TOBuilt is a digital, crowd-sourced database of buildings, structures, heritage sites, and human-made landscapes in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

maintained by the Toronto branch of the

Architectural Conservancy of Ontario Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings o ...

. The database's initial catalogue was created by Robert Krawczyk in 2006. In 2015, ACO Toronto assumed the operation of TOBuilt and relaunched it on a new platform. As of December 2023, TOBuilt maintains entries for over 15,000 sites located across the city of Toronto.

Database content

TOBuilt's central mandate is to document architecture and built heritage throughout Toronto's six boroughs:

Old Toronto Old Toronto is that part of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, that corresponds to the original City of Toronto which existed from 1834 to 1998. It was first incorporated as a city in 1834, after being known as the town of York, and being part of York Co ...

North York North York is one of the six administrative districts of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located directly north of York, Old Toronto and East York, between Etobicoke to the west and Scarborough to the east. As of the 2016 Census, it had a p ...

East York East York is a former administrative district and municipality within Toronto, Ontario, Canada. From 1967 to 1998, it was officially the Borough of East York, a semi-autonomous borough within the upper-tier municipality of Metropolitan Toron ...

York York is a cathedral city with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many hist ...

Etobicoke Etobicoke (, ) is an administrative district of, and one of six municipalities amalgamated into, the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Comprising the city's west-end, Etobicoke was first settled by Europeans in the 1790s, and the municipalit ...

, and Scarborough. Individual entries contain present and historical photographs of the site in question as well as information about its date of construction, architect, designer, creator, cultural history, architectural style, level of heritage designation, and location. Historical architectural styles that are highly represented in the database include Gothic Revival,

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italia ...

Second Empire Second Empire may refer to: * Second British Empire, used by some historians to describe the British Empire after 1783 * Second Bulgarian Empire (1185–1396) * Second French Empire (1852–1870) ** Second Empire architecture, an architectural styl ...

Queen Anne Revival The Queen Anne style of British architecture refers to either the English Baroque architecture of the time of Queen Anne (who reigned from 1702 to 1714) or the British Queen Anne Revival form that became popular during the last quarter of th ...

Edwardian The Edwardian era or Edwardian period of British history spanned the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910 and is sometimes extended to the start of the First World War. The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 marked the end of the Victori ...

, and

Arts and Crafts A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...

. It also documents the use of early 19th-century English architectural styles in the city, including surviving

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group **Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three script ...

Regency A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state '' pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy ...

, and

Neoclassical Neoclassical or neo-classical may refer to: * Neoclassicism or New Classicism, any of a number of movements in the fine arts, literature, theatre, music, language, and architecture beginning in the 17th century ** Neoclassical architecture, an a ...

buildings, as well as those representing modern styles such as

Brutalism Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. Brutalist buildings are characterised by minimalist constructions that showcase the ...

. TOBuilt has documented various historical Indigenous sites across Toronto. TOBuilt has conducted several extensive surveys of architectural typologies in Toronto, including of missing middle architecture, places of worship, and schools. In 2022, TOBuilt completed a first-of-its-kind research project documenting over 2,000 detached suburban houses, including Victory Houses, built between 1940 and 2000 in North York, Etobicoke, and Scarborough. The database also maintains an updated list of "at-risk" buildings in the city that are currently threatened by demolition, redevelopment, neglect, or alteration, and most recently by provincial Bill 23.

Architectural advocacy

In February 2021, the owner of a 3-storey Second Empire building designed by Scottish architect David Brash Dick in 1878 at 127 Strachan Avenue in Toronto's West End

Niagara Niagara may refer to: Geography Niagara Falls and nearby places In both the United States and Canada *Niagara Falls, the famous waterfalls in the Niagara River *Niagara River, part of the U.S.–Canada border *Niagara Escarpment, the cliff ov ...

neighbourhood withdrew a demolition application after advocacy efforts led by TOBuilt. The project centred around a TOBuilt

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

campaign and an online petition garnering nearly 5,000 signatures.

References

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External links

Official website
2006 establishments in Canada Organizations based in Toronto Heritage registers in Canada Historic preservation in Canada