{"id":53887,"date":"2016-01-14T12:00:58","date_gmt":"2016-01-14T17:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=53887"},"modified":"2016-01-14T12:20:32","modified_gmt":"2016-01-14T17:20:32","slug":"53887","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2016\/01\/14\/53887\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto’s history in two buildings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in May and June of 2015, the Guardian<\/em> newspaper ran\u00a0an intriguing\u00a0series on its Cities page entitled \u201cA history of cities in 50 buildings.\u201d<\/a> The list is quite interesting: it includes several buildings no longer standing, such as the infamous Pruitt-Igoe housing complex<\/a> in Saint Louis, Missouri, and the World Trade Center<\/a> in New York, and some iconic, transformative landmarks such as the Guggenheim Museum in\u00a0Bilbao<\/a>, Spain, and even the first Starbucks location in Pike Place Market, Seattle<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In Toronto, the Guardian<\/em> chose Honest Ed\u2019s as Toronto\u2019s entry on the list<\/a>. Of course, the Guardian\u2019s<\/em> list wasn\u2019t meant to include the world\u2019s most famous or iconic buildings, but chose an assortment of structures, standing, demolished \u2014 or in Honest Ed\u2019s case, imperiled \u2014 meant to \u201ctell unique stories of our urban history.\u201d<\/p>\n

[Disclosure: I contributed to the Guardian Cities site in February, 2015<\/a>, discussing new streetcar systems in American cities.]<\/em><\/p>\n

Over six months later, the Toronto Star<\/em>\u00a0finally noticed the\u00a0Guardian\u2019s <\/em>inclusion<\/a>\u00a0of Honest Ed\u2019s in the\u00a0list of 50 buildings. The Star\u00a0<\/em>sought the opinion of two local architecture professors,\u00a0Vincent Hui, of Ryerson University, and\u00a0David Lieberman, of\u00a0the University of Toronto. Hui agrees with Honest Ed\u2019s inclusion, while Lieberman says that\u00a0\u201cat first glance, [the Guardian\u2019s<\/em> series]\u00a0is a really dumb list.\u201d<\/p>\n

In some ways, Honest Ed\u2019s\u00a0\u2014 that kitschy emporium of bargains, bad puns, and faded memorabilia, fits the criteria of the Guardian\u2019s<\/em> list. The store was innovative (it was one of the first stores to feature \u201closs leaders\u201d and store greeters), it served the needs of Toronto\u2019s growing post-war immigrant communities, and was the starting point for\u00a0a\u00a0larger empire that included theatres in Toronto and London. The store\u2019s\u00a0replacement by a new mixed use development proposed by Westbank<\/a>, is also part of Toronto\u2019s story, as it becomes an increasingly high-rise city. So I agree\u00a0with its inclusion in the Guardian\u2019s<\/em> list, based on the newspaper\u2019s interesting (and provocative) criteria.<\/p>\n

But if you were to ask me, I\u2019d select two different buildings that would best represent Toronto\u2019s modern history: the Toronto-Dominion Centre and City Hall.<\/p>\n

\"f0124_fl0002_id0009-600\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Construction began on Ludwig\u00a0Mies van der Rohe\u2019s modernist\u00a0Toronto-Dominion Centre in 1964; the first tower was completed in 1967, the year of Canada\u2019s centennial. Unsatisfied with various proposals for the consolidation of the merged bank\u2019s office space (the Bank of Toronto and the Dominion Bank joined in 1955), Phyllis Lambert, adviser on\u00a0the architectural review for the T-D complex, helped to\u00a0bring\u00a0in the famous\u00a0German-American architect to design\u00a0something special.<\/p>\n

Looking at archival photographs, it appears that first black tower\u00a0fell on Toronto like the monolith in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.<\/em>\u00a0The\u00a0old city of stone, brick, and wood, punctuated by a few office buildings and many church spires, was suddenly interrupted by a new age of steel and glass. It seemed that all\u00a0of a sudden, Toronto was awoken from its slumber as a quiet, boring, Protestant provincial city, and began to emerge as\u00a0an exciting\u00a0cosmopolitan metropolis. Three additional buildings later joined\u00a0Mies van der Rohe\u2019s vision of two towers surrounding a banking hall, and other skyscrapers have surrounded the complex, but the Toronto-Dominion Centre\u00a0remains an important and historic symbol of Toronto\u2019s rise as an economic powerhouse and of a modern, global city.<\/p>\n

A few years earlier, in 1955, Torontonians elected its first non-Protestant mayor, Nathan Phillips. Up until Phillip\u2019s election, every mayor of Toronto elected in the twentieth century was a Protestant member of the Orange Order, a sectarian (and historically anti-Catholic) organization that dominated city politics and business. Phillips, on the other hand was Jewish, signalling a change in the city\u2019s attitudes. Meanwhile, the federal government was finally loosening its restrictive immigration laws, setting the stage for the Toronto\u2019s\u00a0cultural transformation. Phillips championed a new City Hall, whose construction began in 1961, designed by Finnish architect\u00a0Viljo Revell. Construction of the new city hall (and the square named for its champion, Mayor Phillips) was completed in 1965.<\/p>\n

Toronto City Hall and Nathan Phillips Square serve as the focal point of the city. Fifty years later, the\u00a0square remains popular; hosting\u00a0ice skating in the winter, and concerts, festivals, commemorations, rallies and protests year-round. The Toronto Sign<\/a>, introduced for the 2015 Pan-Am\/Parapan Games, has been an especially popular addition to the square among\u00a0residents and tourists alike. Like the T-D Centre, City Hall is a built reminder of\u00a0an important turning point in\u00a0Toronto\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

\"new<\/a><\/p>\n

Honest Ed\u2019s has an interesting history, and many Torontonians will be sad to see it close at the end of this year, even if they don\u2019t shop there. I lived two blocks away, on Palmerston Boulevard, for two years, and while I barely shopped there myself, the store\u2019s blinking lights and the historic Mirvish Village buildings were a welcome and even comforting local landmark.<\/p>\n

But I\u2019m optimistic that Westbank, the developers who were responsible for the Woodward\u2019s project in Vancouver\u2019s Downtown East Side, will be sympathetic to the site\u2019s history. In Vancouver, part of the original store, long abandoned, was preserved. The iconic \u201cW\u201d sign was also saved, and there are many other nods to the local neighbourhood\u2019s history. In Toronto, it\u00a0appears, so far, that Westbank\u00a0will\u00a0construct a fitting new multi-use complex that will prove to be an\u00a0asset to the neighbourhood.<\/p>\n

\"vancouver<\/a><\/p>\n

Westbank\u2019s Woodwards redevelopment preserved part of the historic department store, and includes condos, institutional space, retail, public spaces, as well as affordable and assisted housing.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back in May and June of 2015, the Guardian newspaper ran\u00a0an intriguing\u00a0series on its Cities page entitled \u201cA history of cities in 50 buildings.\u201d The list is quite interesting: it includes several buildings no longer standing, such as the infamous Pruitt-Igoe housing complex in Saint Louis, Missouri, and the World Trade Center in New York,Continue reading “Toronto’s history in two buildings”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4030,"featured_media":53920,"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":[22,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-architecture","category-history"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nToronto's history in two buildings - 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