Notice of intention to designate, City of Toronto, Province of Ontario

1 Clarendon Avenue

Take notice that Toronto City Council intends to designate the lands and buildings known municipally as 1 Clarendon Avenue under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act.

Reasons for Designation

Description
The property at 1 Clarendon Avenue is worthy of designation under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act, and meets the criteria for municipal designation prescribed by the Province of Ontario under the three categories of design, associative and contextual value. Located on the southwest corner of Avenue Road and Clarendon Avenue, the Claridge Apartments were completed in 1929 before the complex was profiled in the March issue of "Construction" magazine. The building was commissioned by Henry Falk, a New York entrepreneur who financed the Concourse Building and the neighbouring Clarendon Apartments. 1 Clarendon Avenue was listed on the City of Toronto Inventory of Heritage Properties in 1976.

Statement of Cultural Heritage Value
The Claridge Apartments have design value as an excellent example of a 1920s apartment house with exterior decoration that mixes the round-arched motifs associated with Romanesque Revival Design with embellishments described as Venetian Gothic. In Toronto, the construction of luxury apartment buildings reached its zenith in the 1920s before the onset of the Great Depression. One of the first residential buildings in Toronto constructed with concrete, the Claridge Apartments were also noted for the attention to detailing that extended from the exterior to the entrance lobby designed by Group of Seven artist, J. E. H. MacDonald. The Claridge has been described as "the queen of Toronto apartment buildings" and its lobby as "the most beautiful in the city" (Dendy and Kilbourn, Toronto Observed, 1986, 243).

Historically, the Claridge Apartments are associated with the leading architects and designers of the era. Baldwin and Greene, the architects for the complex, began a partnership in 1923 that lasted until 1935 when Greene embarked on a solo practice. Before the firm was dissolved, Baldwin joined the Art Gallery of Toronto (now the Art Gallery of Ontario) as a curator and became the institution's first director in 1948. Among Baldwin and Greene's best known commissions was the Concourse Building (1928) at 100 Adelaide Street West, which was one of the first properties in Toronto designated following the passage of the Ontario Heritage Act in 1975. Both the Concourse Building and the Claridge Apartments feature decorative programs by artist J. E. H. MacDonald.

A graphic artist and illustrator, James Edward Hervey MacDonald (1873-1932) was a founding member of the Group of Seven, the group of modern painters that first gained attention with an exhibition at the Art Gallery of Toronto in 1920. Influenced by Scandinavian landscapes and Chinese and Japanese art, MacDonald was best known for his paintings that explored the Northern Ontario terrain in a highly patterned style and dark palette. In addition to his painting and commercial artwork, MacDonald taught at the Ontario College Art and undertook a variety of commissions, including the overall vision for the interior decoration of St. Anne's Anglican Church (1923) at 270 Gladstone Avenue (a National Historic Site that is designated under the Ontario Heritage Act). At the Claridge Apartments, MacDonald's designs were executed by his assistant, Canadian painter Carl F. Schaefer, and his son, Thoreau MacDonald.

The Claridge Apartments occupy a prominent hilltop location on Avenue Road where the street reaches its highest point north of Davenport Road. With the neighbouring Clarendon Apartments at 2 Clarendon Avenue and the Balmoral Apartments at 150 Balmoral Avenue (on the opposite side of Avenue Road), the apartment houses form a significant group of recognized heritage buildings.

Heritage Attributes
The heritage attributes of the Claridge Apartments related to the complex's design value as an excellent example of a 1920s apartment building noted for its both its exterior and interior detailing are found on the exterior walls and roofline, the landscaping in the north courtyard, and the interior described below.

Exterior attributes
The exterior attributes consist of:

• The six-storey H-shaped plan with projecting blocks on the northwest, northeast and southeast corners
• The flat roofline, with metal cornices, brick chimneys, decorative brickwork and, on the corner blocks, terra cotta gargoyles (the roof surface is not included in the Reasons for Designation)
• Above the grey-buff brick that is applied in a checkerboard pattern on the first two stories, the brown brick cladding laid in diamond patterns, and the brick, precast stone, metal, tile and terra cotta trim
• The raised base with a mixture of flat- and round-headed openings that increases in height as the site slopes to the south
• On all elevations, the flat-headed door openings, the stone balconies, the symmetrical organization of the flat-headed window openings with single, paired, tripartite and four-part windows, the brick flat arches and stone sills, and the casement windows (most of which are original to the building)
• The main (north) entrance to the complex, which is placed in an arcade with Corinthian columns, a brick parapet, gargoyles and medallions
• The detailing of the north entry, where a door with a metal grille is accessed through a round-arched opening with carved detailing and a transom with iron grillwork, and flanked by round-arched window openings with stone frames and decorative leaded windows
• The south entrance off the south courtyard, where a series of round-arched stone-trimmed openings contain a pair of doors in a monumental arched surround and decorative leaded glass windows
• On the walls facing the north and south courtyards, the cornices, the tiers of balconies under round-arched surrounds, and the two-storey oriel windows with Classical detailing and French balconies
• The principal (north) façade on Clarendon Avenue, where cornices divide the wall horizontally, and frontispieces with round-arched surrounds mark the corner blocks
• On the third storey of the frontispieces, the square oriel windows with ogee motifs and medallions, brackets in the shape of angels and, at the top, balconies
• On the north wall between the courtyard and the corner blocks, the ogee motifs over the first-floor window openings
• The highly embellished east elevation along Avenue Road, where frontispieces are placed at the corners and in the centre of the wall
• The detailing of the frontispieces on the east wall, with round arches on the corner frontispieces, decorative brickwork on the centre frontispiece, and, at the third storey, the square oriel windows that are repeated from the north façade
• The south elevation, where the detailing on the corner block at the east end is copied from the other walls
• The rear (west) wall, where the detailing is simplified apart from the treatment of the corner block at the north end with the square oriel window (its detailing is copied from those on the north façade and east elevation)
• The landscaped north courtyard between Clarendon Avenue and the Claridge Apartments

Interior Attributes
The interior attributes consist of:

• The entrance lobby where multi-sided piers support the beamed ceiling
• The ceiling murals, with geometrical painted designs inspired by Spanish-American and aboriginal motifs, including symbols of the zodiac and stars
• On the east and west sides of the lobby, the round-arched surrounds with decorative tilework
• The original Art Deco fixtures, with chandeliers and wall sconces

Notice of an objection to the proposed designation may be served on the City Clerk, Attention: Christine Archibald, Administrator, Toronto and East York Community Council, Toronto City Hall, 100 Queen Street West, 12th floor, Toronto, ON M5H 2N2, within thirty days of the 19th of October, 2007, which is November 19th, 2007. The notice must set out the reason(s) for the objection, and all relevant facts.

Dated at Toronto this 19th day of October, 2007.

Ulli S. Watkiss
City Clerk