Scrivener Square works, even if you don't realize it

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Archiseek / Canada / News / 2004 / August 1

It has been called "one of Toronto's great `lost' buildings," but no longer. For decades, the old Canadian Pacific Railway station at Yonge and Summerhill was a mess. It had spent more time as a liquor store (74 years) than a passenger terminal (15 years) and, despite its elegance, it was hidden behind decades of grime and surrounded by an expanse of asphalt filled with cars. Even the clock at the top of its exquisite tower, a copy of the famous Campanile in St. Mark's Square in Venice, had been removed and replaced with plywood. Now the station's transformation is complete. Its promise has been realized and once again it is fully connected to the city, an architectural and urban gem. Not surprisingly, the project won the 2004 Heritage Canada Corporate Prize. Even the clock has been restored. Opened in 1916, this remarkable Beaux-Arts building became an instant landmark. Constructed of Tyndall limestone, it was intended as a monument as well as a symbol of a city with grand ambitions to beautify itself.

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