← Return to Queen EastA real street plan.
A reconstruction in progress.
The game covers King & River to Queen & Carlaw, and De Grassi Street and Boulton Avenue north to Gerrard. The street-level architecture is not a surveyed replica.
Credits
Created by Mike Murchison · @mimurchison on X
Visual references include Mike Murchison’s own photo library and video footage, alongside the public sources credited below.
The river and the brief
The opening inscription is by Eldon Garnet, from Time and a Clock on the Queen Street Viaduct. Riverside BIA documents the wording, artist statement and connection to Heraclitus. The game interprets the changing river as a story about choosing and updating context. This interpretation is ours, not an explanation attributed to the artist.
Display typography uses the locally bundled Instrument Serif, with spaced capitals and a curved line motif inspired by the open metal lettering. It is an homage, not a reproduction of the artwork’s typeface. Controls retain DM Sans for readability.
Ground and architectural references
Street grade now follows an interpolated10metre grid built from1,591City of Toronto contour features. Ground, Pip, the cart, collision geometry and camera share the height field. The bridge deck interpolates between its abutments instead of following contours down into the Don. Queen beneath the eastern railway uses its approach grades, excluding the raised embankment. This is broad ground relief, not a survey of curbs or drainage. City contour source.
Reference footage informs Poulton Block’s middle-storey fanlights, black storefronts, St.Mary Pharmacy signage and the rounded798entrance. Jimmie Simpson has mapped lawn, a separate western blue-post sign and a coloured bench. Their detailed dimensions remain estimates; the recreation-centre inscription wall is still incomplete.
Latest rendering update
The River of Life panorama covers the full26.5metre mural-bearing rail wall. The6144×1400 image uses registered artist footage and BIA photography; it retains source seams and cropped extremities. The future station entrance west of that wall remains open. Surrounding background streets now have3,991additional City roof sections. Those silhouettes use mapped outlines and heights, with inferred colours. They are not detailed facade reconstructions.
What is sourced
Building footprints, parcels, road surfaces, sidewalks, address points and tree/pole positions come from City of Toronto mapping. OpenStreetMap supplies street and railway alignments. 440 property footprints have been separated from larger building blocks. 50 of those property profiles have cited image/video observations (21 photographic, 29 video-informed); 390 still use inferred elevations. The separately authored landmark buildings are described below.
The ground uses unaltered 2025 City orthophotos sampled at 0.23 metres per output pixel. That reveals actual ground patterns from above; it does not supply street-level building surfaces.
Completed Ontario Line setting
The game depicts a future neighbourhood with the Ontario Line finished. Leslieville Station replaces the De Grassi construction hoarding and the former Queen railway arcade. The model uses Metrolinx’s April2026 main and secondary entrance renderings and July2025 aerial view, corroborated by the May2026 presentation. Observed features include the terracotta fins, long overhanging roof, timber-coloured soffit, elevated glazed hall, and north/south entrances. The local Ontario Line tracks run west of the GO/VIA tracks. A four-car visual train follows the modelled corridor. This is an exterior interpretation, with no station boarding mechanic.
Metrolinx labels these artist renderings subject to change; the south-plaza landscaping is explicitly provisional. No publicly verified as-built drawing is claimed. Approximate platform dimensions, facade module spacing, landscaping and movement timing are authored. The simulated neighbourhood has no active construction. A fictional community-event gate supplies the game’s changing route condition.
Photo and video references
Mike Murchison’s reference footage informs storefronts, masonry, rooflines, planting and street artwork throughout the modelled neighbourhood. Selected details include Butchers of Distinction, St. John’s eco Market, Lamoon, Amber Kitchen, the Boulton mural and the shared gables on De Grassi. Coverage is incomplete; perspective-derived dimensions and unobserved sides remain approximate.
Original personal photos and recordings remain private research material. Selected crops of empty pavement, brick and street artwork supply surface detail. These crops do not reconstruct individual pavement damage or provide calibrated reflectance.
The Logan at 899 is a separate ground footprint from 889–893. Its 37 m frontage, six storeys and setbacks use the City’s 2016 application drawings, corroborated by the 2025 City project profile. These are planning references, not an as-built survey.
North-side identities: La Bamboche, 892, Matcha Haus, 890, Hooked, 888, The Roy, 894, and The Castle, 884. The Roy’s older official exterior photo supplies its complete ground frontage; reference footage corroborates paint and menu details. Upper elevations of this row remain inferred.
BISKAABIIYAANG,800 Queen East: Quentin “Que Rock” Commanda,2024. A perspective-rectified Mural Routes photograph supplements reference footage of the long wall. A close-up reference supplies the bear on the northern wall offset. Photo lighting and limited source resolution remain visible. This is a private local study; mural and photograph rights remain with their creators.
Studio535 is at535 Queen East. Its launch announcement identifies Fahd Ananta as a founder. The building follows its City footprint and April2026 Street View. The small green535 plaque’s placement is provisional.
Riverside underpass artwork and street life
River of Life occupies the south underpass wall. Lead artist: Quentin “Que Rock” Commanda. Contributors: Alex “Vizsla” Bacon and Sadie Marshall; mentorship: Shawni-Nodin Nanaokase. The central panel combines BIA photography with Que Rock’s artist video. Perspective alignment preserves the observed lettering, fish, flower and bear. Unobserved outer sections remain cropped. Source light and small seam differences remain. Wall dimensions and retention within the future station setting are interpretations. Original art and photo rights remain with their creators.
Ten moving cars join sixteen parked cars. Fifteen additional walkers use mapped paved sidewalks. Cars brake for Pip, the cart, other cars and the streetcar. Neighbours turn around and step aside where clear pavement permits. These are authored supporting characters and vehicles, not identities from reference recordings. This is simplified ambient traffic, not a traffic-light simulation.
River, skyline and seasonal light
544/550 Queen and 2 River follow the City’s 2022 heritage photographs: the laundry building’s separate floors, industrial windows, white cornice band, River entrance arch and adjoining pitched glass atrium. River City1’s eight-storey shoulder and sixteen-storey blade follow the project engineer’s exterior photograph. Facade dimensions are estimates.
The CN Tower sits southwest at its geographic position, using the tower’s published vertical levels. Nearby buildings can naturally block it. The map includes a southwest bridge view. Distant western buildings use City roof polygons and heights above20m; their elevations are unresolved atmospheric forms.
The visual direction uses warm pastel animation inspired by Turning Red. The live renderer uses a peach/lavender cloud sky, warm sunlight, lavender shadow fill, softer brick normals, amber shop glazing, broad autumn leaf clusters and scattered fallen leaves. These are authored style changes, not source evidence. Historical Queen East and Riverside photos also informed the light. The personal photos remain outside the shipped assets. Autumn foliage is an authored seasonal variation. Riverbank trees now start at the lowered riverbank, not the viaduct deck.
Landmark references
- Riverside BIA architecture tour: the surviving Smith Block, 744 Queen bank, Queen/Saulter Library, Poulton Block and 52 De Grassi cottage.
- Canmenwalker's 2025 library photograph: clock, portico, corner entrance and windows. Observation only.
- Toronto Journey 416 Opera House photographs: projecting bays, upper windows, entrance and Lewis Street hall. Observation only.
- Queen railway underpass: the completed concrete crossing follows the future station renderings. The south wall carries the documented River of Life central panel. The historical 4.1 m clearance sign remains; other dimensions are approximate.
- De Grassi/Gerrard: St Ann’s stone side elevation and the opposite building’s concrete fins follow September 2018 Street View. The complete roofs and unseen elevations remain approximate.
- Poulton Block, GTD Aquitaine, 2008: public domain. The original photograph is bundled unchanged and projected onto the top-storey walls; middle and ground-floor details are separate geometry.
- Dark Horse, Bonjour Brioche, Mercury Espresso, Amber Kitchen and Broadview Hotel: dated business and exterior references. Fine dimensions and unseen sides remain approximate.
Data and asset credits
Accuracy limits
- The selected pastel-animation concept now informs the shared sky, lighting, materials, autumn foliage and shop-window colour. Cloud structure uses a CC0 Poly Haven sky with an authored pastel palette. Autumn and golden-hour conditions are authored. Selected images from Mike Murchison’s own photo library informed light and colour, not current facade measurements.
- 544/550 Queen and River City1 use primary exterior photographs; their facade dimensions remain approximate.
- The CN Tower keeps its real map location and published553.33m height. Its radial profiles and local ground elevation are approximate.
- Western background roofs use City source outlines above20m, with no detailed elevations. This is not a complete downtown model.
- Personal reference videos informed selected storefronts, street artwork and architectural details. They are not a complete corridor survey or calibrated depth scans.
- The shared gable at 16/18 De Grassi uses reference footage. The recorded construction site is replaced by the completed Leslieville Station, using Metrolinx April2026 entrance and July2025 aerial renderings. Those renderings remain subject to change. Dimensions, landscaping and hidden roofs are approximate; no calibrated scan or photogrammetry.
- Parcel accuracy is not facade accuracy. Source dates and image viewpoints vary.
- Frontages, roof families and details without a cited image remain inferred.
- Ground elevation, railway embankments and architectural heights are partly approximate.
- Front gardens use parcel boundaries, plus photographed planted verges at 48–56 and 90–94 De Grassi, minus mapped pavement. Unreviewed garden surfaces and exposed side-wall openings remain inferred.
- The 2008 public-domain Poulton photograph supplies only the top-storey texture. It is historical, not proof of current condition.
- Tree point 854338 falls in the roadway; its trunk is approximately corrected to the west verge from September 2021 Street View at 97 De Grassi.
Delivery barriers, the narrow gate, door setup and seasonal changes are game fiction. Gameplay and collision test results do not certify architectural likeness.
Inspect all 440 property profiles
Lettering and Ed’s
The game title takes its cue from the connected brush lettering in Mike Murchison’s Riverside mural reference. It uses Lobster Two Bold Italic, paired with Newsreader. Both are self-hosted under the SIL Open Font License.
Ed’s official Leslieville photograph informs the blue awning, yellow cornice, metal-framed entrance, lamps and bench at 920 Queen Street East. Upper elevations and dimensions remain an interpretation of the mapped building.
The LCBO/BMO/Dollarama frontage opposite the civic clock is interpreted from Mike’s street footage inside the mapped 772 Queen parcel. Sub-bay widths are estimated. LCBO lists the shop at 776 Queen East.