Essay | essai

A Janus in the Cold War: the Founding of the Ryerson Institute of Technology 1

Marybeth McTeague is an architect and >Ma r y b e t h architectural historian. She teaches in the McTe a g u e Department of Architectural Science, Ryerson , and works with Heritage Preservation Services at the city of . uilt between 1959 and 1964, Ryerson BUniversity’s Kerr Hall (fig. 1) is the architectural embodiment of the ideals informing a new system’s attempts to respond to pressing social needs in in the wake of World War II. In its attempts to address the sweeping political, social, and techno- logical change of the time, the system looks forward in anticipation of the future. As well, perhaps in the face of uncertainty and in the wake of global devastation and suffering, it takes direc- tion from the past. The characteristics of this past are demonstrated to be rooted in the specific local of Toronto as it had evolved culturally and urbanistically over the prior one hundred and fifty years, but also in a concept of shared values which are rooted in the democracy of ancient Greece. Under the direction of Howard Killen Kerr, the founder of the original Ryerson Institute of Technology in 1948, and the man for whom Kerr Hall is rightly named, education was seen as an import- ant tool in the preservation and evolution of both technology and democracy. Like the Roman god Janus, both the educa- tional system and the building are per- sistent in expressed integration of past and future.

Howard Hillen Kerr and the Founding of the Ryerson Institute of Technology

Founded in 1948, the Ryerson Institute of Technology (RIT) was the brainchild of educator Howard Hillen Kerr (1900- 1984). With degrees in engineering and education from the , Kerr had a long-established career as an fig. 1. Kerr Hall built around the , 1963, S.B. Coon & Son Ltd. | Courtesy of Archives, Doc Fl: Howard Kerr Hall.

JSSAC | JSÉAC 35 > No 2 > 2010 > 41-52 41 Ma r y b e t h McTe a g u e > essaY | essaI

opened in : Hamilton Institute of Textiles, Lakehead Technical Institute, and Haileybury Mining Institute.

Dr. and the Normal School for

Howard Kerr’s choice of name for Toronto’s new institute was deliber- ate: “Ryerson Institute of Technology” embedded Kerr’s complex educational ideology in its very title. It was forward- looking and responsive to the sweeping changes that characterized postwar decades, but was also grounded in the traditions of the past and particularly the genius loci or spirit of its site. The location for the new RIT was full of associations with the role and evolution fig. 2. The Normal School circa 1896, featured of education in Ontario. Situated on on the cover of the first Ryerson Institute of Technology Architectural Draughting St. James Square east of course calendar, 1948. | Courtesy of Ryerson fig. 3. Cover, Architectural Draughting course and bound by Victoria, Gerrard, Church, University Archives, Ryerson Institute of Technology 1948-1949 calendar, Ryerson Institute of Technology, and Gould streets, the new Institute course calendar. 1949. | Courtesy of Ryerson University Archives. occupied the site of the Normal School for Upper Canada, founded by Dr. academic administrator, having been Ryerson Institute (Adolphus) Egerton Ryerson (1803-1882), the principal of the Oshawa Collegiate of Technology: a Post- the chief superintendent of Education in and Vocational Training School before WWII Paradigm for Canada West from 1846 to 1876. Egerton World War II. In 1940, as war efforts Postsecondary Education Ryerson’s study of education in Europe were stepped up, he was invited to lead in Ontario became the founding basis for education the Dominion Provincial War Emergency in Canada West as legislated in the 1846 Training Programs for troops at Queen’s In anticipation of the end of the war, Education Act, and the standard model Park in Toronto. Later, in anticipation of Howard Kerr and members of the Toronto for publicly funded education covering the end of the war, he was appointed dir- Board of Education recognized a need the and training of teachers. ector of the Training and Re-Establishment for postsecondary education that would Institute for returning veterans, which provide training for specific careers. Kerr The Normal School for Upper Canada was Situated at what has since become conceived of a new type of education (renamed in the present-day Ryerson University. For that would span the gap between high 1875) was the headquarters for teacher almost twenty years, Kerr remained at school and university. He had visited the training and the offices for administer- Ryerson, where he was to become the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ing educational standards throughout RIT’s first principal, serving from 1948 to in 1943 and wanted to create its equiva- the province. The Normal School was the 1966. He retired from this position tak- lent in Canada. To that end, Ontario’s incubator for what were to later become ing up the post of chair of the Council Act was amended a number of Ontario’s pre-eminent edu- of Regents for Colleges of Applied Arts in 1946 to create two new educational cational and cultural institutions. Among and Technology and under his guid- types: vocational schools and techno- these are the Toronto Teachers’ Training ance twenty other colleges modelled on logical institutes. As a result, along with , which became the Ontario Ryerson were created in Ontario. Ryerson, three other institutes were Institute for Studies in Education;

42 JSSAC | JSÉAC 35 > No 2 > 2010 Ma r y b e t h McTe a g u e > essaY | essaI

Canada’s first publicly-funded museum, Kerr’s Paradigm: Grounded not just in producing skilled workers but the Museum of Natural History and Fine in the Past, Preparing in educating citizens who would become Arts (established in 1857 at Egerton for the Future effective leaders, able to withstand the Ryerson’s instigation with the inclusion influences of totalitarianism that had dev- of his own art collection), later the Royal Howard Kerr’s prefaces to the course astated Europe. To that end, courses in Ontario Museum; and in 1872 the art catalogues presents a Janus-like balance English, , and history school of the Ontario Society of Artists, that embraced the new social and eco- were mandatory in the early curriculum. which was the first iteration of today’s nomic realities of postwar Canada, while In 1952 Kerr wrote: Ontario College of Art and Design. In recognizing and maintaining traditions. addition, St. James Square’s eight-acre Perhaps in reaction to the uncertain situa- Ryerson has been fully aware of the value site included a botanical garden and an tion of the Cold War era, the imagery of of the humanities in training young men and area reserved for agricultural experi- the 1948 course catalogues anchored the women aiding in the total development of the ments, which led to the establishment in RIT firmly in the educational traditions while training for specific vocational 1874 of the Ontario Agricultural College of Ontario’s past providing a reassuring competence. English and the social sciences and in turn ultimately evolved into the representation of the new educational are rated in equal importance to any techno- . model. By 1949 the new experiment in logical subject. Ryerson’s aim is to graduate education was gaining in confidence and potential leaders and all subjects are chosen By the mid-1940s however, St. James conviction in its ability to move forward. with this aim in view.3 Square was densely packed with bar- Catalogues such as that for Architectural racks and other temporary buildings Drafting presented new and sophisticated A year later he reiterated: constructed as the No. 6 Initial Training contemporary graphic styles and lettering Centre for wartime mobilization by the which contrasted with the ponderous and Obviously the need is for a very special type Royal Canadian Air Force. As Howard Kerr traditional script of the first 1948 RIT cata- of education that will provide both specific had been the director of the site during logue (fig. 3). vocational competence and a core of cultural WWII, he was perhaps a logical choice to wisdom. In a society that places great value become the director of the Training and While grounded in traditional classical on technique, economics and ethics merge: Re-Establishment Institute for returning educational values, the RIT was imbued it becomes impossible to divorce man’s way veterans in 1945. with a keen understanding of the con- of life from his method of earning a living. temporary world. The curriculum included It is the purpose of a Ryerson education to The Inauguration various emerging fields such as aero- promote such a vision.4 of the Ryerson Institute nautical and chemical engineering, early of Technology, 1948 childhood education, electronics, business Although the language suggests gender studies, radio and television production, exclusivity, Ryerson’s catalogues of the While the RIT had been conceived dur- as well as the more established careers of 1950s testified to equal participation of ing the war, its inauguration and that architectural drafting, tailoring, furniture men and women and presented as well a of the other new institutes was delayed making, journalism, nursing, and photog- student body representative of Canada’s until the late 1940s by the looming threat raphy. As a reflection of the shift in the increasingly diverse ethnic population. of the Cold War and the possibility that purpose of education and the need for Yet traditional elements remained intact. the site might once again be required career training, from the beginning the Symbols of the institution included a gold for the training of troops. However, as number of part-time attending medal awarded annually for outstanding the decade closed, there was sufficient night school was significantly greater than achievement featured a profile of Egerton confidence that war deployment would full-time day students, with the statistics Ryerson reminiscent of a classical coin, and no longer be necessary and so, in August for 1949-1950’s academic year enrolling the “lamp of learning,” a small antique 1948, hastily rendered course catalogues 551 full-time students versus 1518 con- vessel from Rome carried at the head of were released featuring images of the tinuing education students.2 the convocation processions.5 In all of this Normal School portico and the statue of the values of tradition, the importance of Egerton Ryerson, and the first academic Beyond the emphasis on practical training protecting democracy, and embracing a year at the RIT was inaugurated (fig. 2). for employment, Howard Kerr believed newly emerging society were reinforced.

JSSAC | JSÉAC 35 > No 2 > 2010 43 Ma r y b e t h McTe a g u e > essaY | essaI

The legacy of the RIT spirit of 1948 is still their residences at the top of north-south country houses and already adapted in found in Ryerson’s motto “mente et scien- streets, affording them a clear vista to Ontario as an appropriate model for tiam”– “mind and skill,” which underlines Lake Ontario. That pattern was repeated new emerging public building typolo- Howard Kerr’s determination to foster throughout the nineteenth century, as gies, including (1831-1832, education that was beyond postwar other prominent institutions, such as the 1844, and 1856) and St. Lawrence Town labour force training. His commitment to first wing of Osgoode Hall, Old City Hall, Hall (1849-1850). The centre was marked a broad education that inculcated demo- and the Ontario Legislature, commanded by a portico with a pediment and cupola cratic values supported by tradition finds similar prospects.6 above. By the 1850s the Georgian Palladian its parallel expression in his approach to style of the original form was superseded architecture, heritage, and building pro- Cumberland and Storm’s by a tougher Greek revival which here grams at Ryerson’s site. Normal School, 1851-1852 featured four double-height square piers that were matched by the firm’s Adelaide The Transformation For the design of the Normal School, Street of 1851-1853 and the of St. James Square Egerton Ryerson commissioned architects Ionic order columns of the Seventh Post Frederick Cumberland (1821-1881) and Office on Toronto Street (1851-1853). In Locating the new RIT on St. James Square William Storm (1826-1892) and the main 1896 a third storey with a new portico afforded Howard Kerr the opportunity to building was constructed in 1851-1852 and ungainly tower with gothic overtones capture the genius loci of its historic site (fig. 4). It was one of a series of significant was added to the Normal School, as fea- as the new institution was established. commissions undertaken by Cumberland tured on the 1948 catalogue cover. Egerton Ryerson had purchased the eight and Storm and later Cumberland and acres providing a generous park-like set- Ridout in the 1850s which gave shape to Kerr Hall 1958-1963 ting for the new Normal School of Upper the expanding character of the city of Canada. The site, positioned at the top Toronto during that decade.7 A century later, as Howard Kerr set out to end of Bond Street, so that the building establish the new RIT, he was confronted would terminate the street’s northern With its central bay, recessed linking with a site occupied by barracks and tem- vista, represented an urban pattern typ- wings, and projecting end pavilions, the porary buildings erected during the war ical in Toronto from its earliest days when exterior design of the Normal School for troop training and veteran repatria- prominent merchants, such as D’Arcy relied on a Palladian vocabulary filtered tion (fig. 5). Initially Kerr was determined (1818) and Campbell (1822), situated through eighteenth-century English to contain the new institute within the

fig. 4. Normal School of Upper Canada, 1852, Cumberland and Storm. | Courtesy fig. 5. The Normal School site with military barracks, circa 1948. | Courtesy of Ryerson University Archives, Doc Fl: Normal School file, photograph from the City of Toronto of Ryerson University Archives, RG-95-1, binder 20, Ryerson Hall. Archives Fonds 1662, item 12.

44 JSSAC | JSÉAC 35 > No 2 > 2010 Ma r y b e t h McTe a g u e > essaY | essaI

existing Normal School buildings (fig. 6). From the courtyard multiple entrances on However, to meet the expanding demands all four sides provided access to the inter- of a rapidly-increasing daytime and even- ior of the new academic building whose ing student body and given the program plan was organized with double loaded of the new institution, this proved impos- corridors leading to classrooms, laborator- sible. In the late 1950s he announced an ies, administrative offices, a theatre on ambitious building plan: a new building the north, and a gymnasium and library designed by the firm of S.B. Coon & Son on the west. Ltd. Architects and Contractors to be erected around the existing school. The Embedding Educational firm started by Stephen Burwell Coon Ideals in Architectural Form (born 1862) and then led by his son Burwell and Language Rancier Coon (born 1892) was retained for the Oshawa Collegiate and Training It is primarily in the design and detail- Vocational School where Kerr had been ing of the elevations that Howard Kerr’s principal before the war. They were well ambitions for the new institute were established, having done a number of com- expressed. The architectural language of mercial buildings, apartments, and public the elevations is best described as a highly schools, which together exhibited a similar reductive neo-classical postwar survival stylistic eclecticism shown by Cumberland combining what Kerr might have con- fig. 6. Campus plan, Ryerson Institute of and Storm one hundred years earlier.8 Kerr sidered a successful blend of the modern Technology 1949-1950. | Courtesy of Ryerson Hall was to be S.B. Coon & Son’s biggest and the traditional. In design, each façade University Archives, Ryerson Institute of Technology 1949-1950 course calendar. commission. In 1958 construction of the presents a different story relating to the new academic building was started in a specifics of adjacent street or internal square plan around the original Normal building functions. A close of the School (figs. 1 and 7). However, as con- building parts explains how Kerr sought struction progressed and the new building to respect the pattern of the nineteenth- was occupied, it became evident that the century urban context while creating an Normal School would have to be demol- architectural complex that blends a com- ished. By July 1963 all that remained of mitment to traditional educational forms Cumberland and Storm’s building was the with local and national typologies and at original two-storey portico. the same time celebrates the new tech- nologies of the post-WWII society. The parti for the new academic build- fig. 7. General view of south elevation, Kerr Hall circa 1964. | Courtesy of Ryerson University Archives, ing—ultimately named Kerr Hall—was Street Facades and Context: Doc Fl: Howard Kerr Hall. a three-storey block with a raised base- Gould Street Elevation ment built around a courtyard (fig. 8). Entrance to the complex was via a single The south façade on Gould Street (fig. 9), gateway to the north on Gerrard Street which replaced the primary entry façade and two smaller archways on the south of the Normal School, is the most trad- from Gould Street. These brought both itional. The long block mimics the basic pedestrians and vehicles into the large form of the Normal School in principle courtyard previously occupied by the with its central projecting bay, two adja- Normal School. It was landscaped with cent narrow links housing the gateways a large parterre divided into quadrants to the courtyard, and two projecting end at the centre, with parking on its edges, blocks here stretching the length of the fig. 8. Kerr Hall, circa 1964, Aerial view after vehicular access and a sidewalk around city block. The building is set on a raised demolition of the Normal School with portico remaining. | Courtesy of Ryerson University the outermost perimeter for pedestrians. basement storey clad in polished red Archives, RG-95-1, binder 13, Howard Kerr Hall.

JSSAC | JSÉAC 35 > No 2 > 2010 45 Ma r y b e t h McTe a g u e > essaY | essaI

fig. 13. Statue of Egerton Ryerson, with limestone bas-relief panels depicting a television, CJRT radio microphone, and camera, Gould Street façade. Reliefs by Dora de Pedery Hunt. | Courtesy of Ryerson University Archives, RG 24-208.

fig. 9. Kerr Hall, circa 1961, south façade on Gould Street. | Courtesy of Ryerson University Archives, Doc Fl: Howard Kerr Hall. fig. 11. The Hockey Goalie, Kerr Hall, south façade by Jacobine Jones. | Marybeth McTeague.

fig. 12. Kerr Hall under construction terminating fig. 14. Bas-relief, Kerr Hall, Church Street façade, fig. 10. Kerr Hall, link with passage to courtyard the north end of Bond Street. | Ryerson Elizabeth Wyn Wood. | Courtesy of Ryerson from Gould Street. | Marybeth McTeague. University Advancement. University Archives, file 204-28.

granite. The upper storeys of the links frames and asymmetrical composition of The most important feature of the Gould and wings are clad in light brown brick. horizontal and vertical panes. façade is the central bay. Set at the top The windows of the first two floors of of Bond Street it maintains the urban the wings are trimmed with sandstone The façade treatment of the narrow links function of the Normal School in closing and linked by ridged aluminum panels between the central bay and outer wings the vista and providing a backdrop to allowing the adjacent brick to be read as continues the classical references with the statue of Egerton Ryerson (fig. 12). a traditional giant order. Instead of the the arched entry passageways trimmed Clad entirely in sandstone above the typical attic windows or loggia space of a with granite keystones. Above each, set granite base, the central bay recalls the Renaissance palazzo type, modernist bands in a niche, a sculpture by Jacobine Jones Normal School portico. Seven bays of of ribbon windows top the third storey. of a graduand on the east and a hockey windows with the first two storeys linked Although surrounded by stone frames, the goalie on the west are classical ele- here by stone panels allow the piers of windows, rather than being double hung ments portraying contemporary society the old two-storey portico to be read sash, sport a 1950s styling with their metal (figs. 10-11). again. The stone panels replace the lost

46 JSSAC | JSÉAC 35 > No 2 > 2010 Ma r y b e t h McTe a g u e > essaY | essaI

fig. 15. Drawing, Kerr Hall courtyard, east elevation with radio tower (delineator unknown). | Courtesy of Ryerson University Archives, Ryerson Institute of fig. 16. Theatre entrance, Kerr Hall, north passageway Technology 1961-1962 course calendar. to Gerrard Street. | Marybeth McTeague. metopes of the Normal School entabla- integrates deliberately modern ones in an The traditional copper-clad hipped ture and feature relief carvings by Dora effort to speak of an institution grounded roof and tower with its Canadian and de Pedery-Hunt (1903-2008) depicting a in the historic roots of Ontario’s education Oxbridge associations is absent on microscope, chemical retort, surveyor’s tri- while providing the technological training Church Street and instead this elevation pod, television, Ryerson’s CJRT radio sta- required for future opportunities. is crowned with a radio tower. It was tion microphone, camera, and geodesic emblematic of Ryerson’s commitment dome referring to the technologically- Church Street Elevation to future technologies; indeed the first based careers which would be pursued campus radio station CJRT-FM operated at Ryerson (fig. 13). The pediment of the While the south façade reiterates history from 1949 and the first live television Normal School portico has been omit- and tradition, the east façade on Church broadcast in Canada was produced by ted, but two small stone urns, whose Street establishes a firm commitment to the Ryerson students. As evidence of its minuscule scale seems to underline the future and new technology. It continues importance, it was featured as a fold-out tentativeness of the classical language, the granite base, brown brick and also has illustration at the front of the 1961-1962 mark the corners of the roof parapet. a central projecting bay clad in sandstone, calendar (fig. 15). A small clock tower alludes to the trad- but here provides one of the most unusual itional lantern towers of the college variations and further interpretations of Gerrard and Victoria Street dining halls of Oxford and Cambridge a portico by inverting the classical model Elevations and maintains the focal point originally and applying Doric fluting not to the piers provided by Cumberland’s portico and but to the recessed bays in between. These In contrast to the south and east eleva- tower. Working in a modernist idiom bays are entirely blind except for windows tions, Gerrard Street’s north façade pro- most of the building has a flat roof, but at the lowest storey, again inverting clas- vides another element which emphasizes the central bay has a copper-clad hipped sical expectations for large windows at the public access (fig. 16). A triple-storey, roof, by then a characteristic feature of piano nobile or upper level. The central triple entrance-way recalling a Roman other Canadian municipal, provincial, and bay features a large relief by Elizabeth triumphal arch creates a large portico for national institutions. Wyn Wood (1903-1966) with two women the entrance to the Ryerson Theatre and and two men set against a vertiginous to the courtyard. Treatment is minimal As a whole, the south façade reinforces modern cityscape culminating at the top with elements of classicism evident only existing contexts and urban patterns; it with the lamp of learning (fig. 14) mod- in the stone frames, piers, and round- continues to provide an honorific back- elled on that carried annually in the con- els above the theatre entrance. As with drop highlighting the statue of Egerton vocation processions. The lamp explicitly the two gateways on Gould Street, this Ryerson, the spiritual figurehead of public connects Ryerson’s focus on career-based entrance has wrought iron gates, which, education in Ontario. The façade relies education with graduates’ participation in as in the traditional Oxbridge college, on classical forms and typologies but the modern urban world. controls access.

JSSAC | JSÉAC 35 > No 2 > 2010 47 Ma r y b e t h McTe a g u e > essaY | essaI

In the Kerr Hall design, the west façade by Elizabeth Wyn Wood over the gymna- seems to be of least importance. Facing sium entrance on the west (fig. 18). Here Victoria Street a minor entrance leads to two nudes, male and female, sit cross- the athletic facilities and the program legged with bow and arrow shooting within is signalled by façade reliefs of past each other to targets in the adjacent sportsmen created by Dora de Pedery- panels surrounded by maple leafs, pine Hunt. boughs, and squirrels. In writing about the Kerr Hall sculpture John Warkentin Sculpture and Design observed: Details of the Courtyard Elevations It should be noted that in contrast to the bas-reliefs installed on commercial and The narrative of sculpture and detail civic buildings in the 1920’s and ‘30’s, the design on the courtyard facades further existence of women as persons in their own elucidates Howard Kerr’s vision. These right has finally been recognized, and they elevations continue the integration of are given equal treatment with men in these reductive classical elements and a trad- panels.9 itional material palette with new forms, materials, and a modern iconography. For In these sculptures we find a parallel to example, on the main entrance of the east Kerr’s blend of local and ancient traditions side of the courtyard, modified classical that give true expression to the spirit of fig. 17. Door with entablature frame and keystone, entablature frames with keystones and a the time and the place in which this insti- Kerr Hall east courtyard elevation. | Courtesy staircase with stylized squat, square stone tution was founded while embracing a of Ryerson University Archives, Doc Fl: Howard Kerr Hall. urns flanking wrought iron balustrades progressive social agenda of equality. contrast with the far more reductive character of the west façade entrances Casswell Collier’s Murals where all classical references have been suppressed and pilasters are reduced to Two murals on the interior of Kerr Hall linear stone frames (fig. 17). The entrance depict Howard Kerr’s ambitions and ideals to the current Early Learning Centre fea- most forcefully. In the western wing of tures a stripped portico of simple square Kerr Hall, Alan Casswell Collier’s (1911- section piers that, in spite of Kerr’s pos- 1990) mural “The History of Technology ition against totalitarianism, recalls the in the World” illustrates that even “with fig. 18. Bas relief, gymnasium entrance, Kerr Hall, work of the Italian Rationalists executed the present uses of automation in indus- West courtyard elevation, Elizabeth under Mussolini. trial power, the ultimate control remains Wyn Wood. | Courtesy of Ryerson University Archives, 10 file 204-28. in human minds and hands (fig. 19).” On the south elevation of the courtyard Situated on the west side of the court, in in parallel with the façade on Gould, a ground floor corridor, the mural reinfor- small panels by Dora de Pedery-Hunt are ces the technological motifs found in the inserted between windows and feature exterior bas-reliefs of Kerr Hall and is set simple reliefs representing child care, opposite to the great radio tower atop tailoring, food services, and hotel and res- the east block. As a result, anyone passing taurant management. On the east face, the mural and emerging from the west bas-reliefs by Thomas Bowie feature styl- block into the courtyard would be con- ized male and female classical nudes with fronted with the view of the radio tower their associated tools of their professions and Kerr’s ambitions that Ryerson play a fig. 19. Mural “Technology in the World,” such as chemistry, drafting, and building leading role in adapting technology for 1963, Kerr Hall west, Alan Casswell Collier. | Marybeth McTeague. construction. Most remarkable are those the future.

48 JSSAC | JSÉAC 35 > No 2 > 2010 Ma r y b e t h McTe a g u e > essaY | essaI

On the interior of the eastern block, under the radio tower, a second allegor- ical mural is presented. Casswell Collier’s “The Portico of Philosophers” portraying two central figures in antique dress recalls Raphael’s Renaissance mural, “The School of Athens,” which illustrates the debate between Plato and Aristotle. In Raphael’s version, the central figures of Aristotle and Plato point to the earth and the sky, but fig. 20. Courtyard, Massey College, University of fig. 22. Courtyard, Faculty of Arts Building, Toronto, 1963, Ron Thom. | Marybeth McTeague. Cambridge University, 1952, Sir Hugh Casson Collier portrays these figures no longer as and Neville Condor. | Marybeth McTeague. two males, but as a man and woman, sym- bolic of Ryerson’s commitment to gender equality so consistently represented by the institution in its media. Whereas Raphael set the two main figures at the top of a staircase, framed by a series of classical barrel vaults retreating perspec- tivally into the distance, Collier presents the modern-day figures within a continu- ous grid of minimalist, rectilinear piers, fig. 21. Courtyard, New College, University of fig. 23. Courtyard, Hart House, University framing a series of stepped platforms. Toronto, 1967, Macy DuBois. | Marybeth McTeague. of Toronto, 1910-1919, Sproatt & The grid, recalling the piers found at the Rolph. | Marybeth McTeague. entrance of the Early Learning Centre, has symbolic importance for its lack of century adapting the traditional court- In Toronto, historical references to English hierarchy, and its inherent rationalism yard typology of Oxford and Cambridge are well known. In its depic- and neutrality. The mural signifies Kerr’s to the contemporary university. Others tion of the gothic, Hart House, designed postwar democratic ambitions and ideals include Massey College (1963) by Ron by Sproatt and Rolph and built 1910-1919, for the Ryerson Institute of Technology. Thom and New College (1967) by Macy endeavoured to connect the facilities at Associations with past classical traditions, DuBois (figs. 20-21). Along with Kerr the University of Toronto with the hal- especially those aligning Ryerson educa- Hall, these represent the evolution of the lowed traditions of medieval England tion with the birth of democracy and the courtyard type reworked through mod- (fig. 23). Thom’s Massey College continued creation of an open society which encour- ernist principles and sensibilities. Indeed, this tradition, while adapting other con- aged debate and full participation of its new architecture in Britain, particularly temporary stylistic filters, such as that of citizenry, was essential. These murals at traditional universities, explored a Frank Lloyd Wright’s work. illustrate the concurrent principles of the modern interpretation of the courtyard inclusion of tradition and heritage, the type. One of the earliest examples was At Ryerson through its use of a courtyard harnessing of technology, and an emer- executed by Sir Hugh Casson and Neville with arcuated entries and gateway a simi- ging fully democratic society, which were Condor in the Faculty of Arts Building lar model was in operation. More import- the foundations on which Kerr’s educa- at Cambridge in 1952 (fig. 22). The trad- ant, however, is the design’s connection tional institution was built. itional medieval courtyard was to be with the specific history of the site and the given a distinctive reconceptualization. evolution of Toronto’s urban form. Rather Postwar Courtyard Raised on thick Corbusian pilotis, the than invoking collegiate gothic that had Educational Buildings building provides a continuity of interior been the dominant stylistic language for and exterior spaces capturing the ideals educational building types throughout Ryerson’s new building was one of many of class-free accessibility which these insti- the first two thirds of the twentieth cen- postwar educational institutions being tutions sought to accomplish in postwar tury, Kerr Hall by contrast is deliberately built in Toronto in the mid-twentieth Labour-ruled Britain. classical. It recaptures however faintly

JSSAC | JSÉAC 35 > No 2 > 2010 49 Ma r y b e t h McTe a g u e > essaY | essaI

fig. 25. Proposal for the Kerr Hall Courtyard, Ryerson University master plan showing partial demolition of Kerr Hall and retention of Normal School portico, 2008, Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects and Daoust Lestage Inc. in association with Greenberg Consultants and IBI Group, rendering by Norm Li, AG+I. | Kuwabara, fig. 24. Normal School portico fragment, Kerr Hall courtyard. | Marybeth McTeague. Payne, McKenna, Blumberg.

the Palladian survival and neo-classical constantly symbolized by the Modern build- The ruin was completed, literally, when styles of the original Normal School and ings dominated by the original Ryerson Hall a mere fragment of the front façade reinstates its response to the urban con- and the statue of its Founder.11 of Cumberland’s central pavilion was text by creating the pseudo-portico at retained—the epitome of token preser- the head of Bond Street. Further, the By 1963 the original Normal School vation, lost and largely forgotten in the reinterpretation of traditional themes had been all but demolished except for Ryerson quadrangle that is all that remains in education, while adapting the RIT to Cumberland’s original two-storey portico, of St. James Square.12 the modern age, reflects Kerr’s Janus-like retained in its original location and now commitment to including heritage while serving as the entry to below-ground uni- But within the context of Toronto in the securing the promise of the future. versity athletic facilities. Just as the 1963 early 1960s, the preservation of this arte- radio transmitter tower acted as a bill- fact is indeed remarkable. Undertaken Kerr and the Preservation board for Ryerson’s commitment to future in the years before the Ontario Heritage of Architectural Heritage technological innovation, the retention Foundation had been established, and a of the Normal School portico stood as a decade before the passage of the Ontario Howard Kerr’s initial ambition was to declaration of respect for the past, a com- Heritage Act, the preservation of a frag- retain the Normal School at the heart of memoration of the evolution of education ment of Toronto history stands as a the new educational quadrangle. At the in Ontario, and a beacon to guide those forerunner of heritage preservation in opening of the first new building in 1958 individuals charged with creating the new Toronto. As Dendy’s Lost Toronto would he wrote: institution on hallowed ground (fig. 24). record, many buildings were being demol- ished in the 1960s without a second glance The continual development of Ontario’s In recent decades this vision has been and a tabula rasa approach to the city was education system for over a century will obscured. Retaining only fragments of widespread, perhaps best exemplified by be visible on St. James Square […] This heritage buildings has been disdained by the demolition of an entire city block to year Ryerson Institute of Technology in its purists. In the heady days of 1980s con- make way for the new Toronto Dominion efforts to serve Canada by educating tech- servation, which saw the first fruits of the Centre, 1963-1969, designed by Mies van nologists begins its expansion. Its insistence Ontario Heritage Act (1974) and building der Rohe in association with John B. Parkin on a balanced curriculum of the Sciences, designation put into place, William Dendy Associates and Bregman and Hamann. In of the Arts and of the Technologies will be was to decry this fragment: the following decade heritage recognition

50 JSSAC | JSÉAC 35 > No 2 > 2010 Ma r y b e t h McTe a g u e > essaY | essaI

became more widespread. In projects Architects and Daoust Lestage Inc. in urban legacies from the nineteenth and such as , 1972, designed association with Greenberg Consultants twentieth centuries, their distinct integra- by I.M. Pei Associates with Page & Steele and IBI Group initially acknowledge the tion could provide the opportunity to cre- associated architects, the existing Bank of importance of heritage by identifying ate a renewed and richly layered Ryerson Commerce Building of 1929-1930, by York the intersection of Gould and Bond as campus in the twenty-first century. & Sawyer and Darling & Pearson associ- the heart of the campus and by adding ated architects, was preserved within the heritage elements to the list of urban notes new complex. design principles.13 However in the development of the proposal, heritage 1. Acknowledgments are gratefully expressed to the following: George Kapelos who, as chair Looking Forward: Ryerson’s attributes, Egerton Ryerson’s statue and of the Department of Architectural Science, Current Master Plan Cumberland’s portico, are not mentioned first initiated this as a research project and nor listed, for example, in the section on provided the opportunity for the research In his conceptualization of the design for “Design Excellence.” to be conducted, as well as for editing and suggestions with regard to the preparation of the RIT, Howard Hillen Kerr created two this paper following the presentation at the parallel models, one for education and The illustrations of the master plan do 2009 SSAC Conference; and Claude Doucet, one for historic sites. In both, technology not highlight the historic significance Owen Jenkins, Shirley McKinley, and Catherine was the focal point, and the future was of the urban context, the importance McMaster at the Ryerson University Archives for their assistance and perseverance in trac- envisioned with reference to the past. of Ryerson’s statue, or the fragment of king source materials. Allusions and allegiances combined insti- one of Toronto’s most prolific and tal- 2. Ryerson University Archives, Annual Report. tutions and forms of classical Greece with ented nineteenth-century architects, educational models of medieval England Frederick Cumberland. For example, the 3. Kerr, Howard Hillen, 1952, Ryerson Institute of Technology, Catalogue 1952-1953, Ryerson all filtered through the evolving situation master plan calls for the removal of the Institute of Technology, Toronto, p. 8. of the city of Toronto. Unlike medieval central hipped-roof bay of Kerr Hall at 4. Kerr, Howard Hillen, 1953, Ryerson Institute college models pursued in the architec- the top of Bond Street and its replace- of Technology, Catalogue 1953-1954, Ryerson tural program of other institutions of ment with a glass façade allowing views Institute of Technology, Toronto, p. 7. higher learning, Kerr’s allusions were into the courtyard (fig. 25). This proposal 5. The first director of architectural draughting not constructions rooted in fiction but has the potential to reassert the sig- at Ryerson, G.D.W. MacRae, discovered the presented a realistic reinterpretation of nificance of the original Normal School “lamp of learning” in an antique shop in Rome the contemporary university within the portico. However, this is not indicated as and brought it back to Ryerson where it was to be carried in convocation processions from the specifics of Toronto’s urban context. an objective in their strategy. At a detail early 1950s through to the 1980s. Today it is on level proposals for street lighting fail to display in the Ryerson University Archives.

As Ryerson’s role in postsecondary educa- highlight important heritage features, 6. Other Toronto institutions situated at the top tion continues to evolve, it is hoped that such as the statue of Egerton Ryerson as of north-south streets looking toward Lake the institution will continue to reinforce the figurehead both of the University and Ontario include Osgoode Hall’s first building, the east wing (1831-1832) set at the top of and integrate Kerr’s model of a continued Ontario’s public education system situ- York Street, Knox College (1875) on Spadina emphasis on the education of citizens for ated at the top of Bond Street. Avenue, and City Hall (1886-1899) at the top leadership, in parallel with education in of . technology to meet demands of current The master plan is a clear reflection of 7. Other works include St. James Cathedral challenges and possible crises. In recent Ryerson’s evolution and potential for (1850-1853), Adelaide Street Court House years Ryerson has begun ambitious plans future growth. It would only be a matter (1851-1853), Seventh Post Office (1851-1853), Osgoode Hall (1856-1860), University College for the future. For current master plan- of some minor reconsideration of focus (1856-1859), and the adjacent Observatory ning at Ryerson we would hope that Kerr’s and emphasis to integrate the importance (1852). ideals of respect for tradition, context, Ryerson’s founder, Howard Kerr, gave to 8. Other buildings include the Dominion Building and site heritage are not forgotten. sustaining tradition and heritage while on Bay Street (1928), the Balmoral Apartments embracing new forms and technologies (1928), as well as numerous public schools and In the 2008 master plan for the redevel- appropriate to the changing needs of high schools in Toronto and Southern Ontario. Burwell Coon who undertook the Kerr Hall opment of the Ryerson University cam- an . As the site is commission had been a president of the pus, Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg laden with architectural, historical, and Royal Architectural Institute of Canada from

JSSAC | JSÉAC 35 > No 2 > 2010 51 Ma r y b e t h McTe a g u e > essaY | essaI

1938-1940 and chair of the Toronto Society In addition to the references cited, sources of Architects in 1933-1934. His bequest to the for this article are: Royal Architectural Institute of Canada after his death led to the creation in 1984 of the Ryerson University Archives : annual Burwell Coon Award. S.B. Coon & Son Ryerson course calendars 1948-2009. Architects were also credited with being the contractors for Kerr Hall. KPMB, Master plan for Ryerson University, 2008.

9. Warkentin, John, 2010, Creating Memory; A Files: 3-41 Minutes: Curriculum Committee Guide to Outdoor Public Sculpture in Toronto, meetings; 3-46 Documentation files, 1948- Toronto, Becker Associates in Association with 1978;204-28 Sculptures by Elizabeth Wyn the City Institute at , p. 166. Wood; Maps and plans (file without num- ber); Picture (file without number); Journalism 10. Letter from Howard Hillen Kerr, June 1963, Photography Collection 13, Howard Kerr Hall; quoting Alan Caswell Collier, Ryerson Howard Kerr Hall; Normal School; Training and University Archives, RG 24-208. Re-Establishment Institute. 11. Kerr, Howard Hillen, 1958, Ryerson Institute Anon, “An Academic Question: A Brief History of Technology, Catalogue 1958 -1959, Ryerson Tracing the Academic Development of the Institute of Technology, Toronto, p. 9. Institute,” Ryerson Rambler, Ryerson 1948- 12. Dendy, William, 1978, Lost Toronto, Toronto, 1988, Special Anniversary Issue 37, published Oxford University Press, p. 118. by the Office of Development and Alumni Affairs, Ryerson Polytechnic Institute, Toronto, 13. Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg p. 12-13. Architects and Daoust Lestage Inc. in asso- ciation with Greenberg Consultants and IBI Doucet, Claude, “A Sense of History: Ryerson Born Group, 2008, Ryerson University Master Plan, Amid Problems and Challenges of Postwar section 1.9. Era,” Forum, Ryerson Polytechnical Institute, March 11, 1983, p. 12-13.

Complementary Bibliography Kerr, Howard Hillen, “Official Opening of the Ryerson Institute of Technology,” Toronto, Arthur, Eric and Stephen A. Otto, 1986 [rev. 3rd ed.], September 21, Ryerson University Archives, Toronto: No Mean City, Toronto, University of Doc Fl: 1948 History/General 1948 Formal Toronto Press. Opening. Bureau of Architecture and Urbanism, 1987, City of Toronto Archives : Toronto Modern Architecture, 1945-1965, Fonds 331: S.B. Coon & Son, Architects fonds – Toronto, Coach House Press. circa 1909-1969. Cawker, Ruth (ed.), 1987, Toronto: Le Nouveau Nouveau Monde: Contemporary Architecture in Toronto, Toronto.

Dendy, William and William Kilbourn, 1986, Toronto Observed: Its Architecture, Patrons and History, Toronto, Oxford University Press.

Hartt, Frederick, 1969, History of Italian Renaissance Art, New York, Harry N. Abrams.

Moore Ede, Carol, 1971, Canadian Architecture 1960/1970, Toronto, Burns and MacEachern Ltd.

Simmins, Geoffrey, 1997, Fred Cumberland: Building the Victorian Dream, Toronto, University of Toronto Press.

Stagg, Ronald, 1998, Serving Society’s Needs: A History of the Ryerson Polytechnic University, Toronto, Ryerson Polytechnic University.

52 JSSAC | JSÉAC 35 > No 2 > 2010