Architecture
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The life and death of Peter Dickinson and The Inn on the Park
Peter Dickinson was dying when he designed the Inn on the Park. From a bed in Mount Sinai hospital, his body weakened from cancer, Dickinson listened to...
By Chris Bateman -
Toronto’s Summerville pool is a slice of the Mediterranean
It’s easy to overlook the Donald D. Summerville Olympic Pools. Despite its sturdy presence on Lake Shore Boulevard East, the futuristic elevated...
By Chris Bateman -
The Toronto Park Pavilion needs your love
It’s hard not to love the Park Pavilion. Designed in 1958 by British-born architect Alan Crossley and consulting engineer Laurence Cazaly, the space...
By Chris Bateman -
How Toronto built the CN Tower
The CN Tower is one of the most important buildings ever constructed in Canada. Like it or loathe it, the absurd, 553-metre concrete tower, which opened...
By Chris Bateman -
How City Hall ended up on St. Clair Avenue
In the late 1940s, Toronto City Hall was bursting at the seams. Now known as Old City Hall, the building on the northeast corner of Queen and Bay streets...
By Chris Bateman -
“Canstruction” delivers big for Toronto’s food banks
I’m standing in front of a large pile of yellow cans of fruit — cherries, peaches, fruit salad — that has been designed and shaped to look like something...
By Kieran Delamont -
5 Things to know about Heritage Toronto Awards
Nominations are now open for the 2016 Heritage Toronto Awards. Michael Kushnir, development and marketing coordinator for Heritage Toronto, discusses the...
By Kieran Delamont -
A history of developers and holdouts in Toronto
When the Imperial Oil company began assembling land for its new executive offices on St. Clair Ave. W. in 1952, it didn’t reckon on tangling with...
By Chris Bateman -
Toronto’s Art Deco legacy celebrated
Facing each other across Spadina Avenue just north of Adelaide, the Tower and Balfour Buildings frame a striking entryway into Toronto’s Fashion District...
By Daniel Rotsztain -
How Exhibition Place got the retro Dufferin Gate
You can tell a lot about a place by how it greets its visitors. The goofy lights at Honest Ed’s tell customers “there’s no place like...
By Chris Bateman -
The modernist Bloor-Danforth line at 50
The Bloor-Danforth line turned 50 today. Five decades ago, on February 25, 1966, the first section of Toronto’s first east-west subway opened...
By Chris Bateman -
Pour one out for the Toronto Coach Terminal
The Toronto Coach Terminal is a sorry sight. Marooned a significant distance from the city’s main railway station, disconnected from other forms of...
By Chris Bateman