The Inner Studio - Riverside Architectural Press

TORONTO: THE CITY WHO IS WHOLE
because it is cut off from the rest of the city, but because what we
built at the new edge is so artificial. When we separated ourselves
from the lake we became lost. We forgot where we came from and
how we came to be here. When the city loses its authenticity, its
soul is lost and decision making suffers.
The natural shoreline of Toronto had a name: Front Street. It is
now a historical artifact 500 meters from the shoreline, but once it
was on the water. Bay Street also suffered, as did most of the other
major north-south arteries. We have become like a plant pulled
from the ground. We suffer the disease of urban disassociation. The
forces of real estate are important and need more attention than the
marketing of a product. If we cannot get back to the water, perhaps
we can bring water back into the city. We need to remember our
watery side. We need to recall maritime weather, the portage, and
the beauty of a shoreline. If the ravines speak to our loss of contact
with nature, our artificial shoreline speaks to our lack of regard for
the potential creativity of life. We are trying to be serious about
recovering our shoreline, but we always seems to miss the point of
being able to enjoy, reflect, and play at the water edge.
City Hall: Everyone Is Welcome
The old City Hall ruled Bay Street, the traditional street of wealth
and power, its Victorian Gothic tower a perfect expression of patriarchy.
In 1959 an architect from Finland, Vijo Revell, won an
architectural competition for Toronto’s new city hall. It’s amazing
that his project was selected by a city that until then really had
shown no taste for the artful. Old and new city halls now sit side
by side. The old patriarchal tower was visible from Lake Ontario.
The modern city hall sits like a proud matriarch radiating welcome
over her large public plaza and city. In the space between its two
crescent shaped towers sits a slim pebble, the council chamber. It
celebrates while exuding a slightly reserved sense of repose and
hope. The ensemble spins more than sits and ensures a strong
sense of invitation like the perfect northern host.
City Hall belongs to that moment when modern architecture
flirted with self-expression, and so this symbol of governing is curiously
more part of its creator’s vocabulary than our own. That’s
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