The Inner Studio - Riverside Architectural Press

THE INNER STUDIO
grand projects were not the usual galleries or public spaces, but the
occasional outburst of infrastructure. In Toronto beauty needed a
purpose and we were mostly comfortable with projects that were
practical like the R.C. Harris sewage treatment plant or the Bloor
Street Viaduct. These were the great palaces in the city the way
barns are great temples in the rural landscape. We remained a small
town, a good place, and our charm was the self-effacing modesty of
our imagination.
Growth
Then one day in 1963 everything changed. A bomb blew up a
mailbox in Montreal’s ruling English-speaking neighborhood of
Westmount. A group that wanted Quebec to leave Canada claimed
responsibility. People in Montreal were frightened and an exodus
began; soon banks, small businesses, and insurance companies
with thousands of their employees were headed west up Highway
401 toward Toronto.
We really weren’t expecting all these Montrealers and they
weren’t expecting us. They were leaving a handsome, corrupt, and
fun-loving cosmopolitan city with a hockey team that was unstoppable.
In Toronto, drinking and dancing had been so regulated that
they were nearly illegal. The city was serious about littering and
illegally crossing the street. A subway system had just been built
that exuded humility and restraint. The more exotic stations were
named “Queen” and “King.” To make matters more complex, in the
wake of Montreal’s trauma, the wave of immigration that had
started after World War II began to grow. First came the Italians,
half a million of them from southern Italy, skilled in construction
trades. Then successive waves of Portuguese, Hungarians, West
Indians, Chinese via Hong Kong, then East Asians, Koreans, and
Greeks. Just when this surge seemed to subside, new waves of
immigrants and refugees began to arrive from South America,
Central America, Vietnam, Africa, and the Middle East. As is
usually the case, fathers, brothers, and sons arrived and, once they
had saved enough, their wives, parents, and children, brothers
and sisters, aunts and uncles followed. They moved into the old
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