Nancy Byrtus - East/West. A Guide to Where People Live in Downtown Toronto

East West

... SOME TORONTO RESIDENCES.

East/West
A Guide to Where People Live in Downtown Toronto

Edited by Nancy Byrtus, Mark Fram, and Michael McClelland

Published and distributed by Coach House Books, for the Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada, June 2000

First edition

This collection copyright 2000 by Coach House Books

Individual attributed entries copyright in the names of their authors

All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.

Manufactured in Canada

Views expressed herein are those of the author exclusively. Responsibilities for opinions expressed, accuracy of information, and any rights to reproduce supplied images or texts rest with the authors.

Canadian Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

Main entry under title:
East/West: a guide to living in downtown Toronto

ISBN: 1 55245 065 1

This epub edition published in 2010. Electronic ISBN 978 1 77056 043 7.

1. Toronto (Ont.)Description and travel. 2. BuildingsOntarioToronto.
3. ArchitectureOntarioToronto. 4. NeighborhoodOntarioToronto.
I. Byrtus, Nancy, 1967- . II. Fram, Mark. III. McClelland, Michael, 1951- .

FC3097.5.E27 2000 971.3541 C00-931499-7
F1059.5.T686A2 2000

Coach House Books
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Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada
A voluntary, non-profit, charitable association
Box 2302, Station D, Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5W5

Funding for this publication has been provided by Parks Canada, the Toronto Community Foundation, and the Toronto Society of Architects.

The Locations maps on pages shows the street names at a very small size (magnifier required). In any case, a larger-scale street map will be an invaluable aid to finding these places.

This publication was created with the goal of providing a snapshot of housing types and issues in Toronto in conjunction with the Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada (SSAC) conference Fresh Perspectives on Housing (June 7-10, 2000).

East/West: A Guide to Where People Live in Downtown Toronto does not attempt to include all sites, all voices, and all opinions, but a significant dimension of the publication has been to provide a forum for different voices that do not usually have the opportunity to be heard together. We have deliberately avoided influencing or homogenizing the responses of the authors for the sake of an overarching thesis. Instead, we have attempted to convey each authors contribution (text and illustrations), as part of the complex and often incongruous matrix of opinions that come from governments, heritage groups, builders, planners, lawyers, architects, landscape architects, and developers, as well as students and people who live in the centre of the city. The perspectives within this book, therefore, do not necessarily represent those of the editors or the SSAC.

The publication is organized around two cross-sections of the downtown core, one in the east end and one in the west. The eastern cross-section takes Parliament Street as its spine, running from Rosedale to the Harbour; the western cross-section follows Spadina Avenue and St George/Beverley streets, from Wychwood and Casa Loma to the Harbour. This sectional view of the city is not intended to be exclusive or divisive in any sense, but to provide a profile of housing where the juxtaposition of differences becomes as significant as the presentation of congruent neigh-bourhoods. Most sites, but not all, were selected because they fit on one of the cross-sections. Parts of these cross-sections are adaptable for self-guided walking tours. Some sites have been included that are off the sectional grid because they illustrate major trends, ideas, or issues that could not be easily treated within the framework of the downtown.

East/West: A Guide to Where People Live in Downtown Toronto is our invitation to visit, explore and reflect upon the neighbourhoods and housing sites of Toronto.

Michael McClelland, Marsha Kelmans and Nancy Byrtus

We gratefully acknowledge the City of Toronto Archives (abbreviated in the individual credits as CTA) and the City Planning Division, Urban Development Services, City of Toronto (CPD/CT), for permission to reproduce photographs, perspective views generated from the City of Torontos computer modeling, and excerpts from city maps.

Photographs supplied by the contributors have been credited wherever possible to the original photographers. In those cases where the original credit could not be confirmed by press time, the author or the authors firm is noted as the source, preceded by this symbol .

The plans of existing residences and the pictures of some Toronto residences are reproduced from the Bruce Report Report of the Lieutenant Governors Committee on Housing Conditions in Toronto, 1934. Toronto: Hunter Rose.

The definitions on page xiv are from the Oxford English Dictionary (Second Edition). The coda in the introduction is from John Sladek. The Communicants. The New S.F. London: Arrow Books, 1969.

We are especially grateful to the following sponsors and supporters, whose contributions have made this book possible:

Financial assistance

Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada
Toronto Community Foundation
Parks Canada
ERA Architects Inc.
Polymath&Thaumaturge Inc.
Public Work Architects Inc.
Toronto Society of Architects

Other support

For assistance with the acquisition of computer-modeling data, Robert Wright and Charles Cox, Center for Landscape Research, Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Urban Design, University of Toronto; and Robert Glover, City of Toronto

For writing the initial letters of support for the project, Karen Black, Cathy Crowe, Catherine Nasmith, and Michael Shapcott

For their assistance in securing historic photographs, Sally Gibson, and Andrea Aitken at the City of Toronto Archives

For carefully reviewing the publication before it went to press, Robert G. Hill