Toronto Star

Toronto — city of no notable architecture? So it would seem after looking through the pages of a new book on architectural styles. The title is simply ...isms. In it, Jeremy Melvin, a British architectural historian, highlights iconic buildings that illustrate particular styles around the world. Not one is in Toronto. In fact, there's only one in all of Canada: Buckminster Fuller's burned-out geodesic dome, built for the U.S. Pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal. It represents what Melvin calls Technoism — where architecture bridges the gap between fantasy images and new technology. The Pompidou Center in Paris is another example of Technoism. Other isms through architectural history include the Parthenon, an example of Hellenic Classicism; the Doges Palace in Venice, Italy, dubbed Gothic Commercialism; and Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, called Deconstructivism.