Toronto Star

Toronto has never been kind to its past, or to its future for that matter. Before a building has a chance to grow old, we tear it down to make way for something else that will also be destroyed before its time. As far as architecture in Toronto is concerned, once a building hits, say, 75 or 80 years old, it becomes venerable and is deemed untouchable, protected by vigilant preservationists. But between its 40th and 70th year, it is at its most vulnerable. For example, those Gothic and Romanesque slabs from the late 19th century that Torontonians now love so much looked hopelessly fussy and old-fashioned in the go-go 1950s and '60s, so we tore them down. Union Station once faced the wrecker's ball. There was even a time when serious-minded Torontonians, proponents of progress, suggested that Old City Hall be demolished to make way for the Eaton Centre. Clearly, nothing is sacred. Today it's the very buildings that were put up during these decades of destruction that face uncertain futures. Looking back at these early modernist structures that date from the 1950s, '60s and '70s (sounds like the slogan of an oldies radio station), one is reminded not so much of the past that was but of the future that might have been.