A new boat tour tells the architectural stories of Toronto’s harbourfront

It’s 1995, and you’re on a boat in Toronto’s Inner Harbour. The skyline, while impressive, is clustered just to the east of the CN Tower; cone-shaped, its western edge ramps up with Mie van der Rohe’s black TD Centre towers, the cone peaks at Edward Durrel Stone’s 72-storey First Canadian Place, and then, with the help of I.M. Pei’s Commerce Court, slants downward to the east. In the foreground is the stately Royal York Hotel, tallest in the British Empire when it opened in 1929. West of the CN Tower is the Skydome; east of the skyline cone are steeples and smokestacks. Had you been on an architecture tour, it would have lasted about half an hour. And you might have wished you’d spent your money on Chicago’s River Tour instead.

“I think at that time Toronto really wasn’t appreciating its waterfront,” says Toronto Society of Architects (TSA) executive director Joël León Danis. “I think there’s been a change of mentality as we start to do the redevelopment of the eastern portion of the waterfront.”