Project Updates

ACO NextGen tours Maple Leaf Gardens

by ERA Architects

This November ERA principal Scott Weir led a Maple Leaf Gardens tour organized by the NextGen group of the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario (ACO). NextGen is a branch of the ACO that provides educational and professional development opportunities for young architects, students, and heritage enthusiasts. Maple Leaf Gardens has served as a continuous hub of...

Community Art Project at the Riverdale Hub

by ERA Architects

Over the past few months, ERA has had the pleasure of working with the Riverdale Hub on a community revitalization strategy for the Gerrard Bazaar/Little India neighbourhood. The Riverdale Hub is an innovative model for community revitalization that integrates environmental sustainability and social enterprise in order to provide training for new Canadian women and create...

Stone Engravings at Soldiers’ Tower

by ERA Architects

One of the projects we have been involved with for several years is the ongoing masonry conservation of Soldiers’ Tower, a monument built just to the west of University of Toronto’s Hart House. An interesting aspect of the project has been to catalogue and document hundreds of lines of engraved text on several stone faces...

Youth build decking for Scarborough shade structure

by ERA Architects

Beginning in early July, six youth from the Kingston-Galloway-Orton Park community were hired for a five-week period by the East Scarborough Storefront to continue work on a series of community-oriented landscape improvements. These features were designed as part of the Community Design Initiative (C.D.I.) program, to which these youth have previously volunteered hundreds of hours....

Construction and river valley tour, East Scarborough

by ERA Architects

Photos: Holly Pagnacco Progress on the East Scarborough Storefront’s (ESS) soon-to-be grapevine pergola is running on time. We have just completed some 50 trellis modules which will form the roof structure for the grapevines to grow on. The youth spent weeks building these modules and have become confident measuring and cutting wood, along with many...

Construction begins at the Storefront

by ERA Architects

Over the past couple of years, ERA has been working with The East Scarborough Storefront (ESS) on the Community Design Initiative (CDI), where Scarborough youth are educated in architecture and design by mentors from ERA, Sustainable.TO, and ArchiTEXT. In the current phase, we are working to bring more shade and plant life to the site....

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...

Planting for an elevated bioswale in Scarborough

by ERA Architects

On a recent pleasant day in June, ERA joined green roof expert Atom Cianfarani and a group of community youth to plant a nursery in preparation for the future construction of an unusual green-roof shade structure at the East Scarborough Storefront. Over the past year, we have been working with the Storefront, Sustainable.TO, ArchiTEXT, various...

ERA goes to Brigus, Nfld.

by ERA Architects

We are pleased to announce the second installation of our Culture of Outports project, developed in collaboration with the Centre for Urban Growth and Renewal. ERA’s Andrew Pruss and Alana Young have just arrived in Brigus, Newfoundland, which, dating from 1612, is one of the oldest European settlements in North America. Over the next two...

Evergreen Brickworks film wins Hotdocs award

by ERA Architects

Crowd the Schoolhouse, a short film inspired by the evolution and regeneration of the Evergreen Brickworks site (a project in ERA’s portfolio), recently received two awards at the International Documentary Challenge. Each film must be 5 minutes long, filmed within the same five days at the beginning of March, and based on the theme of “cycles.” The entry...

East Scarborough Storefront: Wood Inventory Part II

by ERA Architects

As we have mentioned previously on this blog, ERA Architects is collaborating with ArchiTEXT and Sustainable.TO on the exciting Community.Design.Initiative at East Scarborough Storefront. Over the course of an intensive 19-week mentorship semester we worked with community youth on the design of a kitchen garden and patio, a unique green-roof pavilion, a bee and butterfly...

East Scarborough Storefront – WOOD INVENTORY

by Graeme Stewart

Starting in January 2012, ERA and partners ArchiTEXT and Sustainable.TO have been leading the 5th semester of the Storefront’s Community.Design.Initiative (CDI), a weekly mentorship program for youth in the Kingston – Galloway – Orton Park (KGO) neighbourhood of East Scarborough. This semester the team is working with the youth to design a shade and naturalization...

ERA to Revitalize Historic Yonge Street Landmark

by admin

The former Canadian Bank of Commerce building at 197 Yonge Street, since abandoned for 25 years, is set to become the focus of a major redevelopment effort led by MOD Developments in collaboration with ERA. Redevelopment will see the restoration and integration of the existing stone edifice at the foot of a new mixed-use tower...

Maple Leaf Gardens grand (re)opening

by ERA Architects

One half of the adaptive reuse of the Gardens is now open! People even lined up over night to be first into the new flagship Loblaws store. Public interest has been at a frenzy, and there is a lot of press about the event; Globe and Mail, CityNews, National Post, etc. A more thorough collection...

Maple Leaf Gardens marquee restoration

by ERA Architects

The very public face of the on-going Maple Leaf Gardens adaptive reuse project was installed this morning. The restored marquee recreates the historic character of the iconic building signage, which was in place for decades. It was a recognized priority for both Loblaws and Ryerson to honour and evoke the rich and varied history of...

The Donald Standard Chemical Building

by ERA Architects

Rural architectural heritage extends beyond farm houses and small towns. Last summer, ERA helped the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario in support of the Green Step Project, an initiative to rehabilitate an abandoned industrial site east of Bancroft as showcase for environmental stewardship, heritage, and building technologies. A Nationally Significant Historical Site built in 1909, the...

Remembrance Day @ the Brampton Cenotaph

by admin

For the past year, ERA has been working on the restoration of one of Brampton’s most cherished monuments – the War Memorial Cenotaph, which stands beside Brampton City Hall. Restoration was completed earlier this month, just in time for this year’s Remembrance Day service. Originally erected in 1928 to honour the sacrifice of Brampton’s fallen...

Lang Tannery wins not one but two awards!

by admin

ERA was awarded the City of Kitchener Mike Wagner Heritage Award, in the rehabilitation & Adaptive Reuse category for the Lang Tannery Project, shared with Cadan, RAW Design and WalterFedy. Lang Tannery was also awarded a Canadian Urban Institute Brownie Award for the Best Overall Project. see more about the project here

East Scarborough Storefront

by ERA Architects

Community Design – Image courtesy of Expect Theatre / Spark Productions The East Scarborough Storefront is a community agency offering multiple services in a tower neighbourhood in East Scarborough. Containing a community kitchen and garden, market, resource centre and access point to over 50 different agencies such as job search support and literacy service, the...

ERA and Dalhousie Complete Newfoundland Free Lab

by admin

As part of the Culture of Outports project, ERA Architects taught an intensive design/build course with six Dalhousie University School of Architecture students in the small outport of Burlington, Newfoundland. A filled-in pond is currently serving as the only public site on Burlington’s waterfront, allowing for camping and social gathering. The studio course engaged with...

Kipling Community Build

by ERA Architects

In July, ERA got into the building spirit as part of the Tower Renewal project at the Kipling Towers in North Etobicoke. Kipling Towers is one of the City’s great apartment neighbourhoods, with a cluster of nineteen towers perched along the western bank of the Humber River. Previous posts with more information about the neighbourhood...

Culture of Outports: Burlington Freelab

by ERA Architects

ERA’s Culture of Outports project, through the Centre for Urban Growth + Renewal, and sponsored by TD Canada Trust, is now taking shape in Newfoundland. The team includes Principals-in-charge Michael McClelland and Philip Evans, Project Architect Will MacIvor, and Assistant Laila MacDougall-Milne, as well as six students from Dalhousie University’s School of Architecture in their...

ERA wins a PUG Award!

by admin

ERA, in association with Rounthwaite Dick Hadley Architects, Shoalts and Zaback Architects recieved the Paul Oberman Award for Adaptive Reuse and Heritage Restoration, in the commercial category. The PUG Awards, this year in their 7th edition, are the people’s choice awards for architecture in Toronto. For more on the Bloor Gladstone Library, please click here.

Building a ship in a bottle

by ERA Architects

The exterior masonry restoration work at MLG is progressing well, and will be complete by the end of the summer. Work has begun on the restoration of the historic Carlton marquee, which will be a wonderful public face to this adaptive reuse project. Inside, the floor slabs are almost all poured, and the internal spaces...

Auchmar Estate

by ERA Architects

Since 2006, ERA has been engaged in a series of conservation and repair projects at Auchmar Estate in Hamilton, Ontario. Most recently we have been examining and recording the finishes on both the exterior of the house and on the interior walls of the main front hall. Working with specialist paint analysts, we have identified...