Modernism

ERA leads the conversation of digital transformation at the Beijing Urban and Architecture Biennale

by ERA Architects

Building Information Modeling or Building Information Management (BIM) is the foundation of digital transformation in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction industry (AEC). It is a highly collaborative process that allows architects, engineers, developers, contractors, manufacturers, and other construction professionals to plan, design, and construct a structure or building within one single 3D model. It can...

Tower Renewal Solutions on CBC Radio

by ERA Architects

As aging apartment buildings begin to contribute to the housing crisis, (exposed this week in the infrastructure failure at 260 Wellesley, Toronto) the clear response is system-scale reinvestment — and it’s underway right now across Canada. Of particular note, the Ken Soble Tower Project is one of the most significant and precedent-setting tower retrofit projects...

TALLINN–TORONTO: The Influence of Estonian Modernism in Shaping Toronto

by ERA Architects

This spring, the exhibition To The New World: Estonian Architects in Toronto launched at the Museum of Estonian Architecture (http://www.arhitektuurimuuseum.ee/en/). Following a smaller exhibition and symposium last fall hosted by Toronto’s Tartu College, the show explores the strong Estonian link in the creation of Toronto’s particular branch of modernism. These exhibitions, and forthcoming book, are...

ERA Has Moved to 625 Church Street

by ERA Architects

For two decades, we have called 10 St Mary Street our home, an eight storey modernist office building (1957) designed by the architects Mathers and Haldenby, whose offices were located on the 8th floor of the building. It seems fitting today as we say goodbye and start a new chapter in ERA’s story, that we’d...

Evergreen Canada Launches An Online Exhibit: Complete Communities

by ERA Architects

Evergreen Canada has launched an online gallery entitled ‘Complete Communities‘ that showcases several projects within and surrounding the GTA that provide affordable homes, fresh food, clean water, local services, green spaces and great recreation to their residents. Accessibility is made available through walking, biking and public transit. The Ridgeway Community Court is one of these projects. Ridgeway has a...

It’s Symposium Season!

by ERA Architects

The arrival of spring heralds opportunities to get out and enjoy engaging discourse on topics near and dear to the hearts of heritage conservationists. As a result, ERA has been branching out and sharing our knowledge with audiences in Toronto and Ottawa over the past weekend, participating in two exciting initiatives. First up, the Toronto branch...

TCLF Presents, Second Wave of Modernism III: Leading with Landscape Conference

by ERA Architects

As part of The Cultural Landscape Foundation’s conference series, Second Wave of Modernism III: Leading with Landscape will take place this May. The conference will tackle numerous issues including those that deal with the city’s identity – what does it mean for a 21st century city to be historic and modern at the same time?...

The Ward: A new book, UPDATE

by ERA Architects

ERA is excited to announce our new book all about Toronto’s St. John’s Ward. The Ward: The Life and Loss of Toronto’s First Immigrant Neighbourhood, launches May 20th. See our previous post here. A number of events lead up to this exhilarating new release. The Ward will be presented in the Pages UnBound Festival, an annual mixed...

Ontario Place in docomomoUS

by ERA Architects

Recently ERA’s Michael McClelland collaborated with Ottawa-based architect James Ashby on an article on Toronto’s Ontario Place, for docomomoUS. The article reviews the history of this unusual site, discusses the significance of its iconic design, and reminds us of the opportunity we now have to enrich our understanding of how to approach modernist architecture as part of...

University Ave.: A heritage landscape of value?

by ERA Architects

The summer edition of Ground Magazine features an article by ERA’s Michael McClelland and Brendan Stewart on the history and design of Toronto’s University Avenue. When it was first designed in 1829 the Avenue was hailed as “one of, if not the finest in the Dominion.” Over the next century, the tranquil tree-lined promenade fell...

Michael McClelland at the Getty: Toronto Towers

by ERA Architects

Michael McClelland spoke in 2013 to the Getty Conservation Institute’s “Colloquium to Advance the Practice of Conserving Modern Architecture.” The presentation discussed Toronto’s unique development of tower neighbourhoods in the context of modernist planning principles and modern heritage conservation. ERA advocates for an approach to the conservation of these neighbourhoods through a considered process of...

Military infrastructure designation, UK

by ERA Architects

Prior to joining the office, ERA’s Alex Rowse-Thompson spent several years as a Conservation and Design Officer in Gosport, an ancient naval town in the UK. As part of this work, Alex advocated for the heritage designation of an unusual piece of 20th century military infrastructure in Gosport: No. 2 Cavitation Tunnel. Recently, this advocacy...

Community Hub at former police station

by ERA Architects

Together with the Junction Commons Project Community Group, ERA Architects and Urban Metrics are working with the residents of Toronto’s Junction neighbourhood to envision and examine the feasibility of transforming a former police station into a community hub. Division 11 of the Toronto Police Services recently relocated to an adapted 1913 schoolhouse designed by Stantec...

Designed landscapes: Ground Magazine

by ERA Architects

Ground, the magazine of the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects (OALA), recently published a new article by ERA’s Michael McClelland entitled “Sites of Value: Designating Modern Cultural Landscapes in Ontario.” The article looks at Queen’s Park Complex, designed by Sasaki Strong Associates, as an early example of landscape conservation efforts in Canada. Using the Complex...

Slabs vs. points

by admin

A new article in Satellite Magazine on Toronto Towers by ERA’s Graeme Stewart, Josh Thorpe, and Michael McClelland. The article compares Toronto’s two high-rise housing booms, which have generated housing in volume and distribution unlike anywhere else in North America: first, the suburban tower boom in Toronto’s post-war period, and next the contentious condo boom...

Landscape symposium: Toronto 2015

by admin

During a visit to Toronto this May, Charles Birnbaum, founder of The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF), announced that his organization will be holding a 2015 landscape architecture symposium in Toronto. Set just prior to the Toronto Pan Am Games of 2015, the symposium is perfectly timed to coincide with the completion of several new landscape...

Charles Birnbaum visits landscapes of Toronto

by ERA Architects

In May, ERA, Janet Rosenberg, and the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects (OALA) was pleased to sponsor a number of events centered around our visiting friend Charles Birnbaum, founder of The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF). Lecture After a couple of days touring Toronto and studying its diverse designed landscapes, Charles gave a lecture at University...

Charles Birnbaum talk: Thurs. May 23

by admin

Thursday May 23, 6:30 – 8:00 p.m., U of T’s Daniels Faculty, 230 College St., Rm. 103, Toronto Thursday May 23, join us for an exciting lecture by Charles Birnbaum of The Cultural Landscape Foundation. Charles will be discussing the interpretation and conservation of modernist landscapes as a part of how we continue to build...

Micallef: Canada’s identity, modernist architecture

by ERA Architects

If there is a character that unites Canada across its many regions, says Shawn Micallef of Spacing, it could well be our huge stock of post-war modernist architecture. From well-known innovations such as Montreal’s Habitat ’67, Toronto’s CN Tower, or Burnaby’s Simon Fraser University; to the thousands of lower-profile urban and suburban low-, mid-, and...

On Scarpa’s Castelvecchio

by ERA Architects

Having returned from a trip to Verona, ERAer Ryan Love recently presented to the office on his experience of the amazing Castelvecchio, a fine example of medieval Gothic architecture, completed in 1355. The castle was built as a fortified home for the Lord of Verona, Cangrande II della Scala, and has over the years seen...

Serra’s Shift to be designated under Heritage Act

by ERA Architects

In February, Council for King City, Ontario voted to designate Richard Serra’s Shift under the Ontario Heritage Act. This represents a great step forward in formalizing the cultural significance of the work of art, and sets context to establish guidelines for its conservation. ERA wrote a letter in support of designating the work earlier this...

Toronto to Detroit

by ERA Architects

Selection of photos by Lara Herald, Scott Weir, Alana Young, Sydney Martin, Graeme Stewart, Jordan Molnar, Julie Tyndorf, Alec Ring, and Brent Wagler. Recently a large group of us here at ERA spent a weekend exploring the amazing city of Detroit, Michigan. Founded in 1701, Detroit became a huge industrial and economic engine from the...

Ontario Place: Possible futures

by ERA Architects

Currently on show at Toronto’s Urbanspace Gallery is a compelling exhibition on Ontario Place and its future. Ontario Place was designed in the late 1960s by Eberhard Zeidler and launched in 1971 as a spectacular architectural innovation that attempted to rethink our relationship to the lake. Earlier this year the Government of Ontario announced that...

Alan Dudeck joins us for a chat

by ERA Architects

Recently ERA welcomed to our office special guest Alan Dudeck, an urban planner, project manager, realtor, and member of the Toronto Preservation Board. He came to speak to us about his experience of an exciting period in the early 1970s when urban planning became community planning. Working under contract with the City of Toronto planning...

Miles Glendinning Lecture, May 3rd, 2012

by admin

ERA Architects and the Toronto Society of Architects present the 2012 Modern Heritage Visiting Lecture, Miles Glendinning: The Hundred Years War: A Century of Mass Housing ‘Campaigns’ Across the World. Join us May 3rd at the Art and Letters Club at 6:00pm for cocktails and lecture at 6:30. For more information and to RSVP, click...