News & Events
Canadian Architect Award of Excellence awarded to the New Vic transformation project at McGill University
by
ERA is excited to announce that the New Vic transformation project at McGill University in Montreal was awarded a 2023 Canadian Architect Award of Excellence! As heritage architect on the project, ERA has been working with Diamond Schmitt and Lemay Michaud to restore and adapt the 130-year-old former Royal Victoria Hospital building into a state-of-the-art...
Read More
Celebrating Claude Cormier
by
The trailblazing Quebecois landscape architect Claude Cormier passed away two weeks ago after a thirty-year career spent creating many of Canada’s most lauded and inventive public spaces. Known for his joyful yet probing designs, Claude often upended status quos. Projects like Sugar Beach and Berczy Park resist traditional municipal aesthetics as much as they celebrate...
Read More
Growing our leadership team at ERA
by
ERA Architects is proud to announce our 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. Associate ERA is pleased to have Mikael Sydor and Rui Felix promoted to our team of associates....
Read More
Bill Greer (1925–2023)
by
I met Bill at what was then the Toronto Historical Board in 1981. Bill was the Chief Architect and I worked under his direction for seven years. I’m convinced that architecture is a skill that one learns from mentorship, and I acknowledge that Bill was my mentor. I’d suggest that Bill’s mentor was Buckminster Fuller,...
Read More
A new look for ERAarch.ca
by
We’re happy to share the new look for our website ERAarch.ca. Over the years, the range of work we’ve tackled and the expertise we’ve developed has expanded to the point where we felt our web site wasn’t properly reflecting what makes ERA unique. Over the course of the last year, we worked to refresh the...
Read More
The Signs That Define Toronto: A new book from ERA and Spacing
by
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...
Read More
University College: Revitalization and Accessibility
by
The University College is an architectural gem within the already famously picturesque University of Toronto campus. In a way, it’s the centre of the university, and when you look north up King’s College Road, your view terminates in what ERA’s Max Berg calls a “postcard building” from the 1850s. It has been home to a...
Read More
Three New Principals and Expanding Leadership at ERA
by
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),...
Read More
ERA annonce ses nouveaux associés à Montréal | ERA Announces New Leadership in Montréal
by
ERA Architectes est fière d’annoncer la nomination de Ève Wertheimer et de Jan Kubanek en tant qu’associés à la tête du bureau québécois de l’agence. ERA Architectes œuvre au Québec depuis 2012 sur des projets de mise en valeur de l’environnement bâti existant, pour plusieurs clients des secteurs privés et publics. La nomination de...
Read More
Canada’s Ken Soble Tower certified as world’s largest residential Passive House EnerPHit retrofit
by
One of the first of its kind in North America, the 18-storey affordable seniors tower serves as a model for low-carbon, resilient future January 19, 2022 (Hamilton, ON) – ERA Architects (ERA) and PCL Construction (PCL) announce the Ken Soble Tower in Hamilton, Canada, has become the world’s largest residential building retrofitted to the Passive...
Read More
2021: Honours & Awards at ERA
by
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...
Read More
The Missing Middle: Toronto’s Historic Building Typologies
by
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...
Read More
ERA leads the conversation of digital transformation at the Beijing Urban and Architecture Biennale
by
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...
Read More
ERA’s Graeme Stewart and Ya’el Santopinto named to the RAIC’s College of Fellows
by
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...
Read More
Dave LeBlanc for The Globe and Mail: The tower that once topped Toronto shines again
by
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...
Read More
Gordonridge Community Multi-Sport Court wins national landscape architecture award
by
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...
Read More
Revitalizing waterfront sites: Exploring the potential of Ontario Place
by
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...
Read More
Celebrating community-led design with Gordonridge
by
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...
Read More
Conservation of Paradise Theatre wins national and provincial awards
by
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...
Read More
Historic farmsteads drive a new rural cultural economy
by
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...
Read More
Remnants of Mid-Century Toronto
by
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...
Read More
ERA talks retrofitting towers (virtually)
by
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...
Read More
Celebrating ERA’s 30th anniversary
by
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...
Read More
To our clients and colleagues during the COVID-19 pandemic
by
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’...
Read More
Senate of Canada Building receives international recognition with 2020 Civic Trust Award
by
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...
Read More