Unbuilt Toronto

Submitted by dmacdonell on Sun, 2009-10-04 13:59

Unbuilt Toronto

A History of the City That Might Have Been

By Mark Osbaldeston

978-1-55002-835-5
October 2008
256pp, Paperback
$26.99 CAD

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An impressive researched exploration of dozens of never-realized architectural and master-planning projects intended for the city …

Canadian Architect

Unbuilt Toronto explores never-realized building projects in and around Toronto, from the city’s founding to the twenty-first century. Delving into unfulfilled and largely forgotten visions for grand public buildings, landmark skyscrapers, highways, subways, and arts and recreation venues, it outlines such ambitious schemes as St. Alban's Cathedral, the Queen subway line and early city plans that would have resulted in a Paris-by-the-Lake.

Readers may lament the loss of some projects (such as the Eaton’s College Street tower), be thankful for the disappearance of others (a highway through the Annex), and marvel at the downtown that could have been (with underground roads and walkways in the sky).

Featuring 147 photographs and illustrations, many never before published, Unbuilt Toronto casts a different light on a city you thought you knew.