Development & Urban Planning

“Building 16” at the Brick Works housed several massive kilns built in the 1960s for firing and drying bricks. The kilns were fascinating artifacts, but their sheer size — 600 linear metres occupying three-quarters of the building — made the space impossible to use. From 2010–2013, ERA was involved in dissecting the kilns to reveal...

For this project, sited on King near John St. in Toronto’s entertainment district, David Mirvish and Frank Gehry propose a three-building residential and mixed-use complex including OCAD University’s “Princess of Wales Centre for Visual Arts,” as well as a new public art gallery. The new gallery will make available for the first time David Mirvish’s...

Completed in 1864, the Old Don Jail was the last work of one of Canada’s most respected early architects, William Thomas, and the largest building project in Toronto’s history at the time. Like much of Thomas’s late work, the jail was conceived in the Renaissance Revival style popular during the mid-1800s which draws inspiration from...

Founded in 1889, the Don Valley Brick Works became one of the largest and most significant brick manufacturers in Canada, relying on locally extracted clay, shale, and sand. Many of Toronto’s landmark masonry buildings, such as Massey Hall, Old City Hall, Casa Loma, and the Royal Ontario Museum, were constructed with Don Valley’s award-winning bricks....

Clarence Square is one of the oldest remaining park spaces in the downtown core of Toronto. Established with a strong relationship to Wellington Street and complementary park space Victoria Square, it was originally designed as an important feature in an exclusive area of the city. The park became a largely neglected space when the rail...

The Artscape Wychwood Barns are located on the southwest corner of Wychwood and Benson Avenues, near St. Clair Avenue. The modular structure to house streetcars was built between 1913 and 1921 for the Toronto Civic Railway, a transportation system that played a significant role in the development of the newly annexed suburban areas in the...

Built in 1857 and designed by H.B. Sinclair, Cambridge City Hall is a fine example of Italianate public design and is an important heritage landmark. Over the years substantial changes have been made to the building, including a major renovation in 1965 by Peter Stokes and subsequent remodeling in 1990. ERA was appointed on two...

Union Station is recognized under the Railway Stations Protection Act as a nationally significant heritage building and is selected by the City of Toronto as a designated heritage property. ERA prepared a Heritage Master Plan for Union Station, which identified conservation issues, provided cost estimates for heritage work, and recommended a strategic plan for implementation....