The Globe and Mail

John C. Parkin designed the original buildings for the open-air Don Mills Centre in 1955. Completely enclosed and renovated in the late 1970s, little remains of that design -- except perhaps the old Eaton's store from 1961 -- but it's worth noting that Mr. Parkin was Macklin Hancock's second choice for architect. Long before Toronto's recent coming-of-age by way of "superstar" architects, such as Frank Gehry, Will Alsop and Daniel Libeskind (who all have projects either completed or on the drawing board) our fair city almost got a design by famed Bauhaus-design architect Walter Gropius. Mr. Hancock telephoned his former professor at Harvard University and asked him if he would design the commercial heart of his New Town. Prof. Gropius gently refused, telling him he was talented enough to lay it out himself.