On the charming little downtown street known as St. Nicholas Street, house numbers 45 to 63 are known as “The Cottages”.
In 1883, The Scottish Ontario and Manitoba Land Company built ten row houses on the east side of St. Nicholas Street and named each cottage after a tree: Beach, Birch, Spruce, Hazel, Rose, Maple, Ash, Ivy, Elm and Oak. The properties were occupied by tenants, with occupations ranging from Saloon Keeper to Minister. The style of construction was Bay-N-Gable on a 18′ 10″ wide lot. These buildings have been designated under Part V of the Ontario Heritage Act. A little alley called Cottage Lane provides access to the rear of the houses.
45 St. Nicholas Street Beech Cottage and Birch Cottage
49-51 St. Nicholas Street Spruce Cottage and Hazel Cottage
53-55 St. Nicholas Street Rose Cottage and Maple Cottage
57-59 St. Nicholas Street Ash Cottage and Ivy Cottage
61-63 St. Nicholas Street Elm Cottage and Oak Cottage
A rare example of a surviving Victorian terraced row, 45-63 St. Nicholas Street is unique to say the least. The street sits just several hundred metres from Yonge and Bloor Streets, yet feels like a quaint neighbourhood block. St. Nicholas Street was, in fact, originally an alley lane before the row was constructed in 1884.
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.
For today’s TOcityscapes we’ll go outside the city just a bit – out to the Toronto Islands, specifically, to take a look at the Gibraltar Point Lighthouse.
The Gibraltar Point Lighthouse was Toronto’s first lighthouse. It was built in 1808, was originally 52 feet tall, and had a fixed white light that burned sperm oil. In 1832, the lighthouse was raised an additional 30 feet to bring the total height to 82 feet. At this point, an improved lighting system was installed. After 1863, coal oil was used to light the tower.
John P. Rademuller was hired as the first keeper of the lighthouse. He served there until he met a tragic end, as reported in the January 14, 1815 edition of the York Gazette:
Died on the evening of the 2nd of January, J.P. Rademuller, keeper of the lighthouse on Gibraltar Point. From circumstances there is moral proof of his having been murdered. If the horrid crime admits of aggravation when the inoffensive and benevolent character of the unfortunate sufferer are considered, his murder will be pronounced most barbarous and inhuman. The parties lost with him are the proposed perpetrators and are in prison.
Three months later, the Gazette reported: No conviction of the supposed murderers of the late J.P. Rademuller. Though the details of what happened that night in January 1815 have been lost, legend has it that soldiers from the York Garrison visited Gibraltar Point that night to obtain beer from Lighthouse Keeper Rademuller. Some accounts say the Keeper refused to sell to the soldiers, and others claim he overcharged them, but all agree that the soldiers became enraged, killed the Keeper, and disposed of his body.
James Durnan and his son George, who between them kept the light from 1832 to 1905, were both known to talk about the murder of the lighthouse’s first Keeper, and in 1893, George Durnan uncovered a jaw bone on the point. Due to the mystery surrounding the demise of Keeper J.P. Rademuller, rumours persist to this day that Gibraltar Point Lighthouse is haunted.
The lighthouse was electrified during the winter of 1916–1917 and Blake Matthews, the light’s last official Keeper, left the following year.
The characteristic of the automated lighthouse was changed in 1945 from flashing white to fixed green, and it retained this latter signature until it was deactivated in 1959 and replaced by a nearby tripod tower that displayed a flashing red light.
Metro Parks took over lighthouse operations and made renovations in 1961-62. Currently unused, the lighthouse is occasionally open for public tours, including the annual Doors Open Toronto weekend.
After years of planning to attend and then never going (hearing reports of the crush from massive crowds had turned me off), I ventured down to the Distillery District’s Winter Village last night. Luckily (for me, anyway) we’d had the big “storm” last night and the weather was not great; this kept a lot of people away. The event has become so popular and crowded over the years that the Distillery’s Winter Village is now a ticketed, timed event – at least during the evening hours on the weekends.
I’ve always wanted to photograph this event during a white Christmas, so last night’s storm worked in my favour. Also, the temperature kept a lot of people away: it was -12°, with the “feels like” wind chill dropping the temp to a balmy, breezy -27°. I bundled up and was good to go, although my hands were turning into blocks of ice while hanging on to the camera… talk about suffering for your art.
This year’s 51-foot tall white spruce Christmas tree has been designed by Parfums Christian Dior. It features 70,000 twinkling lights, 400 custom midnight blue ornaments, 1,700 shiny and matte gold balls, and 1,000 custom DIOR star charms. Over 500 hours of labour went into creating this sparkling, one-of-a-kind tree.
The historic Distillery District has 65+ local shops, restaurants and cafés. Many of these were in full operation for the Winter Village event, plus vendor cabins offered specially curated seasonal items and gifts. Several food cabins also lined the cobblestone streets.
Distillery Winter Village, shot with a fogged-up lens & six-point star filter
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 gave always loved Richmond Street. It encompasses Industrial, commercial and residential. So many lovely buildings as it winds its…