Stuff
Walk This Way
By Julia Belluz
Photo by Finn O'Hara
Every weekend for nearly a year, Margaret and Phil Goodfellow drove to obscure architectural sites – from a Chinese Baptist Church in Scarborough to Mississauga’s Hazel McCallion Academic Learning Centre – scouring the GTA for fodder to include in their new paperback, A Guidebook to Contemporary Architecture in Toronto.
The Goodfellows had already mapped local modern architecture through the Toronto Society of Architects (TSA). The key criterion when scouting a location for the book? “Would I tell a friend to go see it,” says Margaret, a project manager for the city’s waterfront development and long-time advocate for design excellence in the city.
The result is a pocket-sized book crammed with photos and facts about some 60 projects. “We wanted to chart how Toronto built itself out of the recession of the early 1990s, culminating in the Cultural Renaissance,” says Phil, an architect who established the urban affairs forums for the TSA.
Organized by neighbourhood, their tour begins with Santiago Calatrava’s 1992 Allen Lambert Galleria in the Brookfield Place and the 1995 Bata Shoe Museum. Both were harbingers of the growing consideration for good design and the rise of philanthropic investment in cultural institutions.
Since those early examples, Toronto’s sustained economic growth and dramatic architectural renaissance has come full circle with the recent financial downturn. “The book ended up being a time capsule that marks an economic period from recession to recession,” says Margaret. The final project, 60 Richmond Street East, is an affordable housing development finished last winter.
Now that the book is published, their advocacy continues. “We need to be aware of public space,” says Margaret. “We have amazing buildings, but now we need to improve our streets, signage, avenues and lights. Phil adds, “We have a great house, but we also need good furniture.”
A Guidebook to Contemporary Architecture in Toronto (Douglas & McIntyre, $25). Take it with you during Doors Open Toronto, May 29-30.