E.R.A. Architects Inc.

We are pleased to announce that ERA will be participating in Grow Op: Exploring Landscape and Place, a special four-day event and exhibition to be held in late at Toronto’s Gladstone Hotel April 25-28, 2013.

The exhibition, curated by landscape architect Victoria Taylor OALA CSLA, will involve a wide range of interdisciplinary practices and creative positions on landscape, gardens, city, and place. Please keep an eye out for news on this exciting event as we approach the date.

As an aside, in the process of discussions with the Gladstone, we were reminded of a project from years ago: an installation by ERA’s Michael McClelland and Philip Evans called Room for a Bungalow. To see this project, please see the Gladstone archive.

Happy Holidays!

When: Tues., Dec. 11, 2012, 5:30 to 7:30 PM
Where: Innis Town Hall, 2 Sussex Avenue

Recently we shared updates on the ongoing work of the City’s Tower Renewal Office, discussing new research in the field, and engaging with our special guest from Melbourne, Dr. Rebecca Leshinsky.

The expert panel included:

PEDRO BARATA, Vice President, Communications and Public Affairs, United Way Toronto
ELEANOR MCATEER, Project Director, Tower Renewal Office, City of Toronto
BRYAN PURCELL, Manager, Incubation & Social Innovation, Toronto Atmospheric Fund
GRAEME STEWART, Associate, ERA Architects

Event moderated by Ken Greenberg: An architect, urban designer, teacher, writer, former Director of Urban Design and Architecture for the City of Toronto and Principal of Greenberg Consultants.

The keynote speaker, Dr. Rebecca Leshinsky, is a Senior Lecturer in Commercial Law at the Australian Catholic University in Melbourne, Australia. Her research examines sustainable retrofits in shared spaces in apartment buildings and the constraints faced by owners and residents when attempting to maintain/upgrade their building in a sustainable manner. Dr. Leshinsky is currently a visiting scholar at the Cities Centre, University of Toronto.

This event was co-sponsored by the Neighbourhood Change Research Partnership, based at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work and Cities Centre at the University of Toronto.

The 2012 awards of the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario (ACO) recognized ERA for our role in the adaptive reuse of Maple Leaf Gardens. This collaboration with Turner Fleischer and BBB Architects brings new contemporary uses to the historic site, which had been closed and shuttered for years.

ERA provided heritage consulting throughout the project and directed extensive masonry work, replacement of the steel industrial heritage windows, and the restoration of the Carlton Street marquee. In addition, ERA developed and guided an interpretation program that weaves stories of the site’s heritage throughout its contemporary spaces.

Many thanks to the ACO, Loblaw and Ryerson, and to all our collaborators and technicians. Congratulations to all the other winners, which you can read about in the ACO Newsletter.

Pictured above from right to left are ERA’s Scott Weir, Michael McClelland, and Will MacIvor, ACO President Susan Ratcliffe, and CEO of Woodcliffe Landmark Properties, Eve Lewis.

ERA is proud to announce that the Canadian Association of Heritage Professionals (CAHP) has recently recognized four of our projects at their annual awards:

• Milton Farmhouse Study for Heritage Planning;
• North York’s Modernist Architecture (Revisited) for Heritage Communications;
• Sainte Marie among the Hurons for Heritage Evaluation Document; and
• Coliseum Complex at Exhibition Place for Preservation of a Heritage Building or Complex (Award of Merit).

Many thanks to CAHP for organizing the awards each year and congratulations to all our colleagues. A special thanks also to everyone we collaborated with on these projects!

Oct. 23 to 31 —  various one- and two-day courses.

Masons, heritage professionals, architects, historians, and all interested parties are invited to join us for a series of very special courses in brickwork. Learn from scholar and master mason Gerard Lynch about traditional limes and mortars, traditional binders, historical forms of pointing and jointing, causes of failure in brickwork, and all manner of rich detail in the mason’s art.

Suitable for practicing masons or history and architecture fans, these courses combine formal instruction with hands-on demonstration, revealing the fascinating intricacy of brick construction past and present, and providing analytical and technical tools to inform our professional practice and love of building craft.

Dr. Gerard Lynch is an internationally acclaimed and highly respected historic brickwork consultant, master bricklayer, educator and author. He followed a traditional apprenticeship as a bricklayer and, over the years through his natural ability within his craft, gained many awards, including the Silver and Gold Trowels from the Brick Development Association, UK, and is a Licentiate of the City and Guilds of London Institute (LCG). He is a former Head lecturer of Trowel Trades at Bedford College, pioneering a revival of gauged brickwork, in which he is considered the world’s leading authority, and other almost forgotten traditional craft skills. He is affectionately known by the historic term, ‘The Red Mason’.

For more information or to register, please see Willowbank’s website.