Scope & Purpose
Mid Mod T.O. is a digital research project that aims to create awareness about the presence and state of mid-century, atomic-age architecture in Toronto. The demolition of the former Knob Hill Hotel and “Saving Suburbia, One Freaky Building at a Time” (a column penned by Dave LeBlanc for The Globe and Mail) inspired me to research several mid-century buildings in Toronto.
For the purposes of this project, I include any buildings or other structures constructed in the immediate postwar period (and beyond), from the 1950s to the late 1960s, and located within the boundaries of the City of Toronto and the surrounding former suburban municipalities of Etobicoke, North York, Scarborough, and York.
Combining detailed historical and academic research with the appreciation for the style of the bygone decades, I examine the vernacular architecture of everyday life, both private and institutional, commercial and public. It is the built environment that is part of the existing suburban fabric and is often overlooked: houses, hotels, storefronts, malls, schools, libraries, movie theatres, gas stations and other structures with quirky and fanciful architectual details.
Through this project, I hope to explore how mid-century architecture was experienced when it was new, especially on the urban fringe. The goal of this project is to disspel the myth that suburban areas have no history and that mid-century modern architecture is not worth preserving.
This website is maintained by Agatha Barc, an academic librarian.
Next in the Series
The project will be expanded and profile the following locations:
- Ascot Inn (534 Rexdale Boulevard)
- Beverly Hills Motor Hotel (1677 Wilson Avenue)
- Etobicoke Motels (Lakeshore Boulevard West)
- Lawrence Plaza (534 Lawrence Avenue West)
- Lord Lansdowne Public School (33 Robert Street)
- Park Plaza Hotel (2 Avenue Road)
- Worth Building (3089 Bathurst Street).
Credits
The entire project has been created by me. The design is based on the Illustatr template for WordPress, which I modified. It is hosted by Sibername. The typefaces used in the design are BioRhyme Expanded (display text), Craw Clarendon Book (body text), and Craw Modern (display text). Webfont kit courtesy of Font Squirrel, uploaded using Custom Fonts. Flickr Album Gallery Pro was developed by WPFrank. All images were edited with GIMP, the free and open-source image editor.
Lead image: Montoro Motel, 4274 Kingston Road.