As the days get colder and we head into the final days of 2021, ERA is looking back at the recognition and awards we’ve received this year for some very deserving projects, alongside some fantastic teams who are looking forward and building our cities and communities into tomorrow. Continue reading…
The Missing Middle: Toronto’s Historic Building Typologies
Last week, Toronto City Planning brought forward to Council’s Planning and Housing Committee an interim report, Expanding Housing Options in Neighbourhoods: Multiplex Study. The initiative behind the report is exploring the potential to permit a range of low-scale housing types in Toronto’s low-rise neighbourhoods, as a key part of the solution to the city’s years-long housing crisis. Continue reading…
ERA leads the conversation of digital transformation, using BIM, for architectural heritage at the Beijing Urban and Architecture Biennale
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 also span into the operation and management of buildings to make informed decisions based on information derived from the model— even after the building is constructed. Continue reading…
ERA’s Graeme Stewart and Ya’el Santopinto named to the RAIC’s College of Fellows
ERA is thrilled to announce that Graeme Stewart and Ya’el Santopinto have been named to the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC)’s College of Fellows. This well-deserved honour is in recognition of outstanding achievement in architecture, and distinguished service to the profession and community. Continue reading…
Dave LeBlanc for The Globe and Mail: The tower that once topped Toronto shines again
Once the tallest building in the British empire, the Royal Bank building at 8 King Street East is a product of the skyscraper phenomenon that arrived in Toronto at the turn-of-the century. More than 100 years after its construction, the building has been renewed. ERA is wrapping up work on this project, which required the full and extensive conservation of the Edwardian skyscraper’s exterior. Continue reading…
Championing resiliency this Earth Day
As we celebrate Earth Day, ERA is reflecting on the shift needed to meet Canada’s 2050 net-zero emissions targets. Our built environment plays an important role in creating a more sustainable future and ERA is committed to being a leader that champions climate solutions through our work. Here’s how: Continue reading…
Gordonridge Community Multi-Sport Court wins national landscape architecture award

Courtesy of MLSE. Photo: Neil Ta
ERA is thrilled to announce the Gordonridge Community Multi-Sport Court has won a Canadian Society of Landscape Architects (CSLA) National Award of Excellence in the Residential Landscapes category. Continue reading…
Revitalizing waterfront sites: Exploring the potential of Ontario Place

Ontario Place in the 1980s (City of Toronto Archives)
Our iconic sites have a shared value, with a conceived opinion in the public realm. As residents, we understand and view these buildings with a collective lens made up of our past experiences formed individually and as a city. Continue reading…
Celebrating community-led design with Gordonridge

Courtesy of MLSE. Photo: Neil Ta
Working closely with communities to create place-based, local designs is integral to ERA’s approach. In September, we celebrated the completion of Gordonridge’s new multi-sport court. This project was a collaborative effort through-and-through, with our partners at MLSE Foundation and Canadian Tire Jumpstart Charities, our client at Toronto Community Housing, and its users, the community at Gordonridge.
Gordonridge is ERA’s third project in partnership with MLSE and Jumpstart, developing place-based recreational spaces with community stakeholders, providing youth and adults a safe space to play and access a variety of sports and community events within their neighbourhoods.

Courtesy of MLSE. Photo: Neil Ta
The court is positioned at the heart of the tight-knit Gordonridge campus, a post-war apartment complex which is home to more than 800 households. Post-war neighbourhoods can sometimes offer disconnected car-centric, sprawling design. By contrast, Gordonridge’s “town square” is its collection of community-led initiatives: over the years, Gordonridge residents have built an apiary, community garden, market garden, and fruit orchard. The multi-sport court is designed to be the hub that connects these spokes, tracing accessible routes through the property. Pathways, along with shaded seating and gathering areas, encourage shared multi-generational use of the space — older residents on the way to the apiary, the youth on the basketball courts.
As the Prime Consultant and Landscape Architect, ERA developed and led a series of collaborative community design-workshops, developed a design that responded to what we heard, and provided ongoing communication with the key stakeholders throughout construction to ensure that the outcomes were in line with the neighbourhood’s vision.

Courtesy of MLSE. Photo: Neil Ta
Over the course of a year, ERA listened, tested ideas, shared meals, and played basketball at Gordonridge. We learned the community was selling honey from the apiary, and that residents were learning to cultivate its fruit orchard – but that access to those initiatives was challenging, so we drew paths along those desire lines. We learned from the youth that the senior residents would like a place to walk, and so we incorporated a walking circuit into the court. We found space for the local gardeners to create a small plot in the court. By the time the court opened late last year, the community were both co-designers and co-owners of the new space.
It’s a process that for us is a remarkable and exciting endeavour. We’re thrilled the neighbourhood feels the same!
Gordonridge Representative: Nichola shares her perspective on the process. from MLSE Foundation on Vimeo.
We are patiently awaiting the spring when we hope the court will be in full use. The pandemic has not only delayed the use of the court but has underscored the importance of access to safe outdoor gathering spaces for exercise and fresh air.

Courtesy of MLSE. Photo: Neil Ta
The Gordonridge Commmunity Multi-Sport Court demonstrates the power of investment in communities, allowing residents of all ages to gather, exercise, play and continue to build local support networks so vital to our thriving cities and neighbourhoods.
MLSE Foundation has pulled together more great content, including the video above, over on their website.