- Paperback: 312 pages
- Publisher: Knopf Canada (May 7 2002)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0676974988
- ISBN-13: 978-0676974980
- Product Dimensions: 20.3 x 11.5 x 1.9 cm
- Shipping Weight: 327 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #746,912 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
From Amazon
Former Toronto mayor John Sewell traces his city's rich architectural heritage in Doors Open Toronto, an offbeat and rewarding illustrated guide to some of Hogtown's most significant structures that boasts more than 200 new and historical photos, plus maps. Sewell's considerable wit and deep-rooted passion for the city come through in every richly researched mini-chapter, each of which provides an historical and stylistic analysis of one building. Torontonians and tourists alike will appreciate his insight and candour--in his art, as in his life, John Sewell doesn't pull political punches. "Like many legislatures," he writes in his four-page passage on the Ontario Legislative Building, "this one is in a park-like setting disconnected from the life of the city, a characteristic some would say is deliberate and often reflected in the body's decisions."
Sewell's outspoken advocacy for neighbourhood and architectural heritage preservation has shaped his career, both in the political arena and as an urban affairs writer. In addition to weekly columns for eye Weekly, his five books include The Shape of the City: Toronto Struggles with Modern Planning. Doors Open Toronto was inspired by the annual architectural open house that brings over 100,000 visitors to participating sites during one weekend each May. (Toronto was the first North American city to adopt the popular European cultural heritage festival.) Sewell's choice of buildings does not pretend to be exhaustive; he concentrates on those that have participated in past Doors Open events. Toronto-based poet and novelist Anne Michaels (Fugitive Pieces) provides a lyrical introduction. For readers who want to know even more about the city, Sewell suggests as a companion volume Greg Gatenby's Toronto: A Literary Guide. --Deirdre Hanna
Review
“The annual weekend event that attracts thousands of locals to discover Toronto buildings is over for this year, but the excellent book it led to remains available all year.” -- Toronto Star
“John Sewell [is] arguably Toronto’s most effective radical since William Lyon Mackenzie…. Doors Open Toronto … has a lot to say about Toronto even to those who couldn’t care less about it, never mind to those who live in it…. [It] has integrity. Sewell is an honest witness to the context and importance of the buildings he chooses to focus on…. It is precisely this degree of historical sensitivity that is so lacking in the current talk concerning the course of Toronto’s future development. Doors Open Toronto…gives eloquent voice to the ideals [of a participatory civil democracy.]” -- Douglas Bell, The Globe and Mail
“The city does not tell its past, but contains it like the lines of a hand.” -- Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities
“This first-rate book…is sensitive, balanced, even wry…. With thumbnail sketches that seamlessly merge each building’s historic, literary, aesthetic, and, yes, political aspects, Sewell enriches the cityscape.” -- Quill & Quire
“John Sewell [is] arguably Toronto’s most effective radical since William Lyon Mackenzie…. Doors Open Toronto … has a lot to say about Toronto even to those who couldn’t care less about it, never mind to those who live in it…. [It] has integrity. Sewell is an honest witness to the context and importance of the buildings he chooses to focus on…. It is precisely this degree of historical sensitivity that is so lacking in the current talk concerning the course of Toronto’s future development. Doors Open Toronto…gives eloquent voice to the ideals [of a participatory civil democracy.]” -- Douglas Bell, The Globe and Mail
“The city does not tell its past, but contains it like the lines of a hand.” -- Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities
“This first-rate book…is sensitive, balanced, even wry…. With thumbnail sketches that seamlessly merge each building’s historic, literary, aesthetic, and, yes, political aspects, Sewell enriches the cityscape.” -- Quill & Quire
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