Toronto City Hall and Civic Square, Toronto (1958)

Part of:

People:

John Cresswell Parkin (archive creator)
John Cresswell Parkin (architect)
John B. Parkin (architect)
Viljo Revell (architect)

Title:

Toronto City Hall and Civic Square, Toronto (1958)

Date:

1958-1966

Level of archival description:
Project

Extent and medium:

124 drawings (including 109 reprographic copies)
1 mounted photograph
0.027 l.m. of textual records

Scope and content:
This project series documents the design and construction of Toronto City Hall and Civic Square in Toronto from 1958-1965. The office identified the project number as 5867.
The design of Toronto's New City Hall, built next to its older counterpart, was realized through an international architectural competition that attracted more than 500 entries from around the world. Eventually, a unanimous jury chose Finnish architect Viljo Revell's design, cementing the age of modernist architecture in Toronto. However, the rules stated that if the winning architect was not part of the Ontario Association of Architects, they were required to partner with a local firm. In this way, John B. Parkin Associates was chosen as the associate architects for this project. The design was comprised of a concrete dome house, which contained the city council chambers, surrounded by two curved office towers, all perched on top of a podium, with a public square to the south, known as Nathan Phillips Square. The buildings were 816,000 square feet in size, the west tower having 18 office floors and the east tower with 25.

The project is recorded through drawings, a mounted presentation photograph of the project and textual records dating from 1958-1966. The drawings are mostly reprographic copies, which include plans, elevations, sections, details and perspectives. The textual records consist of a competition synopsis book, a book of submission materials for the competition, and correspondence between Parkin and Revell.

Reference number:

AP018.S1.1958.PR03

Arrangement:
Materials in this project series have been compiled from different accessions and/or arranged by material type.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Jennifer A.C. Parkin holds copyright for materials from accession AR1997:0021. Permission must be sought from the copyright holder before reproductions can be made.

Location:

Toronto Ontario Canada

Related units of description:

Records for related projects are also included in this fonds, see: AP018.S1.1986.PR02, Toronto City Hall, Renovations to Press Gallery, Toronto. Additional materials for this project are held at the University of Calgary in the John B. Parkin/NORR fonds.

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