ERA Initiatives

Michael McClelland talks taste, class, and conservation in Azure Magazine

by Alessandro Tersigni

Azure Magazine‘s Stefan Novakovic recently interviewed ERA principal Michael McClelland about the relationships between taste, social class, and conservation and how they determine the ways we see and live in cities. As our understanding of heritage continues to evolve and broaden to include more diverse forms of value, this historical and practical look at the...

News & Events

The Signs That Define Toronto: A new book from ERA and Spacing

by Kurt Kraler

We are happy to announce the release of The Signs That Define Toronto. Published and produced with Spacing, ERA partner Philip Evans and architect Kurt Kraler team up with Spacing’s Matthew Blackett and 20 contributors to reveal the history, culture, and stories of the city through its unique signage. The book is packed full of...

Publications & Exhibits

Announcing the Frank Darling Book Project

by David Winterton, senior associate

Disponible en français ci-dessous. Over the past six years I’ve been researching and occasionally lecturing at SSAC conferences on Canadian architect Frank Darling (1850–1923) and his ultimate firm, Darling & Pearson. A clear narrative has evolved that outlines his leadership in developing an official “Edwardian” architecture in Toronto and beyond, the firm’s tremendous output of...

Ideas & Issues

Diving Into the ERA Library—Part 1

by ERA Architects

Having access to unique and highly specific books about neighbourhoods, cities, and architecture is a vital aspect of the culture of ERA. Periodically, we will pull books off the shelves of ERA’s library to reveal some of the charming and forgotten publications that shed light on local history. Truth & Reconciliation: Calls to Action ...

News & Events

Three New Principals and Expanding Leadership at ERA

by ERA Architects

ERA Architects is proud to announce our firm’s three new principals and the latest staff promotions and hirings. ERA is committed to connecting heritage to wider considerations of urban design and city building, while providing our staff with opportunities to grow their professional careers. PRINCIPALS We’re proud to announce Victoria Angel (Ottawa), Jan Kubanek (Montreal),...

News & Events

ERA leads the conversation of digital transformation at the Beijing Urban and Architecture Biennale

by ERA Architects

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...

ERA’s Graeme Stewart and Ya’el Santopinto named to the RAIC’s College of Fellows

by ERA Architects

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...

A drone photograph of the Ken Soble Tower with Hamilton harbour in the background

Championing resiliency this Earth Day

by ERA Architects

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...

Project Updates

Celebrating community-led design with Gordonridge

by ERA Architects

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...

A rendering of the exterior and entrance of Ken Soble Tower.

Pandemic effect: ERA Architects for Canadian Architect magazine

by ERA Architects

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...

Passive House: A new way of working with existing buildings

by ERA Architects

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...

A screenshot taken ahead of a webinar, showing the panelists

ERA talks retrofitting towers (virtually)

by ERA Architects

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...

Celebrating ERA’s 30th anniversary

by ERA Architects

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...

Affordability and resiliency: Renewing Toronto’s towers

by ERA Architects

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...

The Ward Cabaret: The sound of Toronto’s first cross-cultural community

by ERA Architects

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...

Building for the community, with the community

by ERA Architects

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...

Tower Renewal Solutions on CBC Radio

by ERA Architects

As aging apartment buildings begin to contribute to the housing crisis, (exposed this week in the infrastructure failure at 260 Wellesley, Toronto) the clear response is system-scale reinvestment — and it’s underway right now across Canada. Of particular note, the Ken Soble Tower Project is one of the most significant and precedent-setting tower retrofit projects...

Immigration and Daily Life in the Ward

by ERA Architects

We are very excited to announce the latest installation of the ‘Armoury Street Dig’ series of exhibits at Toronto City Hall. Commemorating and interpreting the histories of St John’s Ward, one of Toronto’s first points of settlement for many newcomers throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the exhibit “Immigration and Daily Life in the Ward: Addresses...

ERA at Passive House Canada Conference

by ERA Architects

Last week, ERA’s Graeme Stewart and Ya’el Santopinto joined City Housing Hamilton CEO Tom Hunter to present on the Ken Soble Tower Transformation at Passive House Canada’s National Conference in Vancouver. The Ken Soble Tower Transformation project kicks off a groundbreaking program by CityHousing Hamilton to use the ultra-low energy Passive House standard for the...

Our Growing Leadership Team

by ERA Architects

As ERA continues to grow and evolve, the Executives and Associates are very pleased to welcome Sydney Martin to the leadership team as our newest Associate. Sydney has been with ERA for nearly a decade as a heritage conservation specialist whose expertise in architectural history, historic construction techniques and materials, and material repair has been...

From Past to Page: Uncovering the Ward

by ERA Architects

In 2015, ‘The Ward—The Life and Loss of Toronto’s First Immigrant Neighbourhood’ was published, documenting the area within Toronto known as St. John’s Ward (or simply “the Ward”), home to thousands of immigrants between the mid-1800s and the mid-1900s. With little of the neighbourhood’s physical fabric remaining, The Ward had largely faded from public consciousness,...

ERA Has Moved to 625 Church Street

by ERA Architects

For two decades, we have called 10 St Mary Street our home, an eight storey modernist office building (1957) designed by the architects Mathers and Haldenby, whose offices were located on the 8th floor of the building. It seems fitting today as we say goodbye and start a new chapter in ERA’s story, that we’d...

an image of leather shoes recovered from the Armoury Street excavation is superimposed on top of a Goad's Insurance Map, detailing the site area and context of Centre Avenue and Armoury Street in historic St John's Ward.

Archaeology in The Ward: A New Exhibit

by ERA Architects

Just a few steps northwest of Toronto’s city hall is a quiet, empty plot of land and a former parking lot that will soon be the home of the new Toronto courthouse. But long before this site was just a place to park, it was a bustling part of St John’s Ward (The Ward), an...

Congratulations to Ya’el Santopinto, our new Associate

by ERA Architects

As ERA continues to grow and evolve, the Executives and Associates are very pleased to appoint Ya’el Santopinto to our leadership team. Ya’el has demonstrated commitment to our core values of city building, rehabilitation of heritage buildings, and democratic community design, and has used these values to help the firm expand into new areas. Ya’el is...

Tower Renewal Action Forum

by ERA Architects

Canada faces a growing housing affordability crisis. Now is the time for coordinated action to build a future around more complete, resilient, and affordable cities – and Tower Renewal is a strategy for realizing this change. Postwar apartment towers are the backbone of Canada’s purpose-built rental stock, and provide affordable housing to millions of Canadians. On October...