Stories
2021: Honours & Awards at ERA
by ERA Architects , December 8, 2021
As the days get colder and we head into the final days of 2021, ERA is looking back at the recognition and awards we’ve received this year for some very deserving projects, alongside some fantastic teams who are looking forward and building our cities and communities into tomorrow. The highlights from 2021 cover a range...
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The Missing Middle: Toronto’s Historic Building Typologies
by ERA Architects , November 30, 2021
Last week, Toronto City Planning brought forward to Council’s Planning and Housing Committee an interim report, Expanding Housing Options in Neighbourhoods: Multiplex Study. The initiative behind the report is exploring the potential to permit a range of low-scale housing types in Toronto’s low-rise neighbourhoods, as a key part of the solution to the city’s years-long...
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ERA leads the conversation of digital transformation at the Beijing Urban and Architecture Biennale
by ERA Architects , November 25, 2021
Building Information Modeling or Building Information Management (BIM) is the foundation of digital transformation in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction industry (AEC). It is a highly collaborative process that allows architects, engineers, developers, contractors, manufacturers, and other construction professionals to plan, design, and construct a structure or building within one single 3D model. It can...
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ERA’s Graeme Stewart and Ya’el Santopinto named to the RAIC’s College of Fellows
by ERA Architects , May 11, 2021
ERA is thrilled to announce that Graeme Stewart and Ya’el Santopinto have been named to the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC)’s College of Fellows. This well-deserved honour is in recognition of outstanding achievement in architecture, and distinguished service to the profession and community. From the RAIC’s citations: Graeme’s career to date has largely focused...
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Dave LeBlanc for The Globe and Mail: The tower that once topped Toronto shines again
by ERA Architects , May 6, 2021
Once the tallest building in the British empire, the Royal Bank building at 8 King Street East is a product of the skyscraper phenomenon that arrived in Toronto at the turn-of-the century. More than 100 years after its construction, the building has been renewed. ERA is wrapping up work on this project, which required the...
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Championing resiliency this Earth Day
by ERA Architects , April 22, 2021
As we celebrate Earth Day, ERA is reflecting on the shift needed to meet Canada’s 2050 net-zero emissions targets. Our built environment plays an important role in creating a more sustainable future and ERA is committed to being a leader that champions climate solutions through our work. Here’s how: Adaptive reuse of changing infrastructures: High-impact...
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Gordonridge Community Multi-Sport Court wins national landscape architecture award
by ERA Architects , April 8, 2021
ERA is thrilled to announce the Gordonridge Community Multi-Sport Court has won a Canadian Society of Landscape Architects (CSLA) National Award of Excellence in the Residential Landscapes category. This unique community-led project is located at the heart of the Gordonridge Toronto Community Housing campus in Scarborough. The new court brings residents of all ages and...
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Revitalizing waterfront sites: Exploring the potential of Ontario Place
by ERA Architects , March 19, 2021
Our iconic sites have a shared value, with a conceived opinion in the public realm. As residents, we understand and view these buildings with a collective lens made up of our past experiences formed individually and as a city. While some buildings easily come to mind, take Toronto’s Old City Hall or the ROM as...
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Celebrating community-led design with Gordonridge
by ERA Architects , January 29, 2021
Working closely with communities to create place-based, local designs is integral to ERA’s approach. In September, we celebrated the completion of Gordonridge’s new multi-sport court. This project was a collaborative effort through-and-through, with our partners at MLSE Foundation and Canadian Tire Jumpstart Charities, our client at Toronto Community Housing, and its users, the community at...
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Conservation of Paradise Theatre wins national and provincial awards
by ERA Architects , November 4, 2020
Thanks to its careful conservation, and inclusive and accessible programming, Paradise is once again a space for the community to gather and celebrate. We’re thrilled to see this building reinstated as an important focal point for the local neighbourhood and are pleased to say the conservation community feels the same! Paradise Theatre has recently won...
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Historic farmsteads drive a new rural cultural economy
by ERA Architects , October 28, 2020
Ontario’s smaller municipalities are facing a transformation. Many are making the transition from resource-based to diverse, creative economies, fuelled by population growth and an increase in local tourism in Ontario. As these municipalities look to prepare for growth, many farmstead owners are left with swaths of land ripe for adaptive reuse to add to the...
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ERA and Heritage Conservation in Hong Kong
by ERA Architects , August 19, 2020
Conservation is a worldwide industry, one rooted in collaboration and shared learning. It’s vital we continue to share our expertise with one another, learning new innovations, techniques and approaches. ERA is thrilled to continue to be involved in these important conversations. The newly released Heritage Conservation in Hong Kong: A Technical Guidebook was developed...
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Pandemic effect: ERA Architects for Canadian Architect magazine
by ERA Architects , August 7, 2020
As part of Canadian Architect’s Pandemic Effect series, ERA Architects’ Ya’el Santopinto and Graeme Stewart wrote about how the current pandemic is shining a light on the importance of prioritizing the retrofitting of existing mid-century towers. “Canada’s affordable apartment towers are the backbone of its purpose-built rental housing system, representing more than half of all...
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Remnants of Mid-Century Toronto
by ERA Architects , July 17, 2020
Spacing’s new book celebrates Toronto’s mid-century architecture, from landmark buildings like City Hall to unique elements of the time, such as the zig-zag roofs that can be spotted atop many of the city’s churches. Edited by Spacing’s creative director Matthew Blackett and with photography by Vik Pahwa, much of the writing in the book...
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Passive House: A new way of working with existing buildings
by ERA Architects , July 3, 2020
Cities are at the forefront of climate change. In the fight for a low-carbon future, a new wave of building standards is changing how we think about energy-efficiency and environmentally friendly design. One of the top standards is Passive House. According to Passive House Canada, Passive House is regarded as the “most rigorous voluntary energy-based...
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ERA talks retrofitting towers (virtually)
by ERA Architects , June 30, 2020
Over the past few weeks, Graeme Stewart and Ya’el Santopinto have had the opportunity to participate in webinars to share more about ERA’s tower renewal projects. A large focus of these talks have been about our learnings surrounding the retrofitting of the Ken Soble Tower in Hamilton, which is slated to be one of the...
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Celebrating ERA’s 30th anniversary
by ERA Architects , May 1, 2020
On May 1st, ERA is marking 30 years of heritage conservation, community building, and catalyzing change both in urban and rural settings. While we may not be able to celebrate together physically this year, we thought we’d take a virtual walk down memory lane to mark some of the themes behind our projects that have...
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To our clients and colleagues during the COVID-19 pandemic
by ERA Architects , March 18, 2020
Dear Clients and Colleagues, Arising from the continued spread of COVID-19, the World Health Organization’s ‘global pandemic’ declaration, the State of Emergency called for the Province of Ontario and health emergency declaration by the Province of Québec, ERA Architects Inc has been working to adapt our work practices in order to help ‘flatten the curve’...
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Senate of Canada Building receives international recognition with 2020 Civic Trust Award
by ERA Architects , March 10, 2020
The Senate of Canada Building has been awarded a 2020 Civic Trust Award, the longest-running international awards program recognizing outstanding architecture, planning and design in the built environment. The award was given to Public Services and Procurement Canada, Diamond Schmitt Architects and KWC Architects on Friday, March 6 in Manchester. The Senate of Canada Building...
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Affordability and resiliency: Renewing Toronto’s towers
by ERA Architects , February 26, 2020
Photo courtesy Jesse Colin Jackson Over time, Canada’s aging mid-century towers have become the backbone of the country’s affordable rental supply, home to hundreds of thousands of low and middle-income households across the country. There are 2,000 postwar apartment towers located throughout Ontario’s Greater Golden Horseshoe Region alone, representing nearly half of the region’s...
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Alexis Cohen presents at the College Art Association (CAA)
by ERA Architects , February 18, 2020
Alexis Cohen presented at CAA’s 108th Annual Conference, held in Chicago February 12-15, 2020 as part of a panel exploring zoning in the histories of modern art and architecture. The panel was hosted by Christopher M. Ketcham and Deepa Ramaswamy. The CAA is the preeminent international leadership organization in the visual arts, and promotes these...
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Celebrating Laskay through Memory’s Gate
by ERA Architects , January 7, 2020
Public art has the ability to represent and celebrate the identity of a place. As an architecture firm specializing in built heritage and cultural values, we are increasingly interested in how art and other placemaking interventions can not only represent unique histories but do so in a way that transforms underused spaces into thriving places...
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The Ward Cabaret: The sound of Toronto’s first cross-cultural community
by ERA Architects , December 3, 2019
Cultural heritage is influenced and shaped by communities and their histories. In Toronto, this means much of the city’s cultural heritage is impacted by the multitudes of different communities that call it home. One theatrical production is giving this cultural heritage a sound. The Ward Cabaret is back in Toronto after a sold-out run at...
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Ontario Place and the value of cultural heritage sites
by ERA Architects , October 31, 2019
Opened in 1971, Ontario Place was created to be a hub for Torontonians to experience the waterfront and take part in entertainment activities, from the open-air amphitheatre and the Cinesphere, the world’s first permanent IMAX theatre, to the Children’s Village play area and exhibit space. Ontario Place was the embodiment of the province’s economic and...
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Building for the community, with the community
by ERA Architects , October 16, 2019
As an architecture firm with values rooted in how we collectively shape and build better cities and their spaces, it’s important to us to engage deeply with the community on our projects. While much of our work starts with assessments of existing buildings, observing their condition and advising site owners on how best to proceed...
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