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ERA Architects

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The Future of the Glass Tower?

by admin

...York and more than seven times the number in Shanghai. Given the prominence of this building form and the relevance to our city, this talk will explore the future of the glass tower in Toronto. Graeme’s presentation will review two Toronto tower booms, first the concrete slab apartment tower boom of our post-war years, and second the boom of glass...

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On Scarpa’s Castelvecchio

by ERA Architects

...adaptations, the most recent in the 1960s by Carlo Scarpa. The result is an incredibly complex and subtle approach to heritage conservation and adaptive reuse. Scarpa’s material and formal choices blur the line between heritage and modern fabric, sometimes bringing the new into direct, intimate contact with the old, other times letting the two slip by one another like passing...

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Government Conference Centre: Progress on Heritage Interiors

by ERA Architects

The heritage interiors and finishes are coming to life at the Government Conference Centre (GCC) in Ottawa. Since the new year, the scaffolding has come down in the General Waiting Room (GWR, as shown here), revealing the rehabilitated suspended ceiling in its entirety and the recently painted imitation travertine wall finishes. The GWR is an elaborate and significant interior space,...

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125th Anniversary of the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design at U of T

by ERA Architects

...until mid-September. May 30, 11:00am – 5:00pm – Dialogues with a panel discussion including ERA’s Michael McClelland and moderator Graeme Stewart. Location: Architecture Building, 230 College St. May 30, 6:30pm – 9:00pm – Alumni Reception. Location: Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen’s Park. *Note: RSVP via eventbrite is required. Click here to view more information. Below is a video featuring Dialogues....

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Toronto / Sweden: Resilient Urbanism

by ERA Architects

Over the past several years we’ve had the pleasure of an ongoing exchange with colleagues in Sweden regarding urban design. This has included a series of research tours, participation in the neighbourhood design project Selma in Göteborg, and various events in collaboration with the Swedish consulate here in Toronto. The aim of the exchange is to tackle the challenge of...

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Toronto to Detroit

by ERA Architects

...revitalization at several scales, from community gardens to large-scale economic reinvestment. Organizations such as the Detroit Creative Corridor Center (DC3) and the Detroit Economic Growth Commission are rethinking the city step by step. The result is a burgeoning arts community, an increasing number of interesting adaptive reuse projects in formerly abandoned buildings, and important improvements to infrastructure and the public...

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Concrete Ideas

by admin

The book Concrete Ideas: Material to Shape a City was launched in January, 2012. Edited by Pina Petricone, the book considers new approaches to concrete architecture by exploring a variety of new technologies and possibilities for the material. First introduced by Pina’s article in Concrete Toronto, the book is a compilation of ideas, articles and interviews assembled over the past...

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Publications & Exhibits

Announcing the Frank Darling Book Project

by David Winterton, senior associate

...FDBP is well underway and we welcome your involvement, whether by offering advice on research vectors, sharing photos, reminiscences, drawings—anything that adds insights to the evolving narrative. This is a long-overdue project about an incredibly important Canadian architect, so we’re striving for excellence through collaboration. You can get in touch about ERA’s Frank Darling Book Project at [email protected] Header image:...

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East Scarborough Storefront

by ERA Architects

...A recent article in the Summer 2011 issue of Sustainable Builder Magazine showcasing this ongoing work can be found here, or downloaded in PDF format here. Scarborough Storefront Visualization – Image courtesy Sustainable.TO The Storefront itself is undergoing a renovation and expansion, designed by Sustainable.TO. To complement this, ERA is working with local residents to explore the potential of integrating...

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Newfoundland field research (by guest blogger Kathryn Douthart)

by ERA Architects

...and community. This research leads to Cultural Background Reports and Community Cultural Economic Plans, which include an outline of the community’s historic evolution, maps illustrating shifting built landscape and culture touch points, context plans, and an inventory of tangible and intangible cultural heritage resources, including buildings, structures, cultural landscape features, and changes in industry and infrastructure. The reports also identify...

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PEC Picnic for ERA’s 20th Anniversary

by ERA Architects

ERA celebrated twenty years in operation with a picnic at our new office in Picton. The Toronto branch (and their respective significant others and extended families) made the journey east for a fine day in the county, which included tours of historic properties, a huge barbeque, and a sampling of delicious local wines. Here’s to the next twenty!...

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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 high-rise buildings that serve as...

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