E.R.A. Architects Inc.

ERA Architects and planningAlliance launch the Centre for Urban Growth and Renewal (CUG+R).

CUG+R is a non-profit research organization formed in 2009 to conduct cross-disciplinary research to further knowledge about the creation and renewal of sustainable urban, suburban and rural environments in Canada and elsewhere. CUG+R’s objective is to develop research to enhance public policy and promote private initiatives that foster City Regions and local communities that are: well planned and designed, economically vibrant, socially diverse, culturally integrated and environmentally sustainable.

CUG+R officially launched in December 2010 with the release of Tower Neighbourhood Renewal in the Greater Golden Horseshoe, a report jointly repared by CUG+R’s founding partners, ERA Architects and planningAlliance, and the launch of cugr.ca.

Cugr.ca will showcase research work the founding firms have undertaken together and individually, as well as those of partners, collaborators and, increasingly, work unique to CUG+R as it continues to expand and evolve.

CUG+R also works in collaboration with the Cities Centre at the University of Toronto; an umbrella organization that combines researchers from the University’s urban focused faculties to engage in projects that affect positive change in the Toronto region and urban Canada.

Download the full 2010 edition of North York’s Modernist Architecture Revisited in PDF format.  This file holds the colour version of the hard-copy booklet made available at the November 9th, 2010 North York Modernist Architecture Forum.

The document is an extension of and complements ERA’s 2009 reprinting of the original 1997 report and inventory.  It includes current photographs of over 200 buildings from the original inventory plus additional notable North York buildings built between 1945 and 1981.  Also included is a proposed heritage policy strategy, biographies of several prominent architects, and an essay on North York’s modernist beginnings.

Please note that North York’s Modernist Architecture Revisited includes over 300 photographs and the PDF is quite large.  At 32mb, the file may take some time to download.

ERA with Heritage Toronto, the City of Toronto and the North York Community Preservation Panel will be hosting an evening of presentations and discussion on the former city’s Modernist stock.  The evening will be hosted by Heritage Toronto executive director Karen Carter with presentations by the Globe and Mail’s Dave LeBlanc, Heritage Toronto’s Gary Miedema, the City of Toronto’s Leo deSorcy, North York Community Preservation Panel Chair Geoff Kettel and ERA’s Michael McClelland.

The Forum will be held on Tuesday November 9 from 7:00 to 9:00 pm in the Council Chamber at the North York Civic Centre at 5100 Yonge Street.

ERA will be releasing a document updating the entire inventory of 1997′s North York’s Modernist Architecture. This newly printed document will complement last year’s reprinting and will be available at the event.

The Allstream Centre and the Bloor Gladstone Library were award recipients at the 2010 Heritage Toronto Awards.  ERA is the heritage architect for both buildings.

Details and a list of this year’s awards is available on Heritage Toronto’s website.

To read Dave Leblanc’s article featured in the Globe and Mail please go to:

Reel Revival: Danforth theatre restoration boosts neighbourhood – The Globe and Mail

Photo taken by Dave Leblanc