Williamson Chong, the architecture firm founded by Daniels Associate Professor Shane Williamson, his partner Betsy Williamson, and Daniels Alumnus Donald Chong (BArch 1994), was featured earlier this month in Architectural Record. The firm, which was established in 2011, has developed a design strategy that involves identitfying the latent value in less desirable urban spaces. Called "incremental urbanism," they use it as a guiding principle in many of their projects. In another unique approach contemporary urban living, the firm is exploring multigenerational living in a number of their residential projects.

Williamson Chong is further investigating innovative urban solutions by exploring wood technologies and computational design.

“Our architectural projects reflect the changing trajectories of cities,” Chong tells Architectural Record. “Toronto makes it easy for us, because people here are willing to try out new ways of living.”

Related:

• Williamson Chong Architects featured in the June issue of Metropolis Magazine
• Williamson Chong Architect's Howland Avenue Residence featured in Design Lines
• Williamson Chong Architects receives a 2014 Emerging Voices Award
• Williamson Chong Architects wins the Professional Prix de Rome in Architecture
• Professor Shane Williamson and Williamson Chong Architects receive a 2011 Wood WORKS! Award for House in Frogs Hollow
• Shane Williamson featured in the Globe and Mail

Over Reading Week, Daniels Faculty undergrad students went on a trip to New York City, visiting such iconic places as the Rockefeller Center, the High Line and the Brooklyn Bridge. The trip, organized by the Architecture and Visual Studies Student Union (AVSSU), gave students the opportunity to learn beyond the classroom — exploring a city with visual and architectural details around every corner.

Marienka Bishop-Kovac, AVSSU's Events Coordinator and 2nd year architecture undergrad, took over the Daniels Faculty Instagram page on Monday, February 22 to share some of the best photos from the trip. Check out all of the photos below — and search #DanielsTakeover on Instagram to view past Day in the Life submissions.

Good Morning, my name is Marienka @mbb_k an undergrad in my second year of architectural studies and the events coordinator for the Architecture and Visual Studies Student Union #AVSSU (far left). I am standing with Carmela @carmelamelamela the Architecture Vice-President of AVSSU (center) and Najia @najia_fatima an editor for #uoftshiftmag (far right). After months of planning we went on our Student Union’s first reading week trip to NYC with roughly 30 other students. It was great opportunity to immerse ourselves into the city's arts and culture. Throughout the day, I'll be posting images and the experiences of the students who participated. Hope you enjoy! #avssuxnyc #dayinthelife #danielstakeover #instatakeover #studentlife #danielsfaculty #uoft Photo credit @tommniuu

A photo posted by @uoftdaniels on Feb 22, 2016 at 7:16am PST

Going to the Museum of Modern Art #MoMA was definitely on the top of my list of museums to visit in New York City. After having talked about this institution and its pivotal role in determining the course of Art in the present in our art & architecture courses at the #danielsfaculty, it was great to be able to spend a few hours doing a walkthrough of the space. As an #architecture student, one exhibit that stood out to me was Endless House: Intersections of Art and Architecture, which looked to explore the concept of house and how it has been used to discuss a variety of subjects in addition to its part in developing the practice of architecture. In these images, you can see Tom @tommniuu, an architectural studies student in his final year taking pictures of Asymptote Architecture’s New Wing House. Here’s Tom’s tip for visiting MoMA: sleep well and carb up before getting engulfed it's overwhelming and charged content. #avssuxnyc #dayinthelife #danielstakeover #instatakeover #studentlife #danielsfaculty #uoft Photo credit to @carmelamelamela and @tommniuu

A photo posted by @uoftdaniels on Feb 22, 2016 at 10:21am PST

It’s different seeing art in real life, the in-person experience of the original piece truly gives a feeling of discreet monumentality. The full "ooooh and ahhhh" moment! Not gonna lie, screamed like a true fan girl, said @peonycen a second year architectural studies student after seeing #Picasso's Les Demoiselles d’Avignon and other modern art at the #MoMA #avssuxnyc #dayinthelife #danielstakeover #instatakeover #studentlife #danielsfaculty #uoft Photo credit @najia_fatima

A photo posted by @uoftdaniels on Feb 22, 2016 at 11:25am PST

“#HighlinePark was awesome! I liked how you could experience the city and the #architecture of the #Chelsea area from a different level. It's probably one of my favourite parks, loved it.” said Phat @phatvle a third year architectural studies student. #avssuxnyc #dayinthelife #danielstakeover #instatakeover #studentlife #danielsfaculty #uoft Photo credit @ericwoah

A photo posted by @uoftdaniels on Feb 22, 2016 at 1:56pm PST

“#CentralPark was fantastic! Each part was very different from the rest, it was very calming, I still can’t believe that every square inch of it was human-made” said Robert @rkraynor a second year visual and architectural studies student. #avssuxnyc #dayinthelife #danielstakeover #instatakeover #studentlife #danielsfaculty #uoft Photo credit @dina.aldajani and @woullfs

A photo posted by @uoftdaniels on Feb 22, 2016 at 3:22pm PST

Eric @ericwoah a second year Architectural Studies Student, visited the World Trade Centre #PATHstation. Here are his thoughts on the space - It’s a luminous and peaceful concourse that will bring you to the #WTC memorial - it brings a sense of peace and serenity from the use of marble - getting at that weird eerie feeling. What I liked about the concourse was how the lights were projected towards the ceiling on the rib-like structure rather than it pointing downwards giving a quieter tone to the #environment. #avssuxnyc #dayinthelife #danielstakeover #instatakeover #studentlife #danielsfaculty #uoft

A photo posted by @uoftdaniels on Feb 22, 2016 at 4:31pm PST

In the words of Shawn Carter AKA #Jay-Z These streets will make you feel brand new Big lights will inspire you Let’s hear it for New York We will end this journey on top of the #RockefellerCentre thinking about #DiegoRivera’s mural and all the controversy it caused in this building that is now a hotspot for tourists. Natasha @natashapetzold an Architectural Studies student in her final year experienced the 3 level observation decks from storey 67-69 and the glass roofed elevator. “It was amazing to see the whole city with the lights at night!”. Exploring #NYC over reading week with my classmates was a spectacular experience. Here’s to New York and Old York AKA #Toronto! Hope you all have a lovely evening! #avssuxnyc #dayinthelife #danielstakeover #instatakeover #studentlife #danielsfaculty #uoft Photo credit @dania.shh and Natasha

A photo posted by @uoftdaniels on Feb 22, 2016 at 9:16pm PST

See other Daniels Faculty Instagram Takeovers:

• Day in the Life: Follow grad student Alistair Grierson as he prepares for his thesis review
• Day in the Life: Lecturer Jay Pooley documents Faculty life in an Instatakeover
• Day in the Life: Undergrad student Mendy Lu takes over the Daniels Faculty's Instagram page
• Day(s) in the Li(ves): Grad students Elise Hunchuck and Vanessa Abram take over Daniels Faculty Instagram account from Japan
• Day in the Life: Master of Landscape Architecture thesis student Shelley Long takes over the Daniels Faculty Instagram page
• Day in the Life: Visual studies and architecture undergrad Julia Gasenzer takes over the Daniels Faculty Instagram page
• Day in the Life: Recent MArch grad Emma Dunn takes over our Instagram page for the weekend

• Day in the Life: We hand over our Instagram keys to undergrad student Josie Northern Harrison

Thanks to generous donations made by alumni and donors, Daniels Faculty students can apply for grants, fellowships, or scholarships to fund travel and research at sites of interest both within Canada and abroad. The application deadline for this year is March 2.

We’ve asked students who received travel awards last year to share their experiences with us. Today, we hear from Master of Architecture student Saarinen Balagengatharadilak, who spent a month in London, UK last summer with support from the Paul Oberman Graduate Student Endowment Fund.

What did you hope to learn during your time in London?
I was interested in the range of sensibility that architects and planners bring to building in historic contexts. There’s a magic to some places rooted in a rich culture and history that’s reflected in its buildings and public spaces. I wanted to learn how housing, public amenities, and institutions were being integrated with big infrastructural projects, while preserving the “magic”.

Why did you go to London for this research?
The challenges of building for a growing city are super intense in London. Intensification is tied to big plans about infrastructure and moving the masses. Amongst giant transit and development plans is an old city with some of the most beautiful parks, plazas, and monuments, all delicately woven into a continuous fabric.

While the stakes for building in such a complex system are extremely high, there’s a healthy appetite on the part of the people and city to embrace bold ideas. I thought it would be refreshing to see some of the successes and shortcomings of this mentality.

Tell us about something interesting that you discovered.
There are so many moments when you walk through plazas, over or under bridges, or through or between buildings that make London feel continuous. I’ve grown so accustomed to the way infrastructure divides cities (like Toronto). London provided a good wake up call about the potential of infrastructure to be more integrated with architecture and landscape.

How has this travel research opportunity enhanced your academic career?
It’s given me a host of lessons and experiences to pull from. There’s a spirit of social enterprise in London that feels as important as the thriving commercialism.

There was one particular event I remember joining, which brought out the socio-political potential of public spaces. Two artists joined together in a walk of compassion through London to show solidarity with refugees world-wide. It started off with dozens of journalists, other media, and about 80 or so people at the Royal Academy of Arts.

The walk was a few miles and we stopped in a handful of public plazas. I remember each time we stopped, a crowd of curious spectators gathered and we would suddenly swell to close to two hundred people.

While Ai Weiwei and Anish Kapoor addressed the press, the group engaged in conversation with the people in the plazas. Some even decided to join in the walk. People continued to talk and exchange thoughts all throughout. The fluidity and frequency of public spaces acted as an armature. There was a spirit of hope and conviction in the crowd that seemed to spread naturally as we filled and emptied plazas.

How will this research inform your future work (as a student or otherwise)?
The more time I spent in a park or plaza, the more I became convinced that a place could be as carefully crafted as a building. The most frequented urban projects had an understanding of place relative to everything it sat beside and between. I remember the walk through the view corridors to St. Paul’s as vividly as sitting in the Cathedral garden.

The research, for me, shows the value in intensifying collaborative efforts between the community, city, developers, and design professionals to address sites more cohesively. I’ve grown more optimistic of the potential for more continuous public spaces in our city.

Do you have any tips for students who may be considering applying for a travel grant this year?
If there is something you’re passionate about exploring…put it in words and APPLY!

For more information on Saarinen’s research in London, read his report: Historical Preservation in the Age of Mass Development.

Visit the Current Students section of the Daniels Faculy's website for more information on the travel awards and how to apply.

Thanks to generous donations made by alumni and donors, Daniels Faculty students can apply for grants, fellowships, or scholarships to fund travel and research at sites of interest both within Canada and abroad. The application deadline for this year is March 2.

We’ve asked students who received travel awards last year to share their experiences with us. Yesterday we heard from Saarinen Balagengatharadilak. Today, we hear from Master of Architecture student Vanessa Abram, who spent a total of eight weeks conducting research in Detroit, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Tokyo with support from the Paul Oberman Graduate Student Endowment Fund.

What did you hope to learn during your time in Detroit, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Tokyo? 
I set out to learn histories of destruction and reconstruction within these cities from 1945 onward.

Why did you choose these cities for this research?
Each of these cities had an important role in wartime production during WWII and each has seen an impressive magnitude of erasure, destruction and material ruin since.

Tell us about something interesting that you discovered.
While in Hiroshima, I met with Mr. Toshikuni Nakagawa from the Municipal Archives where I was shown documentation prepared by Tange Kenzo for the design of 'Peace City Hiroshima' and Peace Park.  Along with this documentation, we went through a number of images that depicted the transformation of the site over the years following the atomic bombing. Tourist facilities and 'Peace Institutions' were among the first buildings to be erected out of the city's ashes. Public housing, as well as health and welfare institutions for both atomic bomb victims and others returning home from their countryside refuge, were to come much later (Tange, Peace City Hiroshima). Photographs of the annual Peace Ceremony held in Peace Park show temporary and precarious housing conditions in the background of many ceremonies, in some cases screened off by a curtain for privacy. Meanwhile, the American Cultural Center was also one of the first buildings to erect itself within the destroyed city. It was, in 1952, "a welcome sight — an oasis in the desert [... amidst] mountains of rubble" (Zqigenberg quoting Abol Fazl Fatouhi, 2004, 94).

How has this travel research opportunity enhanced your academic career?
The opportunity positioned my thesis within a more thorough research framework and historical awareness of my site and thesis topic. It led to me producing a book in conjunction with my thesis that broadened my interests in the subject and enriched the discussion around the architectural project.

How will this research inform your future work?
The research expanded my understanding of the profession beyond traditional limits of architecture to think of construction and destruction as dependent processes; Detroit's expansion, for example, as being a result of it's inner city demolition, or Hiroshima's annihilation as paving the way for opportunistic planning. The project changed the way I was viewing the limits and influence of architecture and design and also exposed me to alternative readings of history. In addition to this broadening of perspective, the research skills I acquired throughout my travel experience will impact my ability to contextualize and frame future projects.

Do you have any tips for students who may be considering applying for a travel grant this year?
Travel grants are a great opportunity to connect with architectural institutions, research groups, and offices across the globe. Take advantage of the experience to learn through local organizations, businesses, and individuals who know the place best!

For more information on Vanessa’s research in Detroit, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Tokyo, read her report: The Destruction of Two Cities

Visit the Current Students section of the Daniels Faculy's website for more information on the travel awards and how to apply.

A recent article in the Globe and Mail explored how rapidly rising housing prices in the city are affecting not only young adults struggling to enter the housing market, but also residents approaching retirement who are looking to downsize.

According to some Toronto architects, there is a simple solution: rethink the family home to suit several generations. The growing group of local architects and firms taking a multigenerational approach includes Daniels aulumni Janna Levitt (BArch 1986), Dean Goodman (BArch 1983), Lloyd Alter (BArch 1976), and Williamson Chong Architects, firm of alumnus Donald Chong (BArch 1994), Associate Professor Shane Williamson and Betsy Williamson.

Not wanting to move into an apartment or to leave their familiar neighbourhood, Alter and his wife have taken a creative approach to the architecture of the empty nest. "We're going into a generational change where the kids don't have enough money, and the parents have the house and don't need it," Alter told The Globe and Mail.  With that in mind, they chose to divide their house, which they've inhabited since 1984, into a duplex with one unit for themselves to occupy and the other for their daughter and her fiancé.

That adaptability can be built into the architecture of a new house, according to Williamson Chong. Their Grange Triple Double house, which was also recently profiled in the Architectural Record, was built for a three-generational family and designed to adapt as the owners' needs evolve. "The ingredients for this kind of house," partner Betsy Williamson tells The Globe and Mail, "are spaces that are discrete yet flixible."

With the same goal of adapatability in mind, Levitt and Goodman designed their own home a decade ago, when their children were still teenagers. The foresight to design a private area for their children has turned into an opportunity to rent that space out now that their children have all moved out.

The soultion comes down to good design: "It's important to think about what you're building for," Goodman tells The Globe and Mail, "not just right now, but in the longer term."

Related:

• Multigenerational home designed by Williamson Chong Architects featured in Metropolis magazine

Earlier this year, the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) announced Monica Adair (MArch 2005) as the recipient of the 2015 Young Architect Award. This award recognizes a young architect for excellence in design, leadership, and service to the profession.

Adair is the co-founder of Acre Architects along with Stephen Kopp (MArch 2005). The firm believes in “the importance of creating our own stories,” and “how the power of the story can convey strong and deep-felt emotions that are key to the structure that form our lives.” In addition to her professional work, Adair has held multiple teaching posts including an Instructor position in History of Canadian Architecture at the St. Thomas University Fredericton, and the Gerald Sheff Visiting Professorship in Architecture at McGill University. She has also served on the New Brunswick Arts Board, and currently sits on the Saint John Waterfront Development Board.

“In choosing Adair, the five-member jury cited the consistent quality of her project work, commitment to her hometown and her work in the arts community,” writes the 2015 Young Architect Award jury. “They also recognized her teaching, advocacy, and contribution to regional collaboration in Atlantic Canada.”

Started in 2011, the RAIC bestows the Young Architect Award to one recipient every year. Adair received her award at the RAIC/AAA Festival of Architecture, which took place in Calgary, June 3rd to 6th. Previous winners include past sessional lecturer Taymoore Balbaa, and Lola Sheppard (Lateral Office co-founder). 

Related:

• Canadian Builders Quarterly features 23-page-spread on the Daniels Faculty and alumni
• Daniels sessional lecturer Taymoore Balbaa wins Young Architect Award
• Williamson Chong Architects named the recipient of RAIC's 2014 Emerging Architectural Practice Award
• George Baird recipient of 2010 RAIC Gold Medal
• Team North receives RAIC award | Innovation in Architecture

Ja Architecture Studio recently received fourth place — out of 831 proposals from around the world — in the Bauhaus Museum Competition in Dessau

. A number of Daniels Faculty alumni and students worked on the winning proposal as part of the Toronto-based office's team.

Participants in the two-stage international competition were challenged to design a Bauhaus Museum for Dessau, Germany. Thirty firms were shortlisted firms to continue to the second phase.

“The design is characterized first and foremost by its polygonal and self-contained structural shell that sensitively addresses its urban design position," Wrote the jury in its citation of Ja Architecture Studio's proposal. "It shows a clear-cut edge towards Kavalierstrasse and a ramp forms a clear transition to Friedrichstrasse. All in all, the draft design convinces with its sculptural approach which demonstrates a strong commitment to the museum as a municipal building.”

Team Members included:

Architect:
Nima Javidi (MUD 2005, Daniels Faculty Sessional Instructor), OAA M.Arch LEED A.P

Landscape Architect:
Behnaz Assadi (MLA 2008), MLA BFA

Project Team:
Hanieh Rezai (MUD 2004), M.Arch MUD
Zhou Tang, M.Arch Candidate at the Daniels Faculty
Sally Kassar, M.Arch Candidate at the Daniels Faculty
Kyle O’Brien, M.Arch Candidate at the Daniels Faculty
Goldie Schlaf, M.Arch Candidate at the Daniels Faculty
Arittro Noor, BBA, University of Western Ontario

Professional Consultants:
AMA Design, Structural Design
Thomas Technical, Technical Building Services

Earlier this year, the firm was also recognized with an Honorable Mention, amongst 1715 international proposals in the Guggenheim Helsinki Competition.

For more information about Ja Architecture Studio, visit: http://www.jastudioinc.com

For more information about the competition, visit: http://bauhausmuseum-dessau.de/en/home.html

News & Media

• OAA
• Archinect
• Bustler
• Canadian Architect
• Archdaily
• Dezeen
• Afasia
• Beta Architecture

Daniels Faculty graduates working as part of the Toronto-based office Ja Architecture Studio received an Honorable Mention for their submission to the Guggenheim Helsinki Competition. The competition was launched in June 2014 to invite design proposals for the new Guggenheim museum located on Helsinki’s harbour. With 1,715 submissions, the event set the record in attracting the most number of entries for a design competition.

Team Members:

• Nima Javidi (MUD 2005)
• Behnaz Assadi (MLA 2008)
• Hanieh Rezaei (MUD 2004)
• Thomas Mustel, Master of Architecture student at École National Supérieure d’Architecture (Intern)
• Sarah Hunter, Bachelor of Architectural Studies graduate from University of Waterloo

Ja Architecture Studio was the only studio from Canada to win an Honorable Mention. Their entry is currently part of Guggenheim Helsinki Now, an exhibition showcasing the top submissions, which will be on display until May 16^th at the Kunsthalle Helsinki. Their submission can also be viewed at http://designguggenheimhelsinki.org/stageonegallery/view/#!/stageonegallery/view/gh-33457384

For more information about the competition, visit http://designguggenheimhelsinki.org/en/

Designed by Finish architect Viljo Revell and completed in 1965, City Hall is one of Toronto's most iconic landmarks — but a decade earlier, in 1955, City Council had a different building in mind.

That November, Council presented residents with a proposal for a modernist stone slab edifice that would face a civic square. Architecture students at the University of Toronto wrote an open letter to then-mayor Nathan Phillips stating their opposition to the plan, calling the proposed building “a funeral home of vast dimensions” and an “inhuman pile of stones.” (Ouch.)

U of T’s student newspaper, The Varsity, reported on the students’ outrage and call for an international competition. It’s been said that the architecture students influenced the plebiscite that rejected City Council’s original proposal, leading to the world-wide competition that was ultimately won by Revell.

Republished below are the two articles printed in The Varsity in 1955. The first reports on the architecture students' open letter. The second — by School of Architecture Instructor Richard Grooms, and students Pete Richardson and Harvey Cowan — outlines in great detail the students’ criticisms of the original proposal.

Thanks to The Varsity for permission to republish both articles.

Tuesday, November 22, 1955
Architects Say New city Hall Just Inhuman Pile of Stones
The Varsity, Vol. 75 – No. 41

Toronto’s proposed new City Hall was condemned in an open letter to Mayor Phillips from students at the University of Toronto’s School of Architecture.

“Why have we been presented with this monstrous monument to backwardness? Should the Toronto City Hall become another member of the insipid collection of Insurance buildings on Bloor St.?” asked the Architectural students, calling the planned building a “funeral home of vast dimensions.”

“These two colourless and inhuman piles of stone do not satisfy our feeling for beauty,” said the students.

“This structure represents nothing more than a monument to our city Fathers rather than a symbol of the progressive attitude our administration is supposed to support in a democracy.”

The students’ letter referred to the Massey Commission report that all civic buildings should be the object of competitions to ensure good design and free enterprise.

They recommended a national competition for Toronto’s City Hall. If a competition is impossible at this time, the letter continued “a special Architectural committee of critics could be chosen.”

The Toronto City Council has just approved the construction of a new multi-million dollar city hall.

Monday, December 5, 1955
The Varsity, Vol. 75 - No. 46

Editor’s Note:

The design of Toronto’s new City Hall has aroused much controversy. On this page The Varsity attempts to present some students’ opinions on the topical question.

While a new City Hall, whatever the cost, seems desirable, we must calculate the risk of having the present design foisted upon us. Is the booming city of Toronto to put up with the minute merits of the present design?

The succession of city fathers in Toronto’s notoriously inefficient administration has done a sloppy and haphazard job of presenting the new building. Our choice is whether we ought to condone for the sake of expediency or condemn in order to promote greater efficiency in the civic government.

The material on this page was submitted by Richard Grooms, lecturer in first year basic design, School of Architecture; Pete Richardson, President Arch. IV; Harvey Cowan, IV Arch.

City Bungles Civic Centre; Designs Cloudy, Fuddled

We all agreed that a new city hall is a good idea. In this election referendum these two issues must be kept separated:

1. Should $18 million be approved for a City Hall?
2. Should the City Hall be designed as the artists’ rendering has shown it?

This design has not been approved by the City Council, and has only been used as bait to entice the voters into approving the $18 million. To drag this architectural red herring across the path of the issues in question, does nothing to acquaint the public with good civic design.

First, there should have been a programme of requirements drawn up for the Civic Square, outlining the functions the Civic Square should include, and the buildings necessary to satisfy these requirements.

Secondly, a detailed programme should have been prepared analyzing the specific requirements of each individual building in the Civic Square.

Third, these programmes would have served as the basis of a national or international architecture competition for the design of the Civic Square in general, and the buildings in particular. The facilities or the rules and judging of such a competition are provided for by the Ontario Association of Architects.

The city, in its usual bungling manner, has failed to adopt a definite course of action. To our knowledge, these are the steps the city has followed to date.

1. In a plebiscite in 1947, the expropriation of land for a civic square was approved by the voters.
2. In June, 1953, the Daily Commercial News reported that 3 firms of architects, Marani & Morris, Mathers & Haldenby, and Shore & Moffat were retained by “the City.” The three architectural firms have also assumed the role of designers of the Civic Square. This would seem highly irregular in light of the fact that we now have a City Planning Board that should supervise all civic design.
3. We are now asked to approve the issuing of $18 million in debentures for the construction of a City Hall in the Civic Square.

The manner in which this was achieved was similar in putting several carts before the horse.

1. The City Hall was planned.
2. Now it is necessary to decide what a city hall should include and what is needed.
3. Then a Civic Square will be arranged around the completed City Hall.
4. After that, it will be decided what a civic square should include.

Does this not seem a very peculiar procedure, to do a thing first and then think about it? A bold, fresh design, unencumbered by any previously misconceived buildings, is what is needed.

Toronto must learn to act in the grand manner, have the courage of its convictions and not be misled by specious economic considerations.

A government such as ours, which is supposed to support free enterprise and fair play should have seen the necessity for a competition. If the Massey Report on Arts & Sciences, and the Ontario Association of Architects statement of 1952, on the necessity of competitions for public buildings, had been heeded, we would have stood a chance of acquiring a better design.

If the City Council must accept a design from these 3 firms, then it should ask the Council of the OAA and the City Planning Board to appoint a committee to evaluate and pass on any design submitted.

The whole issue is at best cloudy, and befuddled. To be handicapped in the future by what has been done already is not the best way to proceed in these matters.

What’s Wrong With The New Design?

Specifically then, what is wrong with this proposed City Hall? Let us take its aspects one by one.

1. It lacks any dignity or true monumentality. Sheer size is not the same as monumentality. Bulk alone is not a substitute for character. At least the old City Hall has character. It could never be confused with just another office building. It looks like a public building.

This new City Hall has been called a “dehumanized pile of stones” and “anonymous.” It is more than this. It is dull and uninteresting and indistinguishable from all the other insurance buildings these firms have hacked out.

1. The relation of the masses of the building is poorly conceived. The great slab of the office building is not pleasingly proportioned to either the buildings near it, or to its own lower part. It is sheer size and bulk without meaning.
2. As to bad details, these are almost too numerous to mention. The little services addition tacked on the top of the big slab is ludicrous. It ruins whatever silhouette the slab possesses. The silliest detail is the use of false columns for effect on the lower 4-storey section facing the square.
3. One of the main criticisms of the large slab is the monotonous heaviness of its appearance, due to poor window placement. They have just omitted every other stone and put in a window. If used properly, windows can be a good source of natural light, and can afford a pleasant view for the office dweller.

The placement of windows should also be related to the site and climate. This building has not been oriented from the standpoint of wind direction and climate control. It has just been planted on the site to survive as best it can. It supposedly has the latest of air-conditioning systems. This is fine for it will need it. It will be a huge stone oven to cool in summer, and a huge stone cellar to warm in winter.

1. Economically this building for $18 million is a farce. It is much too costly for what it will accomplish. It shows no structural imagination or inventiveness. Nothing new is being tried in any sense. It has no consideration of future needs or requirements.
2. As the interior plans have not been made public, it is not possible to comment on circulation or services. But it is unlikely that the building will be related from the standpoint of interior and exterior space. Almost no interior space could be related to the exterior of this building.
3. As to the important relation of building masses to open spaces, almost no thought has gone into this. It is but a token gesture to put in a few rows of trees and a few stagnant pools of water. Would it not be pleasant to have color and flowers and flowing water, fountains and a sidewalk café? Must we create a space only for the vagrants and bums to snooze and booze?

This is the most conspicuous waste of space possible because it says and does nothing.

1. On the matter of color and texture there is a stultifying monotony and drabness in using stone exclusively. Could not a more pleasant, colorful series of buildings be constructed so that a play of light and shadow could be enjoyed?

The use of colored lights at night could highlight or play down various aspects of the scene.

Toronto will probably agree to spend $18 million on this building and never again shock itself or anyone else. The spirit of Casa Loma is dead. For all the castle’s folly, it was at least different and visitors from other cities remember it.

This is more than our proposed city hall will ever accomplish. We will be confronted with the external monstrosity for at least 75-100 years.

PDFs of the original articles:

Tuesday, November 22, 1955
Architects Say New city Hall Just Inhuman Pile of Stones
The Varsity, Vol. 75 – No. 41

Monday, December 5, 1955
City Bungles Civic Centre; Designs Cloudy, Fuddled
The Varsity, Vol. 75 - No. 46

Image, Top:
Proposal for City Hall, Toronto
Marani & Morris, Mathers & Haldenby, Shore & Moffat, 1955
Rendering by Schell Lewis
City of Toronto Archives, Series 1188, File 5, Item PT 344-C-5

Assistant Professor Erica Allen-Kim presented a lecture titled Storefront Museums and Pagodas: Memory and Place on Argyle St. at the 68^th Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) Annual Conference. The event took place April 15^th – 19^th at the Holiday Inn Chicago Mart Plaza in Chicago, with Allen-Kim presenting on April 16th.

Allen-Kim’s lecture was based on research from her manuscript Mini-malls and Memorials: Building Saigon in the American Suburb.

“During the late 70s and early 80s, Southeast Asian refugees were resettled in Uptown near Argyle Street, which had been proclaimed a ‘New Chinatown’ by restaurateur Jimmy Wong and the Hip Sing Association in 1971,” writes Allen-Kim. “Through a reading of the vernacular architecture of Argyle Street, this paper illuminates the integral role of buildings and cultural landscapes for communities seeking a center in Chicago.”

The SAH conference aims to bring “discussions of the built environment into the present day.” It will feature “local architects, historians, and policy makers addressing two important issues in architecture and planning: the history and future of Chicago waterways, including Lake Michigan and the Chicago River; and issues of community and preservation in Chicago neighborhoods such as Pilsen.”

Allen-Kim’s research on the Pagoda at the Argyle Red Line ‘L’ Station was also featured in an article published by Curbed Chicago earlier this month. “Her research into its construction brought to light the intricacies of race and resettlement in Chicago's Asian neighborhoods,” writes Patrick Sisson in the article's introduction.

For more information about the conference, visit: http://www.sah.org/conferences-and-programs/2015-conference-chicago/program

Photo courtesy of Erica Allen-Kim