a voice that had increasingly little to do with what I wanted to be saying and sharing.

I hope that this new site can make a reasonably clean break from that past. Some readers will be disappointed to find locations missing from the collection that the site now presents. In particular, at this time you will find little to nothing about the suburban storm and creek drains in Burlington and Mississauga which provided many of the formative experiences that led to this website. The once fairly substantial articles about the R.L. Hearn and (now-demolished) Lakeview thermal generating stations have also been temporarily retired, along with the page about the powerhouse of the Toronto Power Company (you can still find an updated article about its famous tailrace). I hope to revisit some of these places in the future, when I have the time to prepare new material and fresh ideas, and the Niagara Hydroelectric section in particular will expand considerably in the coming months. In the meantime, what you are currently browsing represents my best effort to put in place an efficient platform to share stories, histories and geographies about underground infrastructure, starting with Toronto, Hamilton and Niagara Falls, but most assuredly with the intent to look further afield down the road.

Acknowledgements

Without the insights and opportunities that have emerged from a variety of collaborations over the years, this website certainly wouldn't exist in its present, revamped form, and probably wouldn't exist at all. My most consistent collaborators have without a doubt been Jon Muldoon and Andrew Emond — Andrew's fantastic website about Montreal sewerage was one of the major kicks-in-the-pants that put me on the road to rebuilding Vanishing Point, while Jon's ever-present enthusiasm for Toronto drains has kept getting me back into drains when other responsibilities occupied my attention. Other collaborators, new and old, deserve mention: Bryan, "Inventor 77", "Siologen", "Dsankt", "Quantum-X", "Reduxzero", "Speedboy" and of course the greatly missed "Ninjalicious".

I'm much obliged to those who have been willing to extend me opportunities to see elements of this work published in print (and to extend the deadlines when I have inevitably found myself torn between multiple priorities) and hung on walls, see below for those details. Thank you also to those in the architecture and historical communities who expressed their professional support for my endeavours this spring — your assistance was invaluable in securing a positive outcome from unfortunate legal circumstances.

And of course, my family and my wonderful partner, who have tolerated the hazards, the late nights, and the sludge-coated clothing and equipment. Thanks to all.

About the Author

Michael Cook is a graduate student of geography, and lives in Toronto, Canada, where he has been finding his way into underground places since 2003. In addition to this website, his words and photographs have appeared in:

John Knechtel (ed.). 2009. Water (Alphabet City #14) (MIT Press).

Geoff Manaugh. 2009. The BLDGBLOG Book (Chronicle Books) and in a 2007 interview at bldgblog.blogspot.com.

Wayne Reeves and Christina Palassio (eds.). 2008. HTO: Toronto's Water from Lake Iroquois to Lost Rivers to Low-Flow Toilets (Coach House Books).

His photographs have also been printed in The Toronto Star, Canadian Business, Daily Commercial News, in heritage reports and in a forthcoming issue of the New Centennial Review, and have been exhibited at Toronto's Fort York and at the Hamilton Museum of Steam and Technology. He has appeared as a guest lecturer for studios at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design and the University of Waterloo School of Architecture, as well as the latter's 2008 Arriscraft Lecture Series.

In collaboration with Alphabet City, a limited edition of photographic prints is now available from Toronto's Circuit Gallery.

Get in touch by michael [at] vanishingpoint [dot] ca (e-mail) or use this contact form.