ERA Architects Inc. | Blogs: Tower Renewal

About Toronto Tower Renewal

Toronto area contains the second largest concentration of high-rise buildings in North America. The bulk of these are aging mid century apartment towers, built throughout the City and it’s suburbs in the post-war boom.

The Tower Renewal Project is an initiative to re-examine this remarkable heritage, neighbourhood histories, their current place in our city, and their future potential in a green and equitable Toronto.

Key considerations for this multidisciplinary project include decreasing greenhouse gas emissions through building and site retrofit, as well as enabling ‘complete communities’ through the introduction of on-site mixed-use, community services delivery, usable open and recreation space, as well as new retail, housing and employment opportunities. More about the Tower Renewal Project can be found here.

The project was initiated by the Mayor’s Office of the City of Toronto in 2007, with partners E.R.A. Architects and the University of Toronto. Tower Renewal combines several streams of on-going research related to Toronto’s modern towers, including environmental and building science research conducted at the Faculty of Architecture by professors Ted Kesik and Ivan Saleff beginning in 2002.

A growing list of project collaborators currently includes:

The City of Toronto
Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation
The Clinton Foundation
Toronto Community Housing
Zero Footprint
Toronto Atmospheric Fund
Greater Toronto Apartment Association
University of Toronto, Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design, Faculty of the Environment
Centre for Urban and Community Studies
Seneca College
The Canadian Urban Institute
Foodshare
Evergreen
The Toronto Society of Architects
Ontario Building Envelope Council
Cement Association of Canada
Halsall Engineering
The Planning Alliance
Toronto Hydro

With a focus of enabling vibrant neighbourhoods and healthy communities as well as a sustainable built environment, the Tower Renewal Project is a series of programs and initiatives which will continue to grow in the years to comeâ€¦.

The Tower Renewal Blog will act as a forum as the project develops. It will provide a historical and contemporary perspective of modern apartment neighbourhoods built in Toronto, the GTA and internationally, from the perspective of researchers, project partners, artists and the community.

For more information on Tower Renewal please contact us.

The Toronto area contains the second largest concentration of high-rise buildings in North America. The majority of these are modern concrete residential buildings, built during the City’s post-war expansion. The Tower Renewal Project is an initiative to re-examine these buildings’ remarkable heritage, neighbourhood histories, current place in our city, and future potential in a green and equitable Toronto. A growing list of partners include the City of Toronto, CMHC, and the University of Toronto, among others. Click here for more info about Tower Renewal.