Legacy Projects

Designed by Modernist architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the Toronto-Dominion Centre (TDC) is one of Canada’s most iconic sets of buildings. Originally conceived as a single-storey banking pavilion, Mies van der Rohe also designed two accompanying towers, setting the standard for the complex’s future growth. After Mies van der Rohe’s death in 1969, B+H...

The Case Goods and Cannery buildings are an integral component of Toronto’s Distillery District and reflect the industrial heritage and architectural character of the 19th-century distillery operations in the city. Now home to Collège Boréal, an educational and cultural hub for Ontario’s Francophone communities, the Case Goods Warehouse and 3rd floor of the Cannery were...

Centre Block, in its impressive setting on Parliament Hill, is perhaps Canada’s most recognized landmark. This iconic building houses the seat of government for the country, including the Senate of Canada and the House of Commons. The Centre Block Rehabilitation project is one of the largest and most complex heritage projects of its kind. The...

The former Royal Victoria Hospital (RVH), founded in 1893, was designed by the London architect Henry Saxon Snell in the Scottish neo-baronial style. Located on the slope of Mount Royal, it was intended to be a place of healing close to nature and far from the industrial city, in accordance with the theories of the...

Oshawa’s Parkwood Estate was erected in 1915 as the home of automotive industrialist Colonel Sam McLaughlin, who had a keen interest in horticulture. Designed by the leading establishment architecture firm Darling & Pearson, the estate included five greenhouses, with additional greenhouses added over time. The estate is now a National Historic Site. After the property...

Constructed in 1912 as Ottawa’s Union Station rail terminal, the Senate of Canada Building has undergone significant transformations over the last 100 years. Designed by Montreal architectural firm Ross and MacFarlane, the building is an excellent example of the Beaux-Arts railway station tradition popular in the early 20th century, bearing many similarities to New York’s...

For much of Toronto’s history, the University of Toronto’s St. George Campus has existed as a distinct area at the centre of the city. This institutional urban landscape encompasses the University, its federated universities and colleges, and Ontario’s seat of government, among other institutions. Its early establishment and patterns of land ownership have shaped the...

Gemini House is a prototype low-energy retrofit project housed on the University of Toronto campus, led by ERA Architects. The project explores new approaches to low-energy rehabilitation with the added complexity of being executed within an 1880s Second Empire-style masonry home. The project achieves a high-performance envelope and low intensity mechanical systems based on Passive...

This building, sited on the east bank of Toronto’s Don River, was constructed in 1885 for John F. Taylor, founder of the Don Valley Brick Works. The building was designed in the Queen Anne style by architect D.B. Dick, and is constructed from local brick on a stone base. Over many years of use, the...

In the 1840s, a row of buildings known as the Elgin Block was constructed along Yonge Street. The block’s tenants over the next century included tailors, tanners, and tobacconists. Holt Renfrew and Company extensively renovated one of the buildings and operated in this location from 1910 until the 1950s. While much of the Elgin Block...

Coliseum Complex is a 410,000 sq ft group of five buildings constructed in 1922 to showcase the Canadian National Exhibition’s Winter Fair. An example of restrained Beaux Arts style design, these buildings feature vast, symmetrical, masonry façades; extensive classical brick detailing; unusual sculptural ornamentation in stone; and hundreds of large, finely framed windows. Having worked...

ERA has been working with Trinity St. Paul’s on an ongoing basis as lead architect in heritage and restoration, and with one of the Church’s main tenants, Tafelmusik, to raise the standards of the venue and transform its acoustics. Trinity-St. Paul’s, designed by Edmund Burke and Henry Langley and completed in 1889, is a remarkable...