For our annual Toronto the Good Party, we are supporting the 2016 Launch of Jane’s Walk! Continue reading…
Cities Alive Podcast – Zoning Out! Pt. 1
How do zoning laws contribute to – or prevent – the creation of complete communities? The Cities Alive podcast episode, Zoning Out! Part 1 addresses issues surrounding this question. Continue reading…
6th Canadian German Conference on Energy Efficient Retrofits in Buildings
In an effort to bring emerging green technologies and practices into Ontario, the Canadian German Chamber of Industry and Commerce Inc. held its 6th Canadian German Conference on Energy Efficient Retrofits in Buildings. Continue reading…
Harvest Festival in Thorncliffe Park
On Saturday, September 26th, the Third Not-So-Annual Harvest Festival took place in Thorncliffe Park. Hosted by not-for-profit Diasporic Genius (DG), the festival featured a pop-up Women’s Cultural Café, an initiative of the Thorncliffe Action Group (TAG). Diasporic Genius, TAG, and ERA Architects collaborated to design, build, and run this dynamic pop-up café. Continue reading…
Master Shipbuilders: Book Launch and Signing!
Calvin D. Evans’ Master Shipbuilders of Newfoundland and Labrador: Volume Two, Notre Dame Bay to Petty Harbour magnificently captures the rich maritime history spanning the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Workshopping Ideas for the Upcoming Bell Island Build
Culture of Outports (CoO) uses research, design, and planning to help support liveable communities undergoing economic and cultural change after the closure of Newfoundland’s Cod Fishery.
EU Research for Tower Renewal
As part of ongoing research related to the Tower Renewal project, ERA’s Graeme Stewart and Michael McClelland, with project partners Evergreen Cityworks and planningAlliance, recently toured the Netherlands and Germany. Continue reading…
Metropolis: Tower Renewal Key to Toronto’s Liveability
This month’s issue of Metropolis Magazine ranks Toronto #1 globally for liveability; it is in good company with Tokyo and Helsinki, numbers two and three respectively.
ERA Steps Back in Time
As architects (and appreciators of all things historic) an office discussion regarding family heirlooms of tools, appliances, and other cool items (that predate most of our staff) has resulted in this great photo collection of household artifacts.
Brendan Stewart has a block and tackle handed down from his great grandfather..
…and a rocking chair that came from his great great grandparents that dates back at least 150 years.
Sydney Martin’s very old microwave. She even has a cookbook complete with a microwaved rack of lamb recipe.
![draftingkit[1] tatum](https://www.eraarch.ca/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/draftingkit1-tatum.png)
Tatum Taylor’s grandfather’s set of architectural drafting tools.
Philip Evans has this bright red and yellow 1961 lawn mower.
Lindsay Reid has a set of tools in her workshop from her grandfather…
.. and a really cool foot measuring tool.
Scott Weir’s wooden boatbuilding tools, belonging to family member James Weir of Glasgow.
A 17th- 18th century Norwegian mangle board used to flatten linen is a family heirloom of Victoria Angel.
And the greatest of all, Edwin Rowse’s 95 year old toaster, equipped with a slice of fresh toast to prove it still works.
Congratulations to our new Associates and Principal
In recognition of their professional achievements, ERA Architects is excited to announce the appointment of five of our staff to the position of Associate.
ERA Heads to the Yukon!
From the Gold Rush to present-day film festivals, from traditional First Nation livelihoods to contemporary eco-tourism, the architecture and natural landscape of the Yukon has a plethora of stories to share. Continue reading…
TCLF Presents, Second Wave of Modernism III: Leading with Landscape Conference
As part of The Cultural Landscape Foundation’s conference series, Second Wave of Modernism III: Leading with Landscape will take place this May. Continue reading…
Toronto the Good Celebrates the City’s Parks & Trees
Toronto the Good is a party thrown each year by ERA Architects (and friends) to celebrate Toronto and contemplate its history and evolution with fellow architects, designers, thinkers, and urban-minded people. Continue reading…
Inspiring City Builders of Tomorrow: ERA & Jane’s Walk
This spring ERA helped Jane’s Walk with the School Edition Program, a five-week curriculum designed to create student-led walking tours in two schools’ neighbourhoods. The program helps kids to get engaged in thinking about – and interacting with – their built environment in new and exciting ways.
Scott Weir presents at Society of Architectural Historians
Last week ERA’s Scott Weir presented at the 68th Annual Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) Conference in Chicago held from April 15-19.
The SAH conference brings together innovative thinkers from around the world to examine major currents in architecture and urban design with a mission statement “to foster the understanding and appreciation of architectural history among both professional scholars and laymen.”
The community that could: The Storefront shares its story
Recently the East Scarborough Storefront published a report documenting a number of aspects of their path to neighbourhood renewal. Since the Storefront’s approach has proven so successful, this report is very valuable for other communities interested in making some positive changes to the neighbourhood. Continue reading…
Powers of Towers: New video starring Graeme Stewart and Sabina Ali
ERA’s Graeme Stewart and Sabina Ali of the Thorncliffe Park Women’s Committee are featured in a terrific new video by Spacing. The video, which also includes interviews with ERA’s Michael McClelland, is entitled “Powers of Towers,” and profiles the efforts of Graeme and Sabina to transform Toronto’s aging suburban high-rise neighbourhoods into livable communities that work. Graeme and Sabina were jointly awarded the 2014 Jane Jacobs Prize, also presented by Spacing magazine. Continue reading…
Newfoundland field research (by guest blogger Kathryn Douthart)
For the past five years, ERA’s Culture of Outports team has been working with rural communities along Newfoundland’s coast to foster liveable communities through research, design, and planning. In the summer of 2014, Culture of Outports worked with Mitacs, a not-for-profit organization that builds working relationships between academia and industry by placing research interns with organizations in need of research expertise. Culture of Outports’ Mitacs internship focused on communities in Newfoundland’s Baie Verte Peninsula. Continue reading…
Arrival City: Bookclub and Webinar, Mar 13
ERA’s Graeme Stewart is pleased to be participating in a webinar presented by Cities of Migration and Centre for City Ecology as part of their Citybuilders Bookclub. Continue reading…
After Empirical Urbanism
ERA’s Graeme Stewart is participating in the weekend symposium “After Empirical Urbanism” at U of T, Friday Feb. 27 to Sunday Mar. 1. Continue reading…
Tower Renewal crash course, update on “Showcase”
Recently ERA’s Graeme Stewart and Evergreen Cityworks‘ John Brodhead presented a webinar on Tower Renewal in partnership with the Social Innovation Generation and Cities for People. Continue reading…
PechaKucha of the day
Recently PechaKucha selected a Graeme Stewart talk as a “Presentation of the Day.” We thought, What better reason to repost the presentation? It’s a great crash course in Tower Renewal, an interdisciplinary program that is reshaping how we think about Toronto’s post-war residential apartment tower neighbourhoods.
This 7-minute talk covers half a century of Toronto’s history, right up to some of the exciting new initiatives taking place in and around the city.
PechaKucha is a simple presentation genre where presenters speak about 20 images for 20 seconds each. The method was devised by Tokyo-based architects Klein-Dytham as a way to facilitate dialog and idea generation between architects, designers, and other creative thinkers.
To see other presentations, please visit pechakucha.org.
For more on Tower Renewal, visit towerrenewal.com
Allan Gardens Harvest Festival
Photos: Lisa Kates
On September 28, the Friends of Allan Gardens (FOAG) hosted its first Urban Harvest Festival in one of Toronto’s most historic parks. Three hundred people joined us to celebrate autumn amid the colouring trees and early-20th century greenhouses of Allan Gardens. Continue reading…
Emmy to Short History of the Highrise
The NFB project A Short History of the Highrise recently won the “News and Documentary” category of the Emmy Awards. ERA and the Centre for Urban Growth and Renewal (CUG+R) had the pleasure of working with director Kat Cizek on this project, which examines the current conditions and future potential of post-war high-rise living around the world.
Continue reading…
Toronto the Good: Great!
Toronto the Good 2014, our tenth annual public party, was a big success. We had attendance exceeding 1000 people, and, according to accounts, a good time was had by all. Beer and wine flowed, music spun, people danced, and a great deal of urban-minded mingling occurred. Continue reading…