Ideas & Issues

The community that could: The Storefront shares its story

by ERA Architects

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. Since the late 1990s, the East Scarborough Storefront has been facilitating...

Powers of Towers: New video starring Graeme Stewart and Sabina Ali

by ERA Architects

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...

Iron man: Meet Joe Orsi

by ERA Architects

As part of our regular series of professional development sessions in the ERA office, we recently hosted a presentation by building conservation and wrought iron expert, Joe Orsi of Orsi Contini Consultants. Joe completed his blacksmith apprenticeship in the early 1970s, applying his knowledge to a range of heritage projects from there on, and eventually...

Arrival City: Bookclub and Webinar, Mar 13

by ERA Architects

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. The Bookclub is global in reach, aiming to foster a deeper understanding of how cities work, and brings together a diverse group of thinkers and writers from around...

After Empirical Urbanism

by ERA Architects

ERA’s Graeme Stewart is participating in the weekend symposium “After Empirical Urbanism” at U of T, Friday Feb. 27 to Sunday Mar. 1. The three-day symposium is organized by faculty members of the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design, including Dean Richard Sommer, Michael Piper, Ultan Byrne, Roberto Damiani, and Mauricio Quiros....

The Ward: A new book, coming 2015

by ERA Architects

ERA is excited to announce a new book all about Toronto’s St. John’s Ward. The Ward: The Life and Loss of Toronto’s First Immigrant Neighbourhood is a collaboration with Coach House Books, John Lorinc, Ellen Scheinberg, and approximately 50 local writers. St John’s Ward, bordered by Yonge to the east, University to the west, Queen...

Innovation and the public realm

by ERA Architects

In a time of increasing growth and reduced public spending in cities, how can we maximize the public realm as a shared interest? To explore this problem, ERA Architects joined forces with MITACS, a Canadian non-profit organization that supports research partnerships between academia and industry, and Jeff Biggar, a PhD student of urban planning at...

Public space: Two from our library

by ERA Architects

At ERA we often gather on a Wednesday morning or a Friday afternoon to share progress on recent projects, issues affecting our cities, or to look at both historical and contemporary research in architecture, landscape, planning, design, technique, process, theory, etc. Recently these titles came up for discussion: How to Study Public Life by Jan...

Tower Renewal crash course, update on “Showcase”

by ERA Architects

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. The webinar presents an impressive picture of the last eight years of Tower Renewal efforts, and includes discussion of Toronto’s unique built form in relation to other cities, its...

PechaKucha of the day

by ERA Architects

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...

Architecture and value

by ERA Architects

This past November at Carleton University’s Forum Lecture Series, ERA’s Michael McClelland presented on how changing cultural values interact with how we practice architecture. Seeking to expand the range of what we think of as architecture, Michael’s talk asks, What should architects do? According to him, they shouldn’t only make buildings, but conduct research, engage...

Ontario Place in docomomoUS

by ERA Architects

Recently ERA’s Michael McClelland collaborated with Ottawa-based architect James Ashby on an article on Toronto’s Ontario Place, for docomomoUS. The article reviews the history of this unusual site, discusses the significance of its iconic design, and reminds us of the opportunity we now have to enrich our understanding of how to approach modernist architecture as part of...

On New York’s “Printed Matter”

by ERA Architects

A recent issue of C Magazine, themed “Location,” features documentation of an artwork by ERA’s Josh Thorpe and artist David Court. The work On Printed Matter was exhibited at the New York institution Printed Matter in 2011 and was recently republished in C’s inside-back-cover section “Artefact.” On Printed Matter is an installation of text in vinyl lettering on the shopfront window of Printed Matter....

University Ave.: A heritage landscape of value?

by ERA Architects

The summer edition of Ground Magazine features an article by ERA’s Michael McClelland and Brendan Stewart on the history and design of Toronto’s University Avenue. When it was first designed in 1829 the Avenue was hailed as “one of, if not the finest in the Dominion.” Over the next century, the tranquil tree-lined promenade fell...

Yonge St.: development, heritage, and change

by ERA Architects

Recently Dave LeBlanc of the The Globe & Mail featured ERA Principal Michael McClelland in an article about heritage architecture and new development on Toronto’s Yonge St. In the article, Michael explains an increasingly Toronto-specific approach to heritage conservation where historic architecture is incorporated creatively by developers as integral to the design of new projects....

Emmy to Short History of the Highrise

by ERA Architects

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...

Toronto the Good: Great!

by ERA Architects

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. ERA has been privileged to host and co-host this...

Aug 26: New ideas on Toronto’s cultural landscapes

by ERA Architects

Tuesday Aug. 26 at 6 p.m., join us for CONTEMPORARY SITES: new ways of seeing and using Toronto’s cultural landscapes, organized by ICOMOS Canada and the Centre for City Ecology (CCE). ERA’s Michael McClelland and the CCE’s Annabel Vaughan will moderate discussion with a great panel of speakers: Janna Levitt, Partner LGA Architectural Partners Robert Kerr, Supervisor, Special Events, Fort...

Toronto’s City Hall: An evolving icon

by ERA Architects

Monocle recently profiled Toronto’s City Hall, designed by Finnish architect Viljo Revell, positioning it as the city’s most distinctive piece of architectural design. ERA’s Graeme Stewart is featured in the discussion of how the building began, and how it has evolved as a central moment in the urban and civic experience of Toronto. If you...

RAC Zoning Approved for 500 Sites

by ERA Architects

This June, Toronto City Council approved the proposed Residential Apartment Commercial (RAC) zone. Following a process of nearly two years of research, public consultation, policy development, and advocacy in partnership with United Way, City of Toronto and Toronto Public Health, the RAC zoning will take effect by summer’s end, (barring appeal), in nearly 500 Apartment properties...

1960s Canada: An interview with Vincent Massey Tovell

by ERA Architects

Vincent Massey Tovell passed away in May 2014. He was a talented broadcaster, a remarkable thinker, and a tireless supporter of the arts. In 2006, for the publication Concrete Toronto, ERA conducted an interview with Mr. Tovell on the subject of the modernist architecture of Toronto and the nation. Below we re-present this interview as...

Grappling with heritage

by ERA Architects

Recently ERA’s Michael McClelland spoke at a Doors Open Toronto event entitled “Redesigning Toronto.” The PechaKucha-style event moderated by Spacing’s Shaun Micallef asked several leading architects to speak about advancing the design of the city. Michael’s talk surveyed changing conceptions of heritage over the years, beginning with the traditional conception of grand and noble landmarks...

Birnbaum on Toronto’s landscapes

by ERA Architects

On Wed. May 21, Charles Birnbaum from The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) spoke at Toronto’s Arts and Letters Club. This “Inside the Planner’s Studio” event was sponsored by the City of Toronto and attended by City staff in Parks, Urban Design, and Planning, as well as numerous professionals in architecture and landscape design. Charles introduced...

“Dr. Brick” returns to Toronto

by ERA Architects

Dr. Gerard Lynch, master mason and acclaimed scholar in heritage masonry, has returned to Toronto to lead a new series of workshops hosted by ERA and Historic Restoration at Evergreen Brickworks. One of this year’s courses, Advanced Topics in Lime Mortar, focused on the importance of using traditional lime-based mortars when restoring or repairing heritage...

Michael McClelland at the Getty: Toronto Towers

by ERA Architects

Michael McClelland spoke in 2013 to the Getty Conservation Institute’s “Colloquium to Advance the Practice of Conserving Modern Architecture.” The presentation discussed Toronto’s unique development of tower neighbourhoods in the context of modernist planning principles and modern heritage conservation. ERA advocates for an approach to the conservation of these neighbourhoods through a considered process of...