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1960s Canada: An interview with Vincent Massey Tovell

by ERA Architects

...was so exciting. And clearing away all of that downtown mess. Regrettably, the old Shea’s Theatre with its old vaudeville shows – I missed that. Not to mention the casino across the way. All those closed. And then the big storm about the Henry Moore sculpture in the plaza. Well, you see, it broke through! It wasn’t just art gallery...

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Flashback Friday: A Jane’s Walk Down Memory Lane

by ERA Architects

...and life in a 5-block radius Last year, ERA’s Dan Eylon and his wife Jess co-led a walk titled “The Clinton Years: Love and life in a 5-block radius.” This walk ruminated about the home-neighbourhoods people develop when moving to Toronto and beginning to build their new lives. Jess outlined memorable areas in the 5-block radius that surrounded Clinton Street,...

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The Growing Old City

by Graeme Stewart

Image courtesy of OpenFile. Interesting article on the population of the Old City of Toronto in Open File: We finally have more people living in pre-amalgamation Toronto than in 1971 With 736,775, we’ve now surpassed the Old City of Toronto’s peak population in 1971 (it dipped by 100,000 in the 70s and 80s) – but we now have significantly more...

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Michael McClelland at the Getty: Toronto Towers

by ERA Architects

...Stats in Canada.” Accessed January 18th, 2013. http://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/corp/nero/jufa/jufa_031.cfm English Heritage. 2009. “Government Review of Policies Relating to the Historic Environment.” Accessed January 15, 2013. http://www.britarch.ac.uk/info/ehreview15.html. Faludi, Eugene. 1963. “Report on Apartment Building Development in East Annex Planning District.” Toronto: E. G. Faludi and Associates, Town Planning Consultants Ltd. Ministry of Culture. 2006. “Heritage Property Evaluation.” Accessed January 15, 2013. http://www.mtc.gov.on.ca/en/publications/Heritage_Tool_Kit_HPE_Eng_large.pdf....

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New Approaches to Old Housing

by ERA Architects

For the past decade, Tower Renewal has been defined by research, policy design and action. Through multi-sectoral partnerships, best-practice and primary research, our work has evolved into program design, capacity building, and on-the-ground project implementation with a wide range of stakeholders. This ongoing program of ‘research to action’ was featured in Architectural Design Magazine special issue: Calling All Architects: New Approaches...

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an image of leather shoes recovered from the Armoury Street excavation is superimposed on top of a Goad's Insurance Map, detailing the site area and context of Centre Avenue and Armoury Street in historic St John's Ward.

Archaeology in The Ward: A New Exhibit

by ERA Architects

...likely used in furniture manufacturing on the site, and a large rubber hat mould used to form men’s brimmed felt hats from the Fashion Hat & Cap Company, which occupied the former Eaton’s factory on Chestnut Street from the 1940s to the 1960s. The exhibit is on view during regular public hours in city hall’s main floor rotunda, located adjacent...

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Silo 5 in Old Montreal

by ERA Architects

This summer and fall, as part of Heritage Montreal’s Architectours program, ERA’s Jan Kubanek presented four walking tours of Silo 5, a monumental grain elevator complex at the mouth of the Lachine Canal in Old Montreal. The Silo 5 complex encompasses three separate buildings: Elevator B, dating to 1906 and built of steel plates; the Old Annex, built of reinforced...

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Best New Rental Development

by admin

ERA is pleased to announce that Jazz by Concert Properties was selected as the Best New Rental Development High-Rise at the 6th Annual MAC Awards held by the Federation of Rental-housing Providers of Ontario (FRPO). ERA worked with Burka Varacalli Architects as the Heritage Architect for this project. http://jazzbyconcert.com/...

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Repurposed junk: A chicken coop

by ERA Architects

“To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk” –Thomas Edison. One thing that attracted us to rural living was a sort of environmental frugality: You try to figure out how to accomplish what needs doing with what you’ve managed to save. (This notion applies to the practice of heritage conservation as well.) Hoarding is admittedly easier...

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The top of 8 King Street East pre-construction.

Dave LeBlanc for The Globe and Mail: The tower that once topped Toronto shines again

by ERA Architects

...one of those men was Montreal-born architect George Allen Ross or his Melbourne, Australia-born partner, Robert Henry Macdonald, he was no doubt feeling chuffed as he looked down at the other new buildings he had bested – especially the formerly tallest-in-the-Empire Canadian Pacific Railway building with its copper-clad rooftop cupolas – along the city’s “Edwardian skyscraper row.” “By 1915,” writes...

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The Broadview Hotel: Everything Old is New Again

by ERA Architects

Riverside welcomes a revitalized neighbor this fall in the form of The Broadview Hotel, a landmark building at the northwest corner of Queen and Broadview, completed in 1891-2, for oilman and soap maker Archibald Dingman. The building’s architecture hails from the same period as Toronto’s Old City Hall, with ornate exterior terracotta panels depicting animals and other figures. The hotel...

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Rediscovering the Beauty of Our Old Homes

by admin

In the National Post series, What Lies Beneath, ERA Associate Scott Weir uncovers the authentic details of Toronto’s residential architecture. Check out our publications page to view the entire series. http://www.era.on.ca/about/publications/...

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