{"id":2762,"date":"2008-02-08T12:00:30","date_gmt":"2008-02-08T17:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=2762"},"modified":"2013-01-21T12:55:58","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T17:55:58","slug":"torontos-almost-missing-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/02\/08\/torontos-almost-missing-style\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto Prairie: Our (almost) missing style"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ontarioarchitecture.com\/Prairietor.jpg\" style=\"width: 464px; height: 348px\" align=\"middle\" height=\"348\" width=\"464\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/images\/feature-graphics\/feature-arch-fetish.gif\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Toronto is pretty flat, but it&#8217;s no prairie. Perhaps that&#8217;s why the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Prairie_Style\">Prairie style<\/a> didn&#8217;t catch on. While it&#8217;s not surprising that a style so closely associated with the US Midwest wouldn&#8217;t make a large impact here, it is surprising that within a place like Toronto, where eclecticism was and is often the order of the day, the Prairie style wasn&#8217;t at least experimented with. <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Frank_Lloyd_Wright\">Frank Lloyd Wright<\/a> (1867-1959) is one of those architects that almost everyone has heard of, and it was under his leadership that the Prairie style matured during the first three decades of the 20th century.<\/p>\n<p>Emanating from his <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Oak_Park,_Illinois\">Oak Park<\/a>, Illinois studio, the style was characterized by its strong horizontal character, long gently pitched roofs, eaves extending well beyond the exterior walls, and open plan that seemed to hug the ground. In this regard, the influence of the flat prairie landscape is clearly felt. The style had its strongest manifestation in Chicago, but even nearby Buffalo can boast an impressive number of Prairie-style buildings. Toronto wasn&#8217;t as fortunate.<\/p>\n<p>There is, however, one lone example of the style in Toronto (that I&#8217;ve found), and it&#8217;s worth noting. Situated within a sea of neo-Tudor and Colonial Revival houses in Deer Park, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/ettml\/2139517220\/\">McNamara House<\/a> at 50 Heath Street West is in a league all its own. Built around 1920, the house is unusual: it has a flat roof, deep eaves, and is painted solid white. Emphasis is placed on geometry and the massing of rectangles and squares. It does not rely on historical references. Provincially speaking, the McNamara House isn&#8217;t alone. By historical fluke, the Ottawa area can boast the largest number of Prairie-style buildings in the country, thanks entirely to the work of one man: <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Francis_Conroy_Sullivan\">Francis Sullivan<\/a> (1882-1929). Sullivan apprenticed under Wright and while operating a private practice in Ottawa from 1911-1916, he built some of Canada&#8217;s best (and only) Prairie-style buildings. The Connors house, <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Image:LansdownePark-Horticulture.JPG\">Lansdowne Park Horticulture Building<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.prairieschooltraveler.com\/html\/world\/can\/on\/ottawa\/church.html\">Church of Sainte-Claire de Goulbourne<\/a>, and the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Image:Pembroke_Public_Library.JPG\">public library in Pembroke<\/a> are all his work and reflect Wright&#8217;s influence.<\/p>\n<p>Though an anomaly in Toronto, the Heath Street house and the Prairie style in general seem to have inspired a new generation of architects in the 1950s, this time in the form of Ranch-style houses (to be discussed in a later article). Scattered across Toronto&#8217;s inners suburbs, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/ettml\/2138770933\/\">these houses<\/a> reflect the influence of the Prairie style. The McNamara house can take comfort in this, adrift in a sea of Georgians and Tudors.<\/p>\n<p><em>Editor&#8217;s Note: This post is an ongoing <a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=2533\">column<\/a> exploring various architectural styles in and around Toronto. Spacing writer and heritage architecture consultant Thomas Wicks will look into the history of that style, the people behind it, and where in Toronto examples can be found.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>McNamara House (Toronto) photo by Shannon Kyles<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Toronto is pretty flat, but it&#8217;s no prairie. Perhaps that&#8217;s why the Prairie style didn&#8217;t catch on. While it&#8217;s not surprising that a style so closely associated with the US Midwest wouldn&#8217;t make a large impact here, it is surprising that within a place like Toronto, where eclecticism was and is often the order of<a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/02\/08\/torontos-almost-missing-style\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;Toronto Prairie: Our (almost) missing style&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4042,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22,21759],"tags":[66,2639,457,431,8123,8118,22100,8120,2867,5186,8122,8121,346,8119,7472,7476,19,8124],"class_list":["post-2762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-architecture","category-features","tag-architecture-fetish","tag-buffalo","tag-canada","tag-chicago","tag-church-of-sainte-claire","tag-claire-de-goulbourne","tag-editor","tag-francis-sullivan","tag-frank-lloyd-wright","tag-illinois","tag-illinois-studio","tag-lansdowne-park-horticulture-building","tag-ottawa","tag-shannon-kyles","tag-spacing-writer-and-heritage-architecture-consultant","tag-thomas-wicks","tag-toronto","tag-us-midwest"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Toronto Prairie: Our (almost) missing style - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/02\/08\/torontos-almost-missing-style\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Toronto Prairie: Our (almost) missing style - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Toronto is pretty flat, but it&#8217;s no prairie. 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