Skip to content

ERA Architects

Stories

North York’s Modernist Favourites, Volume Two.

by ERA Architects

In compiling the revised inventory for the North York’s Modernist Architecture Revisited publication, ERA staff traveled to each site and photographed the current condition of the building. Through this process a number of projects stood out and became quiet favorites, and over the next few weeks we’ll be highlighting a few of these under-appreciated, little-known buildings. These structures represent an undiscovered trove of modernist treasures in Toronto, which we drive, walk, or bike past everyday.


36 Green Valley Drive, 1960.
Architect: Peter Dickinson.

36 Green Valley Drive is, incredibly, the last surviving private home designed by the late Peter Dickinson. Designed for his friend Isadore Sharp – founder of Four Seasons Hotels – this house presents a modernist aesthetic with a unique Canadian material palette and sensitive siting.

Rough flagstone walls create a monolithic appearance from the street, and curve outwards to embrace the incoming car – a move reminiscent of the ground level of Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye.  A dark wood roof tilts up to the North, forming clerestory windows that allow light to filter into the building.  The rear wall of the house is all glass, opening up to the golf course behind.  The house currently has no heritage designation.

Related Projects

Exterior of Phillips House
Phillips House: North York General Hospital North York General Hospital
Toronto
Richmond Adelaide Centre Oxford Properties
Toronto
The Distillery District Cityscape Development Corporation & Dundee Realty
Toronto