This past weekend, the City of Toronto held its 10th annual ‘Doors Open’ to celebrate the Architecture in the city, especially since May is ‘Architecture and Design Month.’ Unfortunately this year’s selection of buildings for the public to explore was mostly a wide selection of Public Lobbies and Foyers that anyone could go into on any given day. I’m actually surprised retail shops don’t try to partake in the festivities, just to get people to go into their stores.

So with that said, I thought I would share some photos and stories as we trekked across the city.

The first stop, and new to the Doors Open event, was the Canadian Broadcasting Centre (CBC) Headquarters designed by Phillip Johnson, and local architect Bregman + Hamann. Although it is open every day of the year to the public, they allowed visitors to go up to the studio where one of my favorite shows, ‘The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos,’ is taped (picture is above). I have to admit that it’s hard for me to write about this location because it was probably one of my most embarrassing moments I’ve ever had in my life. Now it’s not my intention to, but I know I create quite a few awkward moments every day with a number of people. I also understand I’m not the best at ‘small talk,’ or any other talk which doesn’t even involve the written form. But this is a guy that I idolize, and have seen/met a couple of times, and I couldn’t for the life of me think of anything to say to him, even though I watch ‘Stroumbo’ on a regular basis and listen to his radio show almost every week. So going into meet him, already knew he has interests in Architecture, green initiatives, world politics and has talked with every walking celebrity on the plant. So what do I talk to him about: T-shirts, F-ing t-shirts. I knew walking out of there I embarrassed myself pretty bad.

The next stop was the Historic ‘Gooderham & Worts’ Distillery District. Built in 1831 and renovated in 2001. It has played as a backdrop for a wide variety of movies such as: Chicago, Cinderella Man, Tommy Boy and X-Men. Today you can find a farmers market each weekend, and a wide variety of local and independently owned businesses and artist’s studios. But we skipped that and went into some of the Underground Tunnels and old Kilns.

We had to walk for a little bit to get to the next stop, the Don Jail. Some of the back streets in Toronto are actually kind of interesting. It really makes you feel like you’re somewhere else.

(What would an adventure be without a stop at the Police Station?)

The Don Jail was next. Built in 1865 and officially closed in 1977, it is now apart of the development of the Bridgepoint Hospital complex. The Don Jail is infamous for local Toronto residents, as the site of 34 public executions. But for those outside of Toronto, the scene from the movie ‘Cocktail’ was filmed inside the rotunda, as the famous ‘Cocktails and Dreams’ nightclub.





(Image from the movie ‘Cocktail’)


This is a typical cell in the Old Don Jail. It is about 3 feet wide and 8 feet deep. It would have held 2 prisoners, sleeping in hammocks with no toilets. The jail was closed because it was notorious for breaking Cruelty and Confinement laws.

and Death row:

Yeah I had to go by the old cemetery as well. I didn’t see a tombstone after the 1950s.

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Sunday, well today for those who read this before midnight. I went to the BAPS Swaminarayan Mandir, a first for it’s kind in Canada.
Opened in 2007, 1,800 craftsmen in 3 different locations of India spent over a million-man hours hand crafting 24,000 pieces of marble. Which was then shipped to its location, where 400 volunteers spent 18 months assembling. There was no government financing or public assistance and is constructed with no steel or reinforced concrete. Unfortunately for visitors and worshipers, the astronomical amount of effort was not used to find an appropriate site. This is a building that should be a national landmark, and is constructed to last 1,000 years. But is located within an industrial park, next to a plumber’s workshop, a lumberyard and parallel to a highway. A hundred years from now, someone is going to visit this site. Go to the information desk and ask. “Why here? Is it because the sun on the summer solstice, or the flow of the natural tides.”
To which they reply, “No, it’s because the land was donated by a guy’s brother, who was a plumber and didn’t want to pay property taxes anymore.”

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Justin Zawyrucha’s other blog posts:
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