Toronto Modern: Architecture 1945-1964

Patricia Vervoort is an assistant professor of art history at Lakehead
University.

The Bureau of Architecture and Urbanism mounted the exhibition “Toronto Modern Architecture: 1945-1965” at Toronto City Hall in the spring of 1987. This catalogue includes critical essays features ten buildings, and concludes with a timeline placing Toronto buildings and design milestones in context with national and international events.

The essays include “Toronto Modern,” which assents that these recent buildings are already part of history; “Mountain of Lights” by Detlef Mertins, which traces the changing city skyline from the 1920s through the 1960s; Mark Baraness on “Building Modern Ideas,” which is concerned with building rationale; and Ruth Cawker’s “Modern Lessons,” a discussion of the role of the University of Toronto as a patron of the new architecture and the influence of Eric Arthur. Bridgitte Shim’s “Don Mills, New Town” and George Kapelos’s “A Modern Vision” relate the history of planning objectives to the new aesthetic.

The ten buildings featured include the Mechanical Engineering Building and Massey College at the University of Toronto, Don Mills, the Foge Residence, the O’Keefe Centre, Benevenuto Place Apartments, Ortho Pharmaceutical Ltd., Anglo Canada Insurance Company, Toronto-Dominion Centre, and Toronto City Hall. Each of the ten is represented by a variety of photographs, site plans, and written details concerning the structure, materials, architects, consultants, and dates.

While the overall catalogue presents a slick appearance and one concerned with visual design, it is not easy to read. Some of the photographs span two pages; the binding cuts through their midst. The main text is horizontal, but the picture captions are vertical and in bold type. Each building is identified by labels arranged vertically along the edge of the page which run in the opposite direction from the picture captions. This variety of type and placement demands that the book be turned in various directions to be read. The scope and text, though, provide a valuable record of an exhibition and provocative essays on Toronto’s recent architectural heritage.