Multi-Unit Residential

Catalyzed by a talented group of local youth, the Ridgeway Community Courts transformed an under-utilized parking lot and sidewalk boulevard into a vibrant multi-sport court and community space for drop-in recreational programming. ERA led the collaborative design process, which worked closely with the community to bring this much-needed resource to the Ridgeway neighbourhood of northwest...

The Mathers and Haldenby-designed Imperial Plaza Building at 111 St. Clair Avenue West is a 21-storey Modernist building constructed in 1957 as the executive offices for the Imperial Oil Company with landscape design by Dunington-Grubb. When it opened, it had a 20th floor observation level that was the highest point in Toronto. The property is...

Honest Ed’s and Mirvish Village have been fixtures of Toronto’s Bloor and Bathurst neighbourhood for more than 60 years. The famed discount retailer, and public realm created by Markham Street’s adaptive reuse as a cultural and commercial enclave in the 1960s, evolved through the influence of the Mirvish Family and neighbourhood communities, including the Afro-Caribbean...

The 1969 high rise apartment at 100 Spadina Road contributes to a body of distinctive modernist work by Estonian-born Canadian architect Uno Prii. Intrigued by the dynamic formal possibilities of reinforced concrete, Prii used his dual engineering and architectural training to create graceful, curvalinear forms that maximized their structural potential. Similar to a number of...

Toronto’s King Edward Hotel (“The King Eddy”) opened in May 1903 as the city’s first “palace hotel” to rival hotels in New York and London and boasted “absolutely fireproof” construction. Two notable architects, American Henry Ives Cobb and Toronto’s E.J. Lennox, were responsible for the design of the original 8-storey hotel building, which features a...

The Hermant Building at 19 Dundas Square, designed by Bond & Smith Architects in 1913, is an early and excellent surviving example of terracotta cladding in Toronto. When it was completed, this ten-storey building was the tallest in the city, and a significant landmark. The Hermant Building originally housed the headquarters of Imperial Optical which...

The Hermant Building at 21 Dundas Square was designed by Benjamin Brown in 1929. Benjamin Brown is historically significant as the first practicing Jewish architect in Toronto. The 15-storey art-deco-inspired building is a significant landmark at Dundas Square. As part of a 40-storey mixed-use redevelopment designed by Diamond Schmidt, ERA has been working as heritage...

ERA worked from 2011–2017 with Kensington Market Lofts (KML) on a long-term upgrade of the building’s terracotta brick exterior. The project involved masonry restoration, terracotta rehabilitation, and various strategies to rejuvenate the façade along Baldwin St and create an overcladding strategy on the east façade in the form of a large-scale art piece, now a...

Designed for the Canadian Bank of Commerce in 1905 by architects Darling & Pearson, 197 Yonge Street housed the bank’s Queen and Yonge branch. A fine example of the firm’s remarkable output of Classical Edwardian bank branch designs, it is today designated under Ontario Heritage Act. The landmark building is the historic focus of the...

7 St Thomas integrates a sleek, undulating fritted-glass mid-rise office building designed by Hariri-Pontarini Architects with a block of heritage townhomes. The site inhabits a transitional zone between the retail and corporate fabric of Bloor-Yorkville and the quiet, leafy collegiate campus to the south. ERA was responsible for full Heritage Consultation services, from heritage planning...

Located at 266 King Street West in the heart of Toronto’s Entertainment District, Forma is a transformative two-tower residential and mixed-use development designed by world-renowned architect Frank Gehry. Developed by Great Gulf, Dream Unlimited, and Westdale Properties, this ambitious project marks Gehry’s tallest residential creation globally and his first high-rise in his hometown of Toronto. The...

Numbers 26–34 Lombard St., which date to the 1890s, are fine examples of the Romanesque Revival style popular in France and North America in the late 19th century. The structures are soundly constructed with red and buff brick loadbearing masonry perimeter walls, heavy timber and steel interior structure, and many large window openings to maximize...