For 35 years, ERA Architects has been a strategic thought leader in understanding the ever-evolving phenomenon of heritage. As the firm grows and our approach to working with heritage evolves, we welcome three new principals and one new director to lead and expand our innovative, adaptive, and forward-thinking practice.
To explore their experiences, reflections, and intentions as they step into their news roles, cultural critic Alessandro Tersigni sat down with new ERA principals Samantha Irvine, David Winterton, and Shelley Ludman and new ERA director Dan Eylon to discuss some of the ideas and questions that excite and guide them.
Alessandro Tersigni: Congratulations on being promoted to director! Tell me a bit about your role at the firm.
Dan Eylon: I’m a planner at ERA, and I’ve just started in a new role as director. One of my interests as a practitioner is bridging the fields of planning and architecture — I’m excited to continue that as the bulk of my work. As director, I’ll also be focusing on strategic planning and business integration. That involves knitting together operational aspects of our enterprise, from executive leadership down through the teams, and disseminating those ideas across the firm in cooperation with all our departments. It’s an important kind of self-care that complements all the great outward-facing work we do for clients, thought leadership initiatives, and external communication by bringing that same level of detail and attention to our business.
AT: How did you first end up at ERA?
DE: Before joining the firm, I was working in the fine arts sector. I studied sculpture and installation at OCAD University and then worked for the multidisciplinary Canadian artist Max Dean. After conserving one of his artworks at the National Gallery of Canada, I became interested in art conservation and then conservation of built resources, which led to pursuing a master’s degree in urban planning at the University of Waterloo. Max introduced me to Michael McClelland, and I began working at ERA in 2015. My interest in materials and fabrication has remained constant in much of my work, be that as an instructor at OCAD, where I taught metal fabrication to Environmental Design students, or as a volunteer with Repair Café Toronto, an organization which repairs a wide variety of household items for communities across the city.
AT: How does the concept of heritage intersect with your work?
DE: Some approaches to defining heritage are reasonably binary, such as legislative and policy frameworks. But articulating what heritage is from a broader cultural perspective requires bringing together a lot of different voices. Many people are thinking carefully about what heritage has been, what it is now, and what it might be in future. In my work, I think about heritage less from a normative standpoint — the way things should be — and more from a constructivist standpoint — the way things are. Heritage is amorphous; in our field, it’s common to hear the phrase “everything has value.” That reminds me of Marcel Duchamp’s concept of readymade art, which was that all it takes for an object to become an artwork is for an artist to recognize it as art. He argued that anything can be art, but not everything should be art. Heritage exists in a similar cultural ecosystem. That ambiguity and the idea that there can be multiple perspectives on a single resource are important. I don’t know that we can work in absolutes.
AT: As a practitioner, where do you think this rapidly growing Toronto is headed?
Growth is natural for cities. I don’t look at Toronto as having had something precious that it lost with the onset of a development boom. From my perspective, transformations are intrinsic to the city and its identity. I see them as part of a progression. Toronto has a sensibility towards pedestrians that’s quite different from other cities around the world. Some people see it as hostile, while others may see it differently. I’m both hugely appreciative of and incredibly frustrated by aspects of the city, and I like it that way. Everything that’s happening is going to contribute to the character of this place — it’s just a question of how, which is not always easy to predict. I’m comfortable with that messiness.
Portrait photography by Mina Markovic
