Skip to content

ERA Architects

Stories/

Images & Videos

62 – 64 Charles Street: The Lost Craft of Tuck-pointing Returns

by ERA Architects

Tuck-pointing was developed by the English back in the late 17th century and was practiced all the way up to the early 20th century. Historic preservationist/educator Michael Shellenbarger states in a 1993 essay titled Tuck Pointing History and Confusion the correct definition of tuck-pointing (based on historical precedents) is: …… a masonry jointing that uses...

Read More

The Lost Craft of Tuck Pointing

by ERA Architects

Pointing, repointing, tuck pointing, ribbon pointing, flush pointing, there are many techniques and they are all different. Tuck pointing is a style of jointing that was predominantly used on English brickwork from the late seventeen century and it continued in popular use through the early 20th century. Done properly, it is the most highly skilled...

Read More

Evergreen Canada Launches An Online Exhibit: Complete Communities

by ERA Architects

Evergreen Canada has launched an online gallery entitled ‘Complete Communities‘ that showcases several projects within and surrounding the GTA that provide affordable homes, fresh food, clean water, local services, green spaces and great recreation to their residents. Accessibility is made available through walking, biking and public transit. The Ridgeway Community Court is one of these projects. Ridgeway has a...

Read More

ERA Steps Back in Time

by ERA Architects

  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...

Read More

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...

Read More

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...

Read More

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...

Read More

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...

Read More

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...

Read More

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...

Read More

ERA in Montreal

by Shelley Ludman

This past weekend, the ERA Toronto office paid a visit to their Montreal counterpart. With the sun shining and 22 degree weather in September, the stage was set for a fun-filled weekend exploring Montreal. (Scroll down for the slide show.) The weekend began on Friday night with a late night tour of the new Montreal...

Read More

New video doc on Sharon Temple

by ERA Architects

Video producer Vanessa Ireson has recently made an excellent short documentary about one of ERA’s favourite projects: Sharon Temple. The Temple was completed in 1832 by the Children of Peace, a group of former Quakers who, among other things, advocated for peace and democracy and created the first credit union in Canada. The building is...

Read More

Canada Screen Award to NFB’s “Highrise”

by ERA Architects

Last week the NFB’s Highrise: One Millionth Tower won a Canada Screen Award for “Original Program Produced for Digital Media, Non-Fiction.” ERA and the Centre for Urban Growth and Renewal (CUG+R) had the pleasure of working with the NFB on this remarkable series, directed by Kat Cizek, which examines the current conditions and future potential...

Read More

ERA in Buffalo

by ERA Architects

Recently, ERAers Alana Young and Josh Thorpe took trips to investigate the fascinating city of Buffalo, New York. Less than two hours from Toronto by car, Buffalo is a city of major historical significance to the region and has some stunning work in planning and architecture. Buffalo City Hall (1932), a prominent feature in the...

Read More

Silo 5 in Old Montreal

by ERA Architects

This summer and fall, as part of Heritage Montreal’s Architectours program, ERA’s Jan Kubanek presented four walking tours of Silo 5, a monumental grain elevator complex at the mouth of the Lachine Canal in Old Montreal. The Silo 5 complex encompasses three separate buildings: Elevator B, dating to 1906 and built of steel plates; the...

Read More

Evergreen Brickworks film wins Hotdocs award

by ERA Architects

Crowd the Schoolhouse, a short film inspired by the evolution and regeneration of the Evergreen Brickworks site (a project in ERA’s portfolio), recently received two awards at the International Documentary Challenge. Each film must be 5 minutes long, filmed within the same five days at the beginning of March, and based on the theme of “cycles.” The entry...

Read More

NFB Screening One Millionth Tower Dec. 6

by admin

On Tuesday, December 6th the National Film-Board is screening its collaborative documentary, One Millionth Tower. ERA will be at the event discussing its involvement in the documentary, along with representatives from the United Way, City of Toronto, NFB and the Mozilla Foundation. All are welcome to attend the event, which will run from 6:00-8:00PM at...

Read More

Tower Renewal + NFB feature on Metro Morning

by ERA Architects

This week Graeme Stewart discussed ERA’s ongoing work related to Tower Renewal and working with the NFB of their film documentary with the metro morning team. You can listen to his interview in full here.

Read More

The Millionth Tower

by ERA Architects

The Millionth Tower web-based documentary has launched! This weekend the project was featured on the highly-respected Wired.com site, and is already making significant waves re-imagining the way emerging web-based technologies can help to tell highly personal stories in our increasingly connected world. We are all very proud to have been involved – please see the...

Read More

‘Ovi Maps’ launches

by ERA Architects

Fully 3D. Mind-blowing. maps.ovi.com

Read More

The Suburbs

by ERA Architects

Above: 32 Saintfield Road by Jerome Markson, 1961 In the 1950s and 60s, Toronto’s Bridle Path was not just an enclave of faux-châteaux, but an architectural hotbed for Toronto’s young modernists looking to execute designs for clients with large lots, and large budgets. Greatly varying in materiality and form, these houses convey the experimental spirit...

Read More

Fogel Residence

by ERA Architects

Inspired by this photograph of Irving Grossman’s Fogel Residence on TOBuilt, we went to the library and dug up a bit more information about this now-demolished modernist gem.  Built in North York, Ontario, and completed in 1959, the Fogel Residence was a finalist for the Massey Medals in Architecture in 1961.  Scanned photocopies from the...

Read More

Transport-related energy consumption

by ERA Architects

Edwin found this telling little graph in a supplement to Topos magazine.  It clearly illustrates, using a range of international examples, how per-capita transport-related energy consumption reduces with increasing population densities. Interesting with reference to our previous studies on visualizing density, and with the on-going uncertainty surrounding the future of Transit City. The illustration accompanies...

Read More

Collaborate with entropy

by ERA Architects

At the Design Forum this morning, Will presented four European precedents for the large-scale adaptive reuse of industrial structures. 1847 Coal Mine and Coke plant Zeche Zollverein in Essen, Germany. A UNESCO World Heritage Site. 2001. The site attracts a half-million visitors each year. Winter skating along the former shipping channel at Zeche Zollverein in...

Read More

Fiction and Intervention

by ERA Architects

Artist Luke Painter has a number of wonderful flash animations in the Architecture at Harbourfront Gallery, as a part of the ongoing Neighbourhood Maverick show. The animations illustrate vacant sites on the verge of development, and play with memories of the site’s former uses. Neighbourhood Maverick runs until June 11, 2011. Have a look at...

Read More