This blog originally appeared in Ryerson University Magazine

No visitor to Ryerson since January could miss the gaping hole at Yonge and Gould Streets where the dignified - but neglected - former Empress Hotel once stood.

Perhaps you recall the upstairs bar from your student days. An example of "demolition by neglect" followed by arson, the Empress loss raised the profile of architectural preservation.

There are many reasons to preserve buildings. Many people with no knowledge of architecture or local history enjoy looking at and using older buildings. Variety and complexity are added to streetscapes by structures from various eras. Heritage buildings provide spaces for work, cultural activities and residences that are quite different in form and ambience from contemporary buildings.

Hard to believe, but there was a time when the only way to do any banking was to visit a bank and deal with a teller or other staff. It was critical for every bank to have numerous branches throughout the city. Some still exist, and others have been converted to non-bank uses. These often well-designed small buildings remain an important part of our streetscape.

Well-known architect John Lyle designed many banks across Canada. The former Dominion Bank at Bloor & Sherbourne (1911) is one of many still standing and is typical of designs for that bank: red brick with light-coloured limestone trim. An exception to that pattern was Lyle's 1929 branch at Yonge & Gerrard: it was designed in stone to complement Eaton's flagship store at College & Yonge. Here, Lyle indulged his penchant for Canadian iconography by using aboriginal patterns for the cornices, Canadian flora and fauna for decorative elements, and Queen Victoria and King Louis XIV representing our British and French heritage. The result is remarkable.

Former Dominion Bank, Yonge & Gerrard, capital

If you've ever admired a stone bank building with classical columns or a dignified University of Toronto building, then you may have been looking at the work of Scarborough-born architect Frank Darling (1850-1923).

Darling worked with several partners. After a brief association with Henry Macdougall, Darling formed a more lasting and productive partnership with Samuel Curry in 1880. Darling & Curry designed one of our city's best-known buildings: the Bank of Montreal - now the Hockey Hall of Fame - at the corner of Front and Yonge streets. When completed in 1886 its 16.8 metre (55 feet) square banking hall was the largest in Canada. Many of its features have been preserved, including the colourful stained glass dome. This ornate structure operated as a bank from 1886 until 1982.

Did you know that Toronto had the first children's hospital in North America? Darling & Curry designed the Victoria Hospital for Sick Children (1889) on College Street. The innovative E-shaped building maximized light and ventilation while looking solid and reassuring in the Richardsonian Romanesque style. It's now the headquarters for Canadian Blood Services.

Long before luxurious condos and penthouses, Toronto architects and developers tried to make apartment living appealing through beautiful architecture. Some of the most opulent buildings were erected beginning in the late 1920s along Avenue Road, halfway between Davenport and St. Clair. This article will focus on four of my favourite examples.

Have you ever wondered about the grand building on the northeast corner of Yonge & Wellington streets? Now home to the Irish Embassy Pub, it began life as the Bank of British North America's main Toronto branch.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

The first Bank of British North America building on this site - designed in 1845-46 by well-known Toronto architect John Howard - was ideally positioned between the import and wholesale activity of Front Street and the busy retail shops on King Street. It was part of the city's first financial district and its Wellington Street neighbours included insurance companies and other banks. Of this group, only the facade of the Commercial Bank of the Midland District (1845-46, William Thomas) remains - rebuilt within the galleria of Brookfield (formerly BCE) Place.

I love discovering and photographing the wonderful brickwork seen on mid-Victorian era buildings in Toronto. Dichromatic (two-colour) brickwork is quite common.

Brickwork on the Chadwick Home, U of T campus

Although polychromy - the use of various colours in architecture - was seen all over nineteenth century Europe, at the time Toronto's main architectural influence was Britain. Polychromy was promoted and popularized in Victorian England by architectural theorist John Ruskin. Inspired by the coloured stones and marbles of Italian architecture, Ruskin endorsed structural polychromy (producing colour by using different shades of bricks and stones) over the mere application of colour.

British architects produced numerous influential polychrome buildings. William Butterfield's All Saints Church (Margaret Street, London) and George Edmund Street's St. James the Less Church (Westminster, London) are outstanding examples of brickwork. Along with Ruskin and others, their work was part of the Gothic Revival in British architecture.

I'm pleased to be one of the bloggers for the new Heritage Toronto web site and I hope you'll enjoy my entries about Toronto's architecture.

As an architectural historian, instructor, and walking tour leader I am often asked to name my favourite building in Toronto. My favourite old building is Toronto's Third City Hall, better known as Old City Hall, which opened in 1899.

Toronto-born architect Edward James (better known as E. J.) Lennox won the competition held to find the best design for a new city hall. It was 1886 and 32-year-old Lennox had been in architectural practice for 10 years.

Lennox's City Hall is a perfect example of the Richardsonian Romanesque style - a variation of Romanesque architecture developed by America's preeminent 19th-century architect, Henry Hobson (H. H.) Richardson. The Romanesque style originated in 11th- and 12th-century Europe and featured heavy stonework, round arches, square towers, asymmetrical massing, and intricate stone carving. This style was revived in Western architecture during the mid-1800s.