News & Events

Sept. 11: Toronto the Good Party!

by ERA Architects

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. This year: Election Theme! Co-hosted by Dave Meslin and RaBIT Thursday, Sept. 11, 7 to 11 pm at The Fermenting Cellar in the Distillery...

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...

Sports pad and Sky-o-swale launch in Scarborough

by ERA Architects

Wednesday, August 20 from 3 to 6pm, join us and our friends at the The East Scarborough Storefront to launch two exciting new features in the landscape design. The Sky-o-swale shade-water structure is a green-roof pavilion that filters rainwater to irrigate the adjacent gardens, and the MLSE/Jumpstart Sports Court is a former parking lot converted...

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...

Charity Hicks’ passing

by ERA Architects

Sad news reached us this week that Charity Hicks, a well-known Detroit-based activist and leader, passed away July 8, 2014. Ms. Hicks was an advocate for democracy, grass-roots engagement, and environmental and social justice. ERA had the privilege of witnessing a conversation between Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam and Charity Hicks at the Detroit-Toronto Symposium in 2013, where...

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...

Bridgepoint wins two PUGs

by ERA Architects

Bridgepoint Active Healthcare has won two PUG awards this year: Best Commercial + Institutional Building in Toronto, and the Paul Oberman Adaptive Reuse and Heritage Restoration Award. As part of the redevelopment of the site, the Old Don Jail was rehabilitated to function as the administrative building for Bridgepoint Hospital. Completed in 1864, the Don Jail...

Green-roof pavilion: Construction underway

by ERA Architects

ERA has been working with Sustainable.TO, Architext, Blackwell, and Patriot Engineering on the “Sky-o-Swale shade-water structure,” part of an ongoing project to bring new landscape features and public realm amenities to the vibrant community hub of East Scarborough Storefront. A type of green-roof pavilion, the Sky-o-Swale shade-water structure is currently being constructed and will soon be completed. The catenary...

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...

PechaKucha: Tower Renewal 101

by ERA Architects

Recently ERA’s Graeme Stewart presented a crash course in Tower Renewal at a Toronto PechaKucha event focused on urban innovation. The short, 7-minute talk covers half a century of Toronto’s history and, right up to some of the exciting new initiatives taking place in and around Toronto’s Tower Neighbourhoods. PechaKucha is a simple presentation genre...

Governor General Awards, 2014

by ERA Architects

ERA is proud to have been involved in three out of twelve projects to receive Governor General’s Medals in Architecture in 2014. Please see details below: Sisters of St. Joseph, lead architect Shim-Sutcliffe. Jury comment: “This project shines for the care that was brought in creating a loving environment for the elderly.” Bloor Gladstone Library,...

Eglinton Crosstown moves forward

by ERA Architects

ERA has been working with the City of Toronto, Book McIlroy, planningAlliance, and Public Work, among others, on numerous objectives and design principles that will guide the design and construction of the Eglinton Crosstown transit corridor. As part of the process, the City’s Planning and Growth Management Committee has recently published and approved Eglinton Connects: Volume...

Job Shadowing: Architectural Conservancy of Ontario

by Shannon Clayton

ERA recently participated in the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario’s Second Annual Job Shadow Program, organized by the ACO’s NextGen group. Megan Rolph, Golsa Kheirmoghadam, Josie Harrington, and Amy Calder shadowed various members of the ERA team, attended meetings, visited job sites, studied current projects, and took part in our end-of-week office social. Special thanks to...

Jane Jacobs Prize to Graeme Stewart & Sabina Ali

by ERA Architects

The 2014 Jane Jacobs Prize has been awarded to Graeme Stewart of ERA and Sabina Ali of the Thorncliffe Park Women’s Committee. According to the creators of the Jane Jacobs Prize, Ideas that Matter, this honour “celebrates individuals who contribute to the fabric of Toronto life in unique ways that exemplify the ideas of Jane...

New opportunities through zoning reform: Your feedback needed

by ERA Architects

The City of Toronto wants to bring more vitality and convenience to its Apartment Neighbourhoods. In March and April, a number of public consultations will be held to incorporate the ideas of community members. A new zoning type, “Residential Apartment Commercial” (RAC), has been created to provide more amenities and more usable public space in...

Big Idea Forum w/ Christopher Hume

by ERA Architects

Monday March 24th, ERA’s Graeme Stewart will be joining Christopher Hume and guests for a forum on the future of Toronto. The discussion begins at 6:30 pm, Innis Town Hall, 2 Sussex Ave, Toronto. The forum follows up on the Toronto Star’s Big Ideas series, in which local urbanists, activists, researchers, and citizens share their...

We’re off to Botwood, Nfld.

by ERA Architects

As part of the Culture of Outports initiative, ERA’s Andrew Pruss, Alana Young, and Jordan Molnar are heading to Botwood Newfoundland from Feb. 15 to 22. Together with a group of Ryerson Architecture students, we’ll be collaborating with the community on a number of events, as well as the design and construction of an intervention...

The Star’s Big Ideas: GTA’s future in high-rise suburbs

by ERA Architects

Throughout the first part of 2014, the Toronto Star is running a series called “Big Ideas“, asking Torontonians to think big about the future of the region. What type of Toronto do we want to create in the years to come? For our contribution to this series, we discuss Tower Renewal as the key to...

Infrastructure: new vision for Ontario

by ERA Architects

Provincial Transportation Minister Glen Murray is proposing exciting changes to the way infrastructure is planned and designed in Ontario. The proposed “Infrastructure for Jobs and Prosperity Act” contains important new criteria including sustainability, greater alignment with existing provincial plans, longer-term and more complete ROI rationales, and, we are pleased to see, the mandated inclusion of...

Chinese delegates tour Brick Works

by Shelley Ludman

This fall, ERA’s Philip Evans met with a delegation of architects, engineers and developers from Chongqing, China. The purpose of their trip to Canada was to strengthen the ties between China and Canada in the areas of culture, trade, and technology in both design and construction. Together with Jo Ann Pynn from Cultural Assets at the City...

Tafelmusik renovations unveiled

by ERA Architects

Oct. 3th 2013, Tafelmusik held its first public concert in a transformed concert hall at Trinity-St. Paul’s. ERA worked with acoustician Bob Essert and other consultants to restore and repair elements of the space, and improve its sound. According to all involved, the result is a success. Robert Harris of the Glob & Mail says,...

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...