Dear Readers, the Concourse Building is a splendid example of Canadian Art Deco, but all is not as it seems. It stands right next to the glass and steel EY tower (in front of which stands the slightly-scary giant child sculpture), and if you look at it from the corner, you can see that it’s actually incorporated into the tower. In fact, the original 1928 building was dismantled in 2013 after much discussion between the developers and the city planners, but lots of the original detailing was preserved.

The mural above the front door depicts the four elements (earth, fire, water and air) and was designed by J.E.H MacDonald, one of the Group of Seven artists who met in Toronto, and who created a distinctively Canadian style.

There are mosaics under the arch depicting modern innovations such as planes and steam ships in the outer panels, and a dove, ploughshare and deer with birds in the centre.

There were apparently quotes by Canadian poets above the elevators in the main concourse, which were meant to reduce stress as the office workers waited for their day to start. Examples include:

Theodore H Rand  “The years are wise though the days are foolish.”

Charles GD Roberts  “Life is good, and love is eager. In the playground of the Sun.”

Katherine Hale  “I wish that some quaint miracle Might happen even today, Whereby the universe should speak And men kneel down and pray.”

I wonder what the impact was? Which of those poems (if any) would bring a spring to your step? I confess that I quite like the Rand quote, which I’ve been pondering on myself.

Photo by By Ken Lund from Reno, Nevada, USA – EY Tower, Toronto, Ontario, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=115962340

The original tiles at the top of the building were replaced in the new building.

So, the new building is something of a pastiche – a fine example of what my friend the Gentle Author calls ‘facadism’ (where most of a building is demolished but the frontage is preserved, to give the misleading impression that the original building still exists. I am glad that some of the features of the old Concourse Building have been saved, but much has been lost or moved. I couldn’t get inside the building (it is a corporate HQ after all) but there are some fantastic photos, and some more history, over at the Torontojourney416 website.