DRAGITECTURE Tour: Uptown & Hippies

Irma is taking her heels Uptown!

Walkers will begin at the north-east corner of Bloor St. E. and Church St., where they’ll learn about sculptor Kosso Eloul, then walk north to learn about the famous John B. Parkin Associates office (with a Bauhaus connection!) and the story of 50 Park Rd.

From there, it’s south to the Toronto Reference Library and Raymond Moriyama, a walk along Toronto’s “Mink Mile” will turn up stories on the University Theatre, the Colonnade, and Peter Dickinson’s now-destroyed Park Plaza Hotel addition. At Bloor & St. George, there’s another Moriyama and the story of Sonja Bata, and Rochdale College.

North of St. George reveals the 1950s Modernist apartment buildings that displaced mansions, the very first “Bay-and-Gable” in Toronto, and, ending at Yorkville, Irma will tell the tale of Canada’s Haight-Ashbury, hippies, and the coffee houses that gave Gordon Lightfoot his start.

The tour ends with an optional “pit stop for a pint” at the famous Pilot Tavern. Irma promises plenty of sass and architectural gossip, but most of it will be about dead architects that can no longer sue her! While Irma will be wearing heels, she encourages walkers to wear comfortable shoes.

UPTOWN & HIPPIES IS OFFERED THE LAST SUNDAY OF THE MONTH.