Unbuilt Toronto: A History of the City that Might Have Been

Front Cover
Dundurn, Oct 27, 2008 - History - 255 pages

Unbuilt Toronto explores never-realized building projects in and around Toronto, from the city's founding to the twenty-first century. Delving into unfulfilled and largely forgotten visions for grand public buildings, landmark skyscrapers, highways, subways, and arts and recreation venues, it outlines such ambitious schemes as St. Alban's Cathedral, the Queen subway line and early city plans that would have resulted in a Paris-by-the-Lake.

Readers may lament the loss of some projects (such as the Eaton's College Street tower), be thankful for the disappearance of others (a highway through the Annex), and marvel at the downtown that could have been (with underground roads and walkways in the sky).

Featuring 147 photographs and illustrations, many never before published, Unbuilt Toronto casts a different light on a city you thought you knew.

Contents

Queen Street Subway
134
A Vertically Separated City
140
Spadina Expressway
144
Toronto TowersBank of Nova Scotia Building
153
Eatons College Street
159
Victory BuildingBayview Ghost
165
Toronto Hydro Tower
171
Willowdale Telecommunications Tower
176

Metro Centre
45
Harbour City
53
CHURCH AND GOVERNMENT
61
Ontario Legislative Buildings
63
St Albans Cathedral
70
Victoria Square
78
Toronto City Hall 19251955
84
New City Hall
92
Mississauga City Hall
100
Toronto and Georgian Bay Ship CanalNewmarket Canal
109
Prince Edward Viaduct
114
Hamilton Northwest Entrance
121
Islands Tunnel
127
BayAdelaide Centre
181
ARTS LETTERS AND LEISURE
187
University of Kings College
189
CNE FiftyYear Plan1971 CNE Master Plan
197
St Michaels College
207
St Lawrence Centre
214
Bay and Wellesley BalletOpera House
221
Royal Ontario Museum
226
EPILOGUE
231
The City of the Future
233
Sources
239
Index
252
Copyright

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About the author (2008)

Dr. Emily Spencer is an assistant professor at the University of Northern British Columbia and a reserach associate with the Canadian Forces Leadership Institute. She was the general editor of The Difficult War: Perspectives on Insurgency and Special Operations Forces. She lives in Prince George, British Columbia.

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