Competing Modernisms: Toronto?s New City Hall and Square
By George T. Kapelos. Halifax: Dalhousie Architectural Press, 2015.
Civic Symbol: Creating Toronto?s New City Hall, 1952-1966
By Christopher Armstrong. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2015.
Viljo Revell?s competition-winning design for Toronto City Hall and Square marked a key moment for Canadian architecture, with impacts that resonated globally. (Panda Photography)
Officially inaugurated on September 13, 1965, Toronto?s City Hall and Nathan Phillips Square are a stunning pair: an iconic landmark in the city and a highly successful public plaza. The story of how this civic complex was realized offers a revealing glimpse into the socio-cultural and urban character of Toronto during the postwar years of its metropolitanization. More broadly, the competition that drew over 500 entries from 42 different countries and the winning scheme by Finnish architect Viljo Revell signals a key moment in the development of Modern architecture in Canada?and illuminates the state of international architectural culture in the late 1950s. Marking the 50th anniversary of Toronto City Hall?s opening, two monographs focus on the complex and on the competition leading to it, from complementary perspectives. In Civic Symbol: Creating Toronto?s New City Hall, 1952-1966, historian and emeritus professor Christopher Armstrong describes Toronto in the 1940s and 50s from firsthand experience as well as based on archival research. He provid...