The Globe and Mail

Architectural preservationists scored a hard-fought victory this month when they saved at least part of an elegant Beaux Arts structure designed and built by one of Toronto's foremost 20th-century architects. But the story of the John M. Lyle studio/office is a cautionary tale about why the city continues to devour its heritage buildings, despite mounting public interest in heritage architecture. Mr. Lyle, the architect who built Union Station and the Royal Alex Theatre, worked for 23 years in the two-storey building overlooking an intimate courtyard tucked away at the end of an alley off Bloor Street, near Bedford. Generations of university students in search of beer and wings at the pubs on Bloor have trudged by that alley without ever knowing what was at the other end.