VRAffle
Tansey Event
Tours
|
About the guide:
Sharon Vattay is a lecturer at the University of Toronto and an associate at Goldsmith Borgal & Company Ltd. Architects (a firm specializing in historic restoration and adaptive reuse). She holds a Ph.D. and M.A. from the University of Toronto, and a B.A. from McMaster University, Hamilton, and has extensive research, writing, lecturing, and curatorial experience in the field of Canadian architectural history. Academic and archival research has been undertaken for various levels of government for the purposes of publication, public outreach, as well as for restoration projects and heritage property assessments. She serves as Provincial Representative for the Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada and is a member of the Society of Architectural Historians, and the Association of Preservation Technology.
Wednesday, March
18, 10:00–11:30 am
- includes the following, plus other sites of note: |
| |
• Four Seasons Centre
for the Performing Arts (the New Opera House), by Diamond and
Schmitt |
| |
o Designed by the
Toronto-based firm Diamond and Schmitt Architects Inc., the
Four Seasons Centre is the permanent home of the Canadian Opera
Company and the performance venue for the National Ballet of
Canada. The Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts is the
first building of its kind in Canada; a theatre built specifically
for opera and ballet performances with the finest level of acoustics.
The contemporary expression of traditional horseshoe-shaped
auditorium provides unparalleled intimacy between the audience
and the stage with every seat computer-tested for the best possible
sightlines. |
| |
• Osgood Hall |
| |
o The original two and a half
story building was started in 1829 and finished in 1832 from
a design in the late Palladian style by John Ewart and W. W.
Baldwin. Despite expansion phases from 1844, 1855-57, and 1880-91,
the hall presents a unified design. In 1846 the Law Society
entered into an agreement with the government to house the province's
Superior Court at the hall. Today, the building is jointly owned
by the Law Society and the government of Ontario. |
| |
• Toronto City Hall,
Modernist icon by V. Revell |
| |
o The New City Hall comprises
two curved towers, of unequal heights, built around a circular
council chamber and public space. It provides a sculptural backdrop
for Nathan Phillips Square. The south-facing concave surfaces
of the towers are glazed, while the larger convex walls are
formed entirely from ribbed concrete, with no window openings.
Revell's twin-towered structure has been controversial from
the beginning: a contemporary letter to the editor dismissed
the building as "two boomerangs over half a grapefruit."
Frank Lloyd Wright described the building as "a headmarker
for a grave," and added "future generations will look
at it and say: 'This marks the spot where Toronto fell.'"
|
| |
• Old City Hall (Court
House) (link)
|
| |
o The architect, Edward James
Lennox, took three years to design the impressive Old City Hall
(1886-1888) that needed to address the two separate uses of
the building - the City Hall and the court house. It was erected
over the next 11 years (1889 - 1899) at a cost of more than
$2.5 million. It was not only the biggest structure in the city
at that time, it was also the largest municipal building in
North America. Impressive architectural detailing surrounds
and fills this remarkable building. Originally gargoyles spouted
from many points. Above the monumental Queen Street entrance,
in Romanesque Revival style, are grotesque stone carvings, which
contemporaries suggested were caricatures of councillors. The
interior is also a showplace of craftsmanship. |
| |
• Eaton Centre, Bregman
& Hamann with Zeidler |
| |
o Stretching two full city blocks,
Toronto Eaton Centre is a historical landmark, and today one
of Canada’s best-known retail shopping destinations, attracting
millions of visitors annually. Modeled after Milan’s Galleria
Vittorio Emanuele, the centre’s architect, Eb Zeidler, created
the retail portion of the complex to feature a four-level shopping
centre with a glass-domed galleria running the length of the
centre. |
| Note:
tour includes public art on our tour route |
^ top of page
Wednesday, March 18, 1:30-3:00 pm
- includes the following, plus other sites of note: |
|
• Concourse Building, Adelaide St. (with Group of Seven mosaics) |
|
o The Concourse is a 16-storey Art Deco building in Toronto's financial district. The Concourse is not 'skyline' Deco with a swank silhouette, but rather a decorated box, a canvas for elegant details. Each side in fact is differently decorated (or undecorated) and can be viewed easily from street level. A 20 second stroll reveals all four sides and the obvious dimensionality of this building -- no mere facade, and certainly no canyon wall. It's a classic 'street corner' building. |
|
• TD Centre, Modernist by Mies van der Rohe (with special access to restricted areas) |
|
o Designed by renowned architect Mies van der Rohe, the original TD Centre consisted of a grouping of two steel-and-glass towers and a banking pavilion. Three more buildings have since joined the complex. To avoid the canyons created by office towers in many cities, Mies van der Rohe’s plan for the seven acre site set the building back from the streets and placed them on a landscaped plaza. The plaza not only created a space for art, concerts and public gatherings, but has become a respite for visitors and workers in surrounding offices. Below the plaza, he created an underground shopping concourse, the first of its kind in the city and the cornerstone for the extensive and distinctive Path network of modern Toronto. |
|
• Toronto Stock Exchange (now the Design Exchange - link) |
|
o Designed by architects George and Moorehouse with associate S.H. Maw and completed in 1937 it combines streamlined moderne, art deco and stripped classicism. The dominant style, however, is streamlined moderne. Its elegant proportions and sophisticated detailing perfectly suited its Bay Street address. Revered as an architectural and technological marvel, a "masterful expression of its time, place and function" with "the most up-to-date trading floor in the world." |
|
• BCE Galleria, contemporary by Santiago Calatrava |
|
o The Allen Lambert Galleria is an award-winning, 6 storey pedestrian avenue conceived by Santiago Calatrava. The Galleria's roof and structure is simply awesome. One part is reminiscent of palm trees reaching for the sunlight. It is 85-feet high, 45-feet wide, and 380-feet from end to end. The Galleria houses Toronto’s oldest surviving stone building, the former Commercial Bank of Midland (built 1845). |
|
• Former Bank of Montreal (now Hockey Hall of Fame) |
|
o Designed in 1885-86 to replace a building that was not yet thirty years old because it was not grand enough for the aspirations of the Bank of Montreal, this was the head office of the bank in Toronto. It continued in business until 1982, when it closed, and now houses the Hockey Hall of Fame. The building has two fine monumental pedimented facades with a chamfered entrance bay between them.
Note: tour includes public art on our tour route |
| Note: tour includes public art on our tour route |
^ top of page
Saturday, March 21, 10:00-11:30 am
- includes the following, plus other sites of note: |
| |
• Front Street 19th century warehouse district |
| |
• St. Lawrence Market (link) |
| |
o In 1803, Governor Peter Hunter issued a proclamation, following recommendations made as early as 1796, that all the land north of Front, west of Jarvis, south of King and east of Church street was to be designated officially as the "Market Block." Since 1901, the South St. Lawrence Market has been known primarily for its fruits, vegetables, meat and cheese. Toronto's original City Hall had been incorporated into today's south market. The history of the South St. Lawrence Market also includes the north "farmer's market" and St. Lawrence Hall as well. In March 1979, The Market Gallery of the City of Toronto Culture Division opened as the official exhibition centre for the display and storage of the City's art and archival collections. Located inside the South St. Lawrence Market on the south-west corner of Front Street East and Jarvis Street, The Market Gallery is on the second floor in the original council chamber which was part of Toronto's City Hall from 1845 to 1899. |
| |
• Flatiron Building |
| |
o The red brick Gooderham Building (commonly referred to as the Flatiron Building) at 49 Wellington Street East is also the first flatiron building in a major city. It was built in 1892 by architect David Roberts, Jr. It is well-known both for its narrow wedge shape, and for the mural on its back wall, which uses a trompe l'oeil effect to not only make the wall appear to have more windows than it does, but to also give it a more mobile effect by having its edges 'fluttering' away where they are not 'tacked' down. |
| |
• St. James Cathedral |
| |
o The Cathedral Church of St. James in Toronto is the oldest congregation in the city. Established in 1797, the current structure was completed in 1844 and was one of the largest buildings in the city. At 305 feet the Cathedral is the second tallest church in Canada. It was designed by Frederick Cumberland as a prime example of Early English Gothic architecture. It opened for services in 1853. At the turn of the 19th century St. James Cathedral was the tallest building in Toronto, and was often the first thing immigrants noticed when they stepped off the train at Union station. |
| |
• Toronto Sculpture Garden |
| |
o The Toronto Sculpture Garden offers innovative contemporary sculpture installations in a compact, urban park. Artists test out ideas here, experiment with public space, and address issues of architectural scale, materials, and context. |
| |
• Union Station, Italianate/2nd Empire style by Thomas Seaton Scott |
| |
o Designed in the Beaux-Arts style, it was the largest and most opulent station erected in Canada. Its centrepiece is a broad colonnade of eighteen gigantic Greek Doric columns topped by an undecorated cornice which runs the length of the building. The Great Hall features a coffered vault ceiling of Gustavino tiles. The shape of the ceiling is echoed in the four-storey, barrel-vaulted windows on the east and west walls. The interior walls are of Zumbro stone from Missouri; the floors are Tennessee marble, laid in a herringbone pattern. The exterior walls of the station are Indiana and Queenston limestone.
Note: tour includes public art on our tour route |
| Note: tour includes public art on our tour route |
^ top of page
Saturday, March 21, 1:30-3:00 pm
- includes the following, plus other sites of note: |
|
• Roy Thompson Hall |
|
o Opened in 1982 and renovated in 2002, this striking building is a 2,812 seat concert hall. Its circular architectural design exhibits a sloping and curvilinear glass exterior. It was designed by Canadian architects Arthur Erickson and Mather and Haldenby. Unlike other Erickson buildings, it is strangely isolated from its surroundings, although the curving glass does reflect neighboring buildings. Formerly known as New Massey Hall, it is named after the late Roy Thomson, first Lord Thomson of Fleet and founder of the publishing empire Thomson Corporation. It is the home of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. |
|
• Royal Alexandra Theatre |
|
o Built in 1907, the Royal Alex is the oldest continuously operating legitimate theatre in North America. Its form is that of a 1500-seat, beaux-arts-style, proscenium-stage theatre, with two balcony levels, built in the style typical of 19th century British theatres. The theatre, commonly known as the "Royal Alex", "the Alex" or "the R.A.T." is named for Queen Alexandra, a Danish princess and the wife of King Edward VII, great-grandmother to the current Queen of Canada, Elizabeth II. The theatre received letters patent from Edward VII entitling it to the royal designation. Its present owners believe that it is the only remaining legally "royal theatre" in North America. |
|
• Princess of Wales Theatre |
|
o The Princess of Wales Theatre is a 2000-seat theatre that opened in 1993. The theatre's name has a triple meaning: it recalls the Princess Theatre, Toronto's first "first-class legitimate" playhouse, that once stood three blocks to the east; it honors Diana, Princess of Wales, with whose consent the theatre was so-named; and it links the building to its sister-theatre, the Royal Alexandra, also named - with Royal assent - for a former Princess of Wales. For the Princess of Wales Theatre, owner David Mirvish commissioned a series of murals by American abstract–expressionist painter and sculptor Frank Stella. The paintings cover the auditorium ceiling dome, the proscenium arch, the walls of lounges and lobbies on all four levels of the theatre and the outside back wall of the fly tower. They are believed to comprise one of the largest mural installations of modern times. Mr. Stella also designed the decorative fronts of the boxes and balconies and the decorative end-caps of the each seating row. |
|
• CBC Building |
|
o The Canadian Broadcasting Centre, distinctive home of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Toronto, stands as a shining example of creative architecture and innovative design. More than a decade in its planning and construction, the building houses CBC's English language radio and television networks. The 10 storey, 160,000 square metre broadcasting and production facility has attracted worldwide attention for its unique architecture and state-of-the-art technical facilities. From its towering rooftop television studios to its colourful facade, the Broadcasting Centre is one of the Toronto skyline's most eye-catching buildings. |
^ top of page |
