Studies & Strategies

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...

The University of Toronto’s King’s College Circle is an iconic ceremonial landscape, an important hub of student life, and a beloved public space. Part of the landscape plan produced by William Mundie and William Storm in conjunction with the designs for the landmark University College (1856-1859), King’s College Circle began as a picturesque landscape setting...

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...

Regent Park is the largest social housing neighbourhood built in Canada’s history, with a layered history of development through several eras. Since 2005, it has been undergoing extensive revitalization, moving towards a more mixed-use and mixed-income neighbourhood. To celebrate the neighbourhoods history, Toronto Community Housing Corporation commissioned ERA to design a commemoration strategy. The strategy’s...

Macdonald Block is a modernist government complex consisting of four office tower buildings connected by a two-storey podium that houses eleven ministries of the provincial government. These buildings are connected by an outdoor courtyard, designed in the 1960s by Sasaki, Strong and Associates, which is recognized as a significant cultural heritage landscape. The buildings dating...

Following a process of nearly two years of research, public consultation, policy development, and advocacy in partnership with ERA Architects, the Centre for Urban Growth and Renewal, United Way Toronto & York Region, Toronto Public Health and the City of Toronto, the Residential Apartment Commercial (RAC) zone was approved by  Toronto City Council by-law in 2013 and the Ontario...

  “Toronto is beginning to redefine itself through its concrete heritage – the fabric of our post-war growth – the architecture of our schools, universities, libraries and mass housing. Many are developing a cult following as a new type of landmark; and some are finding a second life through new investments and restorations. However, most...

The Downtown Built Heritage Inventory (DBHI) is a pilot project that proposes a new, Hamilton-specific methodology to understand, characterize, and map Hamilton’s downtown heritage resources. Inspired by emerging international best practices in heritage planning, this methodology aligns with the Ontario Heritage Act and Planning Act, but also utilizes other strategies for evaluating historic resources, such...

In April 2013, the Gladstone Hotel held the first annual Grow Op: Exploring landscape and place, an event curated by landscape architect Victoria Taylor, OALA. Representing the Friends of Allan Gardens, a team from ERA Architects contributed an installation called “Hoarding Suggestions.” The exhibit used materials from the City of Toronto Archives to raise visitors’...

Unlike many small Ontario towns, Picton maintains a compact townscape with discreet edges surrounded by countryside. Historically, settlement was centred around Picton Harbour, with waterways serving as a connection point to industry, agriculture, and transportation routes between Kingston and Toronto. While development has naturally been shaped by the local topography of hills, valleys, and shorelines,...

In 2009 the City of Kingston engaged a consultant team to undertake the Kingston Community Cultural Policy Plan as part of the recognition that culture and creativity are major drivers of the local economy. The aim of the study was to articulate a sustainable and long-term vision for cultural vitality in Kingston, and to identify...

Toronto has a huge stock of Georgian, Victorian, and other heritage homes. It is not uncommon for these fine structures to have had many of their original qualities removed or obscured by generations of renovations and repairs. This series of National Post articles by ERA’s Scott Weir explores a number of ideas surrounding heritage homes,...