Leader Lane is a short street in downtown Toronto.The street was part of the former city of York, Upper Canada, and runs from Wellington Street East to King Street East, crossing Colborne Street. The street was named Leader Lane after the Toronto Leader, a newspaper whose offices were located there from 1852 to 1878.
King Street East and Leader Lane, circa 1920
Leader Lane was the site of York’s first jail and hanging yard.The original jail, a log building constructed in 1796 at the corner of Colborne Street, has long since been demolished. Several buildings, many over 100 years old, remain on Leader Lane.
Walking north from Wellington Street East…
Some of the buildings have different street addresses but face Leader Lane on one of their sides:
The East Thirty-Six Restaurant, 36 Wellington Street East
P.J. O’Brien Irish Pub & Restaurant, 39 Colborne Street
Tom Jones Steakhouse, 17 Leader Lane
The legendary Tom Jones Steak House is one of Toronto’s oldest and most famous award-winning Steakhouses. The structure is a rare surviving late-19th century three-storey commercial building. It housed the first Grand and Toy store, and for the past 50 years has been the location of the Steak House. The building was constructed in 1830 when the street was called Berezy Street.
This building always catches my eye when I pass through the area because its placement is so awkward and unusual – a lonely, standalone structure surrounded by high-rises and the King Edward Hotel.
Uno Prii (February 28, 1924 – November 27, 2000) was an Estonian-born Canadian architect. He designed approximately 250 buildings, many in Toronto, but also around southern Ontario and the United States. Some of Prii’s best-known works are apartment buildings in the Annex neighbourhood of Toronto, featuring outlines which make sweeping curves; these are the buildings I’ll focus on in this post.
11 Walmer Road
Curved balconies are a recurring theme on Uno Prii’s buildings. They act as a kind of false front for the standard flat-walled interiors. Prior to its 2018 renovation, 11 Walmer Road was white concrete, a trademark style of Uno Prii. The building was a collaboration with Polish-born carpenter Harry Hiller, who also collaborated with Prii on 44 Walmer Road.
22 Walmer Road (Walmer Flats)
22 Walmer Road, known as Walmer Flats, is an Uno Prii design that is more unusual than his others, in that it is a low-rise eight-storey building. Today, the balcony panels are made of blue glass, but they originally had a more playful design with large circular cut-outs.
The exact date of the Walmer Flat’s construction is unknown, likely dated to late 1956 or 1957. Based on its boxy design and the lack of whimsy seen in most other Prii buildings in Toronto, Walmer Flats is representative of one of Uno Prii’s earlier projects, when the influence of Bauhaus style in his work was stronger.
In the Swinging ’60s, as Toronto began to emerge from its staid conservatism, architect Uno Prii’s Miami Beach-inspired apartment buildings became instant landmarks for their sculptural, flamboyant exuberance. Initially dismissed by the architectural establishment as garish and trashy, Prii’s work began to be rediscovered in the mid-1990s as part of the renewed interest in Modernist architecture and design.
35 Walmer Road
35 Walmer Road, known as The Vincennes, was built in 1966 and signified a new type of apartment building in the Annex. Uno Prii’s designs were a new take on apartment buildings and added a fresh style to the neighbourhood. In contrast to the big and box-like buildings that came before it, The Vincennes was flowing, sculptural, and made of poured concrete.
Rising 15 stories, the building represented the aspirations of city living. Zoning laws in the city required tall buildings to be set well back on landscaped lots, inspiring Prii to create The Vincennes’ large sculptural flare we see today. The futurist sense of Prii’s designs have been described as a symbol of hope and optimism for the future.
A little backstory on The Vincennes:
The home of Timothy Eaton, founder of T. Eaton Co. Ltd., once stood on the same spot as The Vincennes. The Eatons moved into the mansion in 1889, indicating the Annex’s position as “a good address.” After Timothy’s death in 1907, his son and successor, Sir John Eaton, moved out of the Annex, signalling the shift of Toronto’s wealthy family to the surrounding suburbs. Many Annex mansions became boarding houses, student homes, or business offices. Timothy’s daughter, Josephine, gifted the original Eaton house to the Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire in 1934, which served as their headquarters until 1965, when it was sold. Like many of the original mansions, it was demolished to make room for the apartment buildings of the 1960s and 70s.
44 Walmer Road
44 Walmer Road is an excellent example of architect Uno Prii’s unique style. Apartments like this one became commonplace in Prii’s repertoire of buildings.
Affectionately called the Flower Tower, 44 Walmer Road has become one of Prii’s most iconic works. When it was first built in 1969, the balconies had circular, cut-out designs along the railing. This inspired the nickname Flower Tower by Toronto Life because it served as a reminder of the 1960s playfulness of “flower power,” going against then-current ways of building.
Besides the balconies, the circular theme is also found in the canopy structure over the door, where circle cut-outs emit light. It is again repeated with the arches and fountain in front of the building. Uno Prii’s love of circles, loops, and curves gave the building a sculptural sense of fun, making the building stand out against its rectangular neighbours. Uno Prii and his wife Silvia planned to live in the Flower Tower after Uno’s retirement, but the building was so popular and the waitlist so long that the Priis were never able to live there.
In 2001, the Flower Tower was sold to new owners, who renovated the building and removed the iconic circular cut-outs from the railings. One critic stated the change of this “high-sculptural, landmark tower” would drive the city further into “architectural mediocrity.”
Despite protests from tenants and Uno Prii’s family, the Flower Tower’s circular elements were lost. Tenants, architects, and historians called into question the renovation – if architecture is art, does a new owner have the right to change an architect’s original design?
I could see apartment buildings as giant sculptures. I thought people would remember these buildings…I got tired, eventually, of these straight boxes. I thought, let’s have a little fun.
100 Spadina Road
Completed in 1969, Uno Prii’s 100 Spadina Road Apartments is known for its sweeping curves, decorative surfaces, and articulated balconies. The facade’s enormous, parabola-shaped swoops make it instantly recognizable among its neighbours.
In 2002, the building was purchased by new owners. Since then, its has become an excellent example of the care given to preserving heritage sites. The building was given full heritage protection in 2007, a move which saved many of its distinctive elements.
When it was built, the building’s balcony guards were made using mass-produced decorative concrete blocks. These were difficult to maintain and deteriorated over time. At first, the new owners, Park Property Management, in consultation with ERA Architects, Brook Restoration and Ontech Building Consultants, planned to etch the design of the original blocks onto glass fronts. In the end, the designers chose to install a new “fritted” glass guard, which replicated the original design of the decorative blocks.
“Fritted” glass on balcony fronts
To create fritted glass, a special kind of ceramic material called frit is bound to the glass, creating textures and patterns. This method also reduces glare, cuts building cooling costs, and minimizes potential danger to birds. Although the original concrete blocks were not preserved, the new glass design maintained a portion of Uno Prii’s original vision.
485 Huron Street
Brazil Tower at 485 Huron Street is one of a series of 13 buildings listed on the City of Toronto’s Heritage Property Inventory since 2004. As we see again here, Uno Prii was a designer of apartment buildings with rounded curves and youthful, whimsical forms. It is said that his structures recall the optimism of the 1960s; this one, built in 1966, reflects that. The curved balconies, characteristic of many of his designs, add a touch of Miami Beach flair that give the building a rounded profile.
Cromwell, the building management company who maintains this building, has restored this magnificent tower to its original and much-loved appearance. The interior has been revisited to provide the comfort and today’s high-end features. The lobby, hallways, and elevators have been refurbished. The garage, freshly redone, also offers a large designated space for bicycles.
Curvilinear balconies are a recurring feature of Prii towers, but in most cases the undulating shapes act as sort of a false front for standard flat-walled suites. At 485 Huron Street, however, behind the rounded balconies are actual semicircular walls. Like bay windows, these costly but effective elements increase natural light and views.
20 Prince Arthur Avenue
Uno Prii claimed 20 Prince Arthur Avenue, built in 1965, was his favourite building, and it’s easy to understand why: the tower captures space age excitement with a rocket-like profile that flares outward at the base, then soars 22 storeys to scalloped peaks.
Blue-coloured balconies blend into the sky, emphasizing the curving white concrete shear walls. 20 Prince Arthur is probably Prii’s most luxurious and best-maintained building, set in expansive, lushly-landscaped grounds with a freestanding fountain. Unfortunately, my shots taken during a mid-February visit do not show off the grounds to their full potential.
Sweeping smoothly upwards the sheared walls form an exaggeratedly flared base to a rooftop crown 22-storeys above the ground. The building looks futuristic, recreating the lines of a rocket ship or bell-bottom pants, depending on your perspective. But Prii claimed centuries’-old inspiration for the tower’s distinctive feature when he commented:
With Twenty Prince Arthur I finally decided on a contrast of the old and the new. I took the flying buttresses from the medieval cathedrals and I applied them to a modern building.
The rest of the design is restrained: just windows and smooth white surfaces in between the eight evenly spaced buttresses on the building’s south and north faces.
Legacy
Uno Prii died on November 27, 2000, leaving behind a repertoire of architecture in Toronto. Like many great artists, he wasn’t often recognized during his own lifetime. He is credited with changing the face of both the Annex and Toronto, reshaping the skyline with space-age, rocket-like designs, pointing skyward towards a hopeful future.
In 2004, 13 of his buildings, mostly located in the Annex, were listed on the Inventory of Heritage Properties. The interest in Prii’s buildings also stems from young architects. Although many architects of the 1990s didn’t take his work seriously, architects of the 2000s see them with fresh eyes and fewer prejudices. Uno Prii’s work shows us that creativity comes from how the tools and materials at hand can be used in new and fantastic ways.
This has been such an interesting post to research and create, and I’ve learned so much about one of Toronto’s most prodigious architects. Uno Prii has created so many more structures in our city, and I look forward to researching those and creating further posts on this exceptionally talented man and his creations.
FURTHER READING
Want to learn more about Uni Prii and his famous architecture?
What do you do with an abandoned old train station? Why, turn it into a high-end LCBO of course!
Located just off Yonge Street near Summerhill Avenue, this structure used to be the North Toronto Railway Station. It was in service from 1916 to 1930, and closed in 1931 after Union Station opened downtown.
In 1916, architects Frank Darling and John Pearson were assigned the task of creating a new North Toronto rail station. The centrepiece of their plan was a 140-foot clock tower inspired by the Campanile in St. Mark’s Square in Venice. Built by the P. Lyall & Sons Construction Company, the station went on to service the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) line running across Toronto.
Globe, September 10, 1915
This station was the first building in the city to be constructed of Tyndall limestone from Manitoba, supplied by The Wallace Sandstone Quarries.
When then-Mayor Tommy Church laid the cornerstone on September 9, 1915, he praised the CPR for being the first railway company to give Toronto proper recognition. He hoped the station would be the first of a series of railway gateways to the city, improving inter-city commuting. When passenger service began on June 4, 1916, destinations included Lindsay, Owen Sound, and Ottawa. The most popular route was Montreal, which attracted wealthy businessmen who lived nearby.
Globe, June 15, 1916
When Union Station opened in 1927 and the Great Depression followed shortly thereafter, the North Toronto Railway Station, which served smaller towns in Ontario and was originally meant to augment the bigger station, began to suffer. The last paying passengers filed through the station on September 27, 1930. Brewers’ Retail moved into the northern portion of the terminal building in 1931.
Ticket area, circa 1916 City of Toronto Archives
The station was re-opened, briefly, at 10:30AM on May 22, 1939, when King George VI and his consort, Queen Elizabeth (mother of Queen Elizabeth II), arrived for their first visit to Toronto. This was the first visit to Canada by a reigning British monarch. The King was also officially the Canadian monarch, marking the first visit by one to the city. The royal couple departed Toronto through Union Station. Shortly after World War II, returning soldiers passed through the North Toronto station; they were its last rail passengers.
The building has been protected under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act since October 13, 1976.
Inside The Building…
You want booze? There’s nothing you can’t find here – champagne, wine, beer, vodka, gin, whisky, scotch, tequila – you name it, they have that and a lot more. They also carry extensive vintage and imported liquor.
Staying true to the building’s roots, aisles and signs echo its past life
The station has a much, much longer history than I’ve noted, so if you’re interested in reading a more in-depth article, click here for the wiki.
The Simcoe WaveDeck is one of four WaveDecks along Toronto’s Harbourfront. Located at the foot of Simcoe Street – 234 Queen’s Quay West to be exact – it opened in June 2009.
Located at the water’s edge, the wooden Simcoe WaveDeck features an informal public amphitheatre-style space with curves that soar as high as 2.6 metres above the lake. Inspired by the Canadian cottage experience and the shorelines of Ontario’s great lakes, the WaveDeck is meant to give urban dwellers a feel for life at the lake.
The other WaveDecks along the Harbourfront are the Spadina WaveDeck (foot of Spadina Avenue), the Rees WaveDeck (west of Rees Street on the south side of Queens Quay), and the Parliament WaveDeck (foot of Parliament Street; currently under development).
The WaveDecks were designed by the firm West 8 Urban Design & Landscape Architecture in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The WaveDecks have achieved the Award of Excellence, Ontario Builders Awards (2009) and were nominated for the Conde Nast Traveller Innovation and Design Awards (2010).
The Spadina WaveDeck has been the recipient of numerous prestigious awards including a Toronto Urban Design Award. It was also the first Canadian project ever to be short-listed for the world-acclaimed Brit Insurance Design Awards.
The Rees WaveDeck has been honoured with several awards including a Bronze Medal for Landscape Design from the Design Exchange.
The Simcoe WaveDeck’s Construction
To see a time lapse video of the Simcoe WaveDeck’s construction, check this out:
Future Plans
There is to eventually be a total of 8 WaveDecks along the Harbourfront, and they promise to totally transform our waterfront.
Here’s an interesting video from our controversial architecture critic Christopher Hume, discussing this project and its expansion:
St. Paul’s Basilica is the oldest Roman Catholic congregation in Toronto. It is located at 83 Power Street in the Corktown neighbourhood, near the intersection of Queen and Parliament Streets. Created by architect Joseph Connolly in the Romanesque Revival style, it opened in 1889.
For the following text I’ve borrowed heavily from the History section of the Church’s website:
Established in 1822, St. Paul’s is the mother church of the Archdiocese of Toronto. The first St. Paul’s, of red brick and Gothic style, was completed in 1824. After the diocese was created in 1841, Bishop Michael Power used St. Paul’s as his cathedral until the completion of the construction of St. Michael’s Cathedral in 1848. In 1847, a typhus epidemic raged through the city, killing 850 people, including Bishop Power. Many were buried on the grounds of St. Paul’s Church and School, though the majority were moved to St. Michael’s Cemetery at Yonge and St. Clair Avenue West.
In 1880, Bishop Thomas Timothy O’Mahony was appointed Pastor. He had served in his native Ireland and Australia and was a man of great vision and energy. The old St. Paul’s had to be replaced in order to accommodate the rapidly growing Catholic population of Toronto. Bishop O’Mahony soon began planning a new church with architect Joseph Connolly. They designed a large structure in Italian Romanesque style, which was rather extraordinary in a city of Gothic churches. The cornerstone was blessed in 1887 by Elzear-Alexandre Cardinal Taschereau, Archbishop of Quebec. The first Mass was celebrated just before Christmas of 1889. The statue of St. Paul was placed above the centre door in 1899.
To the memory of the Irish immigrants who were buried in the adjacent ground during the year of 1847, and in honour of the Right Reverend Michael Power, First Bishop of the Diocese of Toronto, who laid down his life for the fever stricken members of his flock, this monument is devoutly dedicated.Untitled sculpture in churchyard
Dean John Lawrence Hand was appointed Pastor of St. Paul’s in 1892 and served to 1936. If Connolly designed St. Paul’s and Bishop O’Mahony built it, Dean Hand completed the church and made it the work of beauty one sees today. He was responsible for commissioning most of the artwork inside St. Paul’s. The four major paintings in the sanctuary and the side apses were finished in 1893. The all-wood organ was installed in 1898 by R.S. Williams & Son, Toronto, and is the only one of its kind in North America. The stained glass windows were installed a year later, and the Stations of the Cross in 1901. The campanile (bell tower) with the bell from the original church was erected in 1905.
Scenes for the life of St. Paul were painted on canvas in 1911. The angels behind the altar were created with the same technique in the 1920s. The bronze Pieta on the front lawn was erected in 1933 as a memorial to Bishop Michael Power and hundreds of parishioners who died during the typhus epidemic of 1847. A plaque at the front entrance bears the names of 81 members of the congregation who died during World War I. Beside the front steps is the grave of Bishop Thomas Timothy O’Mahony.
In 1998, Father Tom Day began the process of restoring the church to its original splendour. This continued under Monsignor Brad Massman in collaboration with the architect Charles Hazell.
On August 3, 1999, Pope John Paul II elevated St. Paul’s to the rank of Minor Basilica by an Apostolic Decree. To be given this Papal honour, a church must be a centre of liturgical and pastoral life in the diocese and renowned for its antiquity, beauty, canonical significance or devotional popularity. Minor Basilicas receive special concessions such as the privilege of granting plenary indulgence on certain days in a year. The insignia of a Minor Basilica include the Ombrellino or Pavilion (a red and yellow umbrella) and the Tintinnabulum (a processional bell). St. Paul’s is the twentieth church in Canada to receive this honorific title.
I’ve known about the so-called “Cube House” for several years and have always wanted to get some shots of it. I finally paid a visit to the building this past weekend.
The Cube House is located at 1 Sumach Street beside the busy Adelaide Street East and Richmond Street East overpasses, which is kind of an odd location. Sumach Street is strangely laid out near the Cube House – it ends in a stubby dead end with a second Sumach Street running parallel to the first, then the two streets pick up as one on the north side of the Richmond Street East overpass:
I remember the Cube House being very popular years ago during the Doors Open Toronto events. Sadly, this unique piece of Toronto architecture is now abandoned and derelict. This being Toronto, where we don’t preserve our past or any interesting structures, there is a move to demolish the building to construct – wait for it – more condos.
The Cube House was built in 1996 by Canadian architect Ben Kutner and his partner Jeff Brown. When the architects designed their cube home, they modelled it after Dutch architect Piet Blom’s cube houses in Rotterdam which were built in the 1970s:
Piet Blom’s cube houses in Rotterdam, Netherlands This photo courtesy of blogto.com
The Canadian architects intended to use the home as a solution for affordable housing on unusable parcels of land and originally planned to construct more. The architects envisioned that the Cube House would be moved around to different locations across its lifespan rather than permanently staying in its current location.
I found some interesting facts about the Cube House:
It took architect Ben Kutner 10 years to get permission from the city to get the plans approved.
The ownership of the property became a legal battle for over a year because the cubes were built on land that was not owned by the architect. As a result, the cubes were deemed the property of the landowner.
Eventually, in the early 2000s, the land and structure were sold to Coffee Time founder Tom Michalopoulos for $265,000; he utilized the cubes as billboards for his coffee business.
In May 2016, the property was purchased by commercial real estate expert Taso Boussoulas and real estate developer Jeff Craig for $2,750,000.
I’m glad I got these shots when I did; the Cube House’s future is very uncertain. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens to it down the road.
A little photowalk capturing Harbourfront, York Street and Union Station in glorious Black & White.
Harbourfront
The View From York Street
Maple Leaf Square, Outside the Scotiabank Arena (formerly the Air Canada Centre)
This installation in Maple Leaf Square is entitled Search Light, Star Light, Spot Light, created by John McEwan and unveiled in 1999. The 3-column steel sculpture is inspired by a quote from author Louis Untermeyer: God, if you wish for our love, Fling us a handful of stars.
The surface of each column has been extensively perforated with holes in the shape of five-pointed stars that glow when lit from within like celestial search beacons in the night. The effect is most immediately associated with the search beams that call attention to entertainment spectacles such as those that take place in the adjacent Scotiabank Arena.
Art critics of the sculpture say that the telescopic shape of the columns and the starry lights suggest a connection between the earth and sky; between the infinite cosmos and the depth of the human imagination.
Union Station
Entering via Bremner Boulevard:
Taken while Union Station was still under renovation
The Arts and Letters Club of Toronto is a private club which brings together writers, architects, musicians, painters, graphic artists, actors, and others working in or with a love of the arts. Located at 14 Elm Street, the Club is located in an historic building called St. George’s Hall.
St. George’s Hall is designated as a National Historic Site. The mandate of the Arts and Letters Club of Toronto is to: advance the arts and letters, by and through its members who practice and contribute to the arts, in the conviction that the arts are essential to a healthy, enlightened society.
The building was built by the St. George’s Society in 1891. The Arts and Letters Club leased it in 1920 and purchased it in 1986. The 3-storey building has been extensively renovated and is wheelchair-accessible.
The Arts & Letters Club of Toronto has been designated a building of National Historic Significance by the Government of Canada.
The Great Hall
The Great Hall is home to a cathedral ceiling, large fireplace, a choir gallery, a well-equipped stage and a Steinway grand piano, no less. The numerous wall banners celebrate the names of illustrious early Club members.
The Great Hall holds rotating exhibitions of paintings, drawings and photography; the Hall also serves as an intimate concert hall and theatre. Its principal function, however, is as a dining room, where members and their guests dine and socialize around refectory tables.
The Lounge
Second Floor
Elevator self portrait, on the way to top floor
The Boardroom
The Library
The Basement
Entrance / Lobby
The entrance displays some of the Club’s Presidential portraits. They continue around the ceiling of the lounge . Each Club President selects a Club artist to create a portrait at the end of the President’s term.
I crossed Harbord Street a few months ago to reach Spadina Avenue. Harbord Village is a established, gentrified area but there was a little section of Harbord Street between Spadina Avenue and Huron Street that was distinctly abandoned, with the old houses crumbling. Here are some of the sad, derelict houses I encountered:
I came upon this by accident with a friend when it was under construction. At the time we said we…