Lisa Rochon recently wrote that for people living in Winnipeg, it's possible to understand the electric moment when two rivers come together... and that as cities such as Toronto intensify and densify, the imperative for energizing the metropolis is found, increasingly, through the confluence of architecture.

That "confluence of architecture" in Toronto is currently best characterized by four recent projects, all now built and open, that have been called "cultural superbuilds":

  • the redesigned Gardiner Museum by Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects,
  • Jack Diamond's Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts,
  • the extension to the Royal Ontario Museum by Daniel Libeskind, and
  • Frank Gehry's redesign of the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Lisa's most recent writing on these projects are available below.

CITYSPACE: TRANSFORMATION AGO: A PUBLIC GALLERY, A NATIONAL TREASURE

  • November 8, 2008: Utterly transforming the Art Gallery of Ontario, Frank Gehry has created an exhilarating work of architecture that honours the art it houses, gives new life to Toronto's downtown, and confirms Gehry's stature as one of the world's great creative geniuses. (more)

Crystal scatters no light

  • It's hard, aggressive and in your face. It cantilevers dangerously over the street, shifting the ground from under our feet. Do not expect shelter from the $135-million Michael Lee-Chin crystalline addition to Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum by Daniel Libeskind. Expect the exaltation of one architect, one man, one individual. Expect the stuff of Libeskind: an exile, a brilliant thinker, a marketer with a silver tongue (more)

New-look Gardiner a museum of our times

  • The deep satisfaction provided by the Museum of Ceramic Art comes in its framed views of its neighbouring buildings on the civic boulevard of Queen's Park. Standing on the third-floor terrace defined by wooden floors and a clear glass balustrade, Toronto has never looked more captivating (more)

Outside blah, inside awe

  • While the exterior brick wrap of the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts is mean to the street, the interior of the new opera house is nothing short of triumphant (more)