A Guidebook to Contemporary Architecture in Toronto

By Ben Kaplan, National Post

Unexplored crevices and odd points of view burst from the pages of A Guidebook to Contemporary Architecture in Toronto, a collection so inspired it surprised the series’ creators in Montreal.

“They were shocked, like, ‘God, Toronto looks really good,’ ” says Margaret “Maggie” Goodfellow, 32, a project manager on the city’s waterfront, who wrote the book with Phil Goodfellow, her 32-year-old architect husband. “I don’t think Torontonians even know the extent of all the stuff going on here — let alone our editors in Montreal.”

Leading a tour of the city’s nooks and crannies, the Goodfellows stop frequently to ooh and aah at the unusual design quirks that juxtapose new and old. On Philosopher’s Walk, a stretch of parkland between Harbord and Bloor, there’s an angle where the ROM’s crystals appear to sprout from Trinity College’s ancient stone walls.

“The thrill is discovering the spaces in between places — the side entrances and views from the back — which are almost as nice as the buildings,” says Phil, a Montreal boy who met Maggie when she was at Carleton University in Ottawa and he was studying architecture at the University of Toronto. “We want readers to rediscover their neighbourhoods and be amazed at what they see.”

The book, pocket-sized and jammed with photographs, was a three-year labour of love, and it features buildings and parks from Etobicoke to Scarborough, the waterfront to the 401. Attention is paid to the usual suspects, Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts and the Bata Shoe Museum receive full pages, but equally enticing are little known areas like the Schulich School of Business at York University and the laneway homes on Croft Street in Little Italy.

“The fun part in making this was getting to be a tourist in our own home,” Maggie says. “There’s little like the thrill of falling in love with a place you’ve never been.”

After appreciative inspections of the rear of the Gardiner Museum and the foyer of the Canadian headquarters of McKinsey & Company, an office building between Queen’s Park and St. Thomas Street, we venture inside the Royal Conservatory of Music.

“On a quiet afternoon, you can hear the musicians rehearse,” Phil says as we pass through the restored McMaster Hall and head toward the upstairs lobby of the Koerner Concert Hall, which Maggie says houses the city’s best bar.

“By exploring all the different angles of Toronto, it can give you a real different perspective, an appreciation, for where we live,” she says, looking southward from the building’s second floor patio, taking in the city’s skyline jutting over the recent foliage of the trees.

The Goodfellows describe contemporary architecture as anything built over the past two decades and say the recession of the early ’90s helped lead to the design renaissance of today. A wave of new projects erected at the start of the aughts — the OCAD building, the District lofts, Yonge-Dundas Square — helped pave the way for the Spadina WaveDeck, Terminal 1 at Pearson Airport and the Toronto Botanical Gardens.

“When people began to experience architecture, they didn’t want to live in mediocrity anymore,” says Maggie, who cites the “Bilbao effect” (Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum revitalized the city of Bilbao, Spain) with showing the world that a great building can generate not just tourism dollars but also civic pride.

“Toronto built itself out of the recession to become just as strong as New York,” Phil explains. “Our passageways offer one of a kind cracks in the urban world.”

Touring the city with the Goodfellows seems almost an impossible mission, seeing as both husband and wife are due back at the office after taking an extended lunch. Nevertheless, what was supposed to be 10 minutes at the Royal Conservatory turns into a two-hour tour — the music hall’s refurbished, finally completed auditorium provided the image for the book’s cover, so their enthusiasm is entirely justified — and afterwards, we spend another hour checking out the secret promenades north of Bloor Street and the Village of Yorkville Park.

“You’d think you were on a speed date discovering these little gems, but then you realize it’s more like a long kiss,” says Maggie, climbing the stone ridge on Cumberland Street, looking down at the shoppers on Bellair.

“You can get some action on your speed date if you just step out from your usual path,” Phil responds.

Loaded with factoids and maps, interviews with architects such as Bruce Kuwabara and big wigs such as William Thorsell, A Guidebook to Contemporary Architecture in Toronto reads like a walking tour narrated by a giddy, knowledgeable friend. For tourists, it’s a warm introduction to the city; for Torontonians, it’s a new way of looking at home.

“The book was created to get people out and exploring,” Maggie says. “We want to show Torontonians what’s sometimes not normally seen.”

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