Thursday, May 28, 2026
Not even a torrential downpour could keep the crowds away as we marked the 25th year of Doors Open Toronto—the annual two-day festival providing access to sites of architectural, social, historical, and cultural importance that are not typically open to the public.
And just like we have been since the very beginning, the TSA was there with a wide roster of special programs celebrating and exploring our built environment through tours, talks, and other activities. In fact, this year was our largest offering yet—a testament to this festival’s popularity and the TSA’s desire to meet the ever-present demand by Torontonians to learn more about their city.
Heavy rain, strong winds, and unseasonably cold temperatures were no match for people’s enthusiasm, as close to 7,000 attendees participated in TSA Doors Open programming. An astounding number that clearly reflects a profound love for our city and the desire to explore it.
While it is almost impossible to sum up everything that happened this weekend, here are some of the highlights of the programming we offered and the people who made it happen.
Reflecting this year’s Doors Open theme of “The World in a City”, the weekend kicked off with 7 1-hour walking tours reflecting on the question of Toronto’s identity through some of its most iconic landmarks. Led by our very own Joël León Danis, and featuring Osgoode Hall, Old City Hall, Nathan Phillips Square, and the Spirit Garden, the tours were attended by just over 200 people who learned more about the architecture of these civic landmarks, and—perhaps most importantly—the people behind their design and construction. It was a tour that highlighted the myriads of cultures, nations and ideas that have shaped our city, and the importance of preserving them and sharing their stories for future generations.
As always, our popular Open Studio program was also a festival highlight with 11 studios—both new and returning—opening their doors to the public. Thousands of attendees were able to spend some time with the people helping shape our city and take a peek into the process of how buildings go from ideas to reality. Many of the studios organized talks, activations, and even kids’ activities, finding ways of sharing their passion for architecture with even the youngest of attendees. We want to give a big shout out to all of this year’s participating studios and their staff—architects Tillmann Ruth Robinson, DIALOG, DTAH, Giaimo, Gow Hastings Architects, Guido Costantino Projects, HOK, KPMB Architects, Q4 Architects, Taylor Hazell Architects, and Turner Fleischer—for their time, hospitality, and infectious enthusiasm!
In addition to our studios, this year we also provided support to two other special related sites: the Department of Architectural Sciences at Toronto Metropolitan University and the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design at the University of Toronto, who were exhibiting incredible student work as part of their year-end exhibitions.
The schools were also the co-host of this year’s TSA youth activations, including our popular Paper City—where families were invited to design, build and contribute their own paper creations to an ever-growing waterfront metropolis—and the Towers Challenge—a new activity where participants put their architectural and structural skills to the test building the tallest (and most material efficient) skyscraper. Over 300 participants—including children and families, but also many curious and creative adults—joined us for these hands-on activations learning about city building and having some fun in the process.
Capping off this eventful weekend was one of our most popular forums: our Architects Talk, a yearly collaboration between the TSA and the City of Toronto reflecting on Doors Open Toronto’s annual theme, which we were proud to host at the Daniels Building. Our speakers delved into the theme of ‘Toronto’s Identity,” exploring the role architecture, landscape architecture and urbanism can play in expressing our city’s many identities. Our hats off to our incredible speakers—Alissa North, Brigitte Shim, Grant Fahlgren, and Marco Polo, who delivered speedy yet insightful presentations, and to our moderator Stefan Novakovic for bringing such energy to this event.
If you missed the talk, a recording of it is now available in our Past Lectures Library!
None of this weekend would have been possible without the tremendous support of over 110 enthusiastic TSA Volunteers who generously gave their time and skills to support TSA sites, tours, activations, and our talk—thank you all! We also want to give a big shoutout to our volunteer Initiative Leads for Open Studio: Laura Salamanca Moreno, Ria Al-Ameen, and Varsha Kumar; Youth Activations: Heba Al Fayez and Ramy Bakir; and our Architects Talk: Kfir Gluzberg and Heather Breeze, for making this weekend such a success. And we of course can’t forget our small but mighty staff team who have been working for months to bring our TSA Doors Open programming to life! Thank you as well to the City of Toronto staff who are always such allies in making all of these initiatives possible, with a special thank you to Kristine Williamson, City of Toronto’s Program Lead for Doors Open Toronto for the many years of partnership and collaboration. And a big thank you to the staff and faculty at the schools of architecture, in particular Gaby Aviad, Director, Office of the Dean at UofT Daniels, and Lisa Landrum, Chair of TMU DAS for their amazing support.
We’ll leave you with some pictures of this year’s event by our fabulous photographers. Thank you again to everyone who braved the weather and joined us for this year’s Doors Open Toronto! We hope this has further fueled your curiosity to explore, learn, and share about our built environment.
About Doors Open Toronto
Each May, Doors Open Toronto invites the public to explore the city’s most-loved buildings and sites, free of charge. The event provides rare access to buildings not usually open to the public and free access to sites that would usually charge an admission fee. Since its inception in 2000, it has attracted more than two million visits to nearly 700 unique locations and remains the largest event of its kind in Canada.
The TSA has been an active partner of this city-wide initiative for the last 25 years, providing architecturally focused programs throughout the festival weekend.