Toronto is a concrete city. International landmarks, civic buildings, cultural institutions, metropolitan infrastructure and housing from high-rise to the single-family home: much of Toronto was born of an era of exposed concrete design. Underappreciated and misunderstood, Toronto’s concrete architecture represents an exciting era of cultural investment, city building, and design innovation.

Concrete Toronto reconsiders these buildings from the perspective of a diverse group of experts, including many of the original architects, local practitioners from some of Toronto’s leading design firms, city planners, university faculty and students, historians and journalists. Showcasing hundreds of new and archival photos, drawings, interviews, articles and case studies, Concrete Toronto is a striking record of Toronto’s concrete architectural heritage.

Praise for Concrete Toronto:

’Concrete Toronto is a bold celebration of the city’s best structures, part guide book, part historical document, replete with archive imagery and contemporary musing on subjects like Uno Prii’s sculptural tower blocks and Viljo Revell’s City Hall.’– Wallpaper*’

This fat little volume argues forcefully and effectively for a fresh appreciation of Toronto’s built heritage in concrete … a rich and useful gathering of knowledge about an architectural topic that’s long needed such thorough treatment.’– John Bentley Mays, Globe and Mail’

The editors succeed in their task of making the invisible visible, these concrete structures that are seen every single day in the city and which are taken completely for granted … [Concrete Toronto] engenders a discussion of the intent, knowledge and ambition of previous generations of architects, offering guidance and perspective to architects practicing today.’– Canadian Architect

One of the top ten books about Toronto – BlogTO