Arts & Culture

plazaPOPS is a non-profit organization that facilitates the transformation of parking lots and other under-invested spaces through temporary “pop-up” installations. Designed as free, safe, and accessible gathering places, these pop-up experiences build on and complement the vibrant cultures, communities, and businesses in the surrounding neighbourhood. Largely working along suburban main streets, plazaPOPS partners with local...

Opened in 1984 in Agincourt, Scarborough, Dragon Centre was North America’s first indoor Chinese mall. Its developers – brothers Daniel and Henry Hung, originally from Hong Kong – adapted an old roller-skating rink into a mall serving the Greater Toronto Area’s growing Chinese-Canadian population. Combining Hong Kong’s dense commercial markets and the big box North...

Grange Park, a two-hectare public open space south of the Art Gallery of Ontario, is a rare surviving example of an early 19th century former residential estate. Although the grounds have evolved considerably, the terraced, axial and irregular elliptical layout in the Picturesque-Gardenesque style retains a high level of integrity. Today the park serves as...

Situated in the heart of the nation’s capital on Confederation Square, Ottawa’s National Arts Centre (NAC) displays a robust Brutalist geometric form, evoking the image of a fortress for the arts. Built between 1964 and 1969 as one of the federal government’s centennial projects, the NAC was designed by Fred Lebensold of the Montreal-based architecture...

  “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...

Flag Field is a public work by artist Josh Thorpe, located at Maple Claire Park in Toronto. Flag Field consists of fourteen custom flags on flagpoles ranging from 25 to 50 feet high. Thorpe designed the flags as simple drawings of cats and dogs, stripes and polka dots etc. — images associated loosely with the...

A landmark in Toronto’s industrial Junction Triangle neighbourhood, the Tower Automotive Building was designed by architect John W. Woodman in collaboration with C.A.P Turner. Completed in 1920, the Sterling Road building is an early example of flat slab construction in Toronto, with ‘mushroom’ columns, whose distinct appearance are integral to both the design of the...

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’...

The oldest remaining brick house in Toronto, the Grange is a fine example of Georgian architecture, with bricks likely made onsite from local clay. It features a stone portico; a low-hipped roof with a central circular light; double-hung windows with brick lintels and louvered wooden shutters; and a front entrance with moulded reveal, semi-circular fanlight,...

The Heritage Theatre, formally the Capital Theatre, has a long history within the city of Brampton. Built in 1923 to feature silent movies and then transformed into a performance theatre, it has a long legacy in being host to up-and-coming stars. The construction of the new Performing Arts Centre nearby marked the development of Brampton’s...

The Sony Centre (known as Meridian Hall since 2019) is a modernist concert hall built in 1959-60 and designed by Toronto architect Earle C. Morgan and Peter Dickinson of Page + Steele Architects. The property is designated under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act by the City of Toronto. ERA was engaged to provide...

The Canadian Film Centre is located on a 1930’s neo-Georgian estate of one of Canada’s leading businessmen, the late E.P. Taylor. The estate comprises many buildings including a gatehouse, stables and gardener’s cottage set in a formalized landscape. The cultural significance of the site and associated buildings relates to the continued progression of the Canadian...