This Saturday and Sunday, up to 150 buildings of architectural, historic, cultural and social significance open their doors to the public for a city-wide celebration.

Free Admission

The program allows visitors free access to properties that are either not usually open to the public, or would normally charge an entrance fee. Many locations have organized guided tours, displays and activities to enrich the visitor experience.

From heritage landmarks to modern structures, hidden gems, green roofs, places of worship, halls of learning, boardrooms, bedrooms, breweries, lighthouses, mansions, museums, theatres, national historic sites, centres of rail travel, cemeteries, factories, banking halls, architects' offices and more.



* Special focus on new and retrofit green, sustainable buildings
* No tickets or pre-registration required
* Many buildings are not normally open to the public
* Official guide in the Toronto Star on Thursday May 17, 2007
* All venues feature behind-the-scenes tours, exhibits, activities and/or talks
* Many sites are kid-friendly
* Over 1,000,000 visits since the first-annual Doors Open Toronto in May, 2000



Doors Open Toronto invites you to get to know the city, whether you've lived in Toronto all your life or you're visiting for the first time. See Toronto like you've never seen it before!

"...Doors Open is one of the best things to have happened to Toronto architecture so far this century -- or any century for that matter."
- Christopher Hume, Toronto Star, May 19, 2005

link







401 Richmond West is an historic factory building that was constructed in five stages between 1899 and 1923. Originally occupied by tinware lithographers, the Macdonald Manufacturing Company, it is now home to over 140 cultural producers and microenterprises. In 1994, new owners purchased the building, aiming to provide affordable downtown workspace for artists and creative enterprise. Within 18 months, the largely vacant building was transformed into a fully leased and thriving cultural community centre. Renovations and attractions include over 800 original double-hung pine windows that are being restored, an expanded lobby with industrial detailing, refinished floors, ceilings and columns, a glass elevator, courtyard, historic studio doors, public art displays, an arts enriched early learning centre, a lush rooftop garden, a glass-walled bridge (“skywalk”), and The Roastery Coffee House. In 1999, Heritage Toronto honoured 401 Richmond with an Award of Merit for Outstanding Adaptive Reuse.






Opened in July 2004, BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir is a traditional Hindu Mandir located on a scenic 18-acre site near Highway 427 North and Finch Avenue West. Intricately hand-carved in Burmese teak, the Mandir reflects the traditional wooden courtyard (Haveli) craftsmanship of India. The word Haveli refers to a majestic mansion (often royal courts), which was popular in India during the 17th century. These mansions were built in a particular architectural style featuring a low, multi-storied building with a central open courtyard decorated both inside and out with intricate woodwork. By the early 1900s, the use of Haveli architecture had almost completely ceased in India. However, in the 1990s, plans for a BAPS Swaminarayan Hindu Mandir in London, England were being developed. Out of several architectural concepts suggested, His Divine Holiness Pramukh Swami Maharaj, the spiritual leader of BAPS, insisted on a design based on traditional Haveli architecture. Thus the opening of the London Mandir in 1995 has brought this design back into the limelight. Since then, under the inspiration and leadership of Pramukh Swami Maharaj, Haveli-style Mandirs have been constructed in Nairobi (Africa), Chicago (U.S.A.) and now here in Toronto. The Mandir’s beautiful architecture begins with hundreds of figures of musicians, poets and dancers carved into the portico, welcoming all visitors in traditional Indian manner. The entrance hall features a richly hand-carved wooden foyer that opens into a magnificent courtyard with soaring wooden columns and panels. Hundreds of dancing peacocks, delicate lotus flowers and royal elephants beckon in greeting. The building serves as a place of worship for the Hindu community and a place of inspiration for all visitors. The Toronto Mandir is an architectural masterpiece with breathtaking intricacy not previously seen in Canada. The Mandir has attracted many well known visitors including Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, Toronto Mayor David Miller, Chief Justice Hon. Roy McMurtry, Mr. John Tory, Leader of the Ontario PC Party, and Police Chief of Toronto, Bill Blair and many others. The breathtaking architecture of the Mandir has been recently featured in the Toronto Star and in Canadian Interiors Magazine.





Bloorview Kids Rehab is Canada’s largest children’s rehabilitation hospital. In 2002, we partnered with the University of Toronto to become Canada’s first teaching hospital in children’s rehabilitation. We are home to the Bloorview Research Institute that was created in 2004. Bloorview Kids Rehab has always recognized the importance of sustainable and renewable energy. It was a natural progression to incorporate ‘green energy’ into the design of the new building. A green or ‘vegetated’ roof – a first for Bloorview – was installed on a portion of the first floor roof above the front entrance canopy, covering more than 1,900 sq. ft.
Energy recovery is a prominent feature in the new facility. Nature and technology join forces to make Bloorview Kids Rehab one of the first health-care facilities in Canada to recover and re-use rainwater as part of the irrigation system.
Considerable effort was made in the design of the new facility to incorporate solar panels on the flat rooftop.
In the early stages of planning for the building, Bloorview Kids Rehab held workshops to explore all energy-saving options, many of which were incorporated into the design of the building. Creating an accessible building is also an obvious priority for Bloorview due to the accessibility needs of many of our clients and their families. Our new facility has already been recognized worldwide as a model for accessible buildings. Toronto Star architecture critic Christopher Hume has included the new Bloorview Kids Rehab building in a list of top-10 architectural projects. “A place that could have been dreary and depressing is anything but. Iconic yet neighbourly and welcoming, it is one of the most deeply moving additions to the city.” Bloorview was recently honoured for the interior design project of our new building by The Association of Registered Interior Designers of Ontario (ARIDO) in the category of Health Care Facilities.






The Casa Loma Gardens, opened to the public in 1990, were renovated by the Kiwanis Club of Casa Loma and the Garden Club of Toronto. The five-acre garden features a Cottage Garden containing rose arbours, clematis and perennials; a Rhododendron Dell; a Woodland Walk with ornamental grasses, forsythia and wild rose; a Watergarden with marsh marigolds and water iris and a Spring Woodland garden which features Virginia bluebells, trilliums, columbine and other native flora.





Designed by David Roberts Senior, Gooderham & Worts’ 1863-64 Malt Kilns building is intimately related in form and function to the adjoining Malt House (Building 35). Originally three stories high, the roof of the Kilns Building was raised and other changes made between 1877 and 1884. Today, the Kilns Building is a four-and-a-half storey, hipped-roof, lantern-topped, red-brick box set on a rusticated limestone base. The function of the elaborately detailed square lantern appears to have been decorative, while a second larger lantern, now gone, was used to ventilate the interior. The north Mill Street elevation, where visitors will find the entrance to the kiln cellar, consists of seven piers and six recessed panels extending from a limestone base to Roberts’ trademark arcaded corbels topping each panel.






Rack House D (Building 42) is the largest Victorian rack house (barrel storage building) at the Distillery District. Designed by David Roberts Junior and opened in 1890, the six-storey red-brick building commands the northeast corner of Mill and Trinity Streets. The exterior is massive and simple, composed of a series of brick piers and recessed brick panels, capped by a distinctive dropped corbel pattern unique to the buildings on this site. The wood-framed, double-hung windows on the east and west facades bear green-painted galvanized-metal shutters. Entrance is from the southern, Mill Street side.





During WWII the British Government had requisitioned or built 1,464 various ships for war service. Each of these ships bore the first name "Empire." The Empire Sandy is the last of the "Empire" fleet still in service. The Empire Sandy was built in Willington Quay-on-Tyne, England and went into war service on July 14, 1943. It was one of eight sister ships on the Englishman/Larch class which were designated "Deep Sea Tugs." Each was fitted with extra capacity oil fuel tanks for extended service in the North Atlantic. They were armed with anti-aircraft guns and carried four Royal Navy gunners. The Empire Sandy served in the North Atlantic, the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean. After WWII it was sold and its name was changed to Ashford. It worked as a tug and salvage vessel around the U.K., helping clear the wreckage of war. In 1950, the Ashford was sold to the Great Lakes Paper Company in Thunder Bay, Ontario and was renamed Chris M. For more than 20 years the Chris M towed logs and barges on Lake Superior but as the cost of maintaining the boilers escalated, steam ships were no longer viable economically. The Chris M was eventually sold for scrap and taken to Hamilton, Ontario for breakup. Three days before it was to be broken up for scrap, Norm Rogers, founder of Nautical Adventures, purchased it - it was his dream to recreate an authentic 19th-century Tall Ship. The whole ship was gutted, redesigned and rebuilt in the style of an 1800s three-masted schooner. The privately-funded conversion took five years and upon completion, the ship was rechristened the Empire Sandy. The Empire Sandy now earns her living as a charter vessel in Toronto. She is certified by Transport Canada to provide professional entry level training to those wishing to pursue a career in Canada's merchant navy.






Fort York Armoury is the headquarters of four active units of the Army Reserve and of several thriving Cadet organizations. Built in 1935 and designed by architects Marani, Lawson and Morris, it features a unique concrete parabolic roof spanning an unobstructed parade square. Within the armoury are three small regimental museums and, overlooking Lake Ontario, a series of regimental Officers' Messes which are superb examples of the traditional British form. The crowning architectural feature of Fort York Armoury is its parabolic Lamella roof. With strength and sophistication, it provides an uninterrupted span of nearly 125 feet and therefore plenty of room for parades, military vehicles and the training of soldiers. The armoury's main entrance is emphasized by pilasters of rusticated masonry with a large carved coat-of-arms of the Dominion of Canada above the flat keyed arch of the entrance. Set into the parapet over the stone-trimmed doorways opening up on ornamental iron balconies are the cap badges of each original regiment carved in stone.





This wedge-shaped Victorian landmark was built for financier George Gooderham in 1892 to serve as administrative offices for the Gooderham and Worts Distillery and other family business interests. Dominating the intersection of Wellington, Church and Front Streets, it is a rare example of 'flat-iron' architectural form. The property is protected by a City By-law under the Ontario Heritage Act. It is designated for its architectural value as a notable example of a building by an important Toronto architect working in a combination of the modern Gothic Revival and the Romanesque Revival styles. Located in the St. Lawrence neighbourhood of downtown Toronto, 49 Wellington Street East contains 20,000 square feet of retail and office space.