From 1876 to 1915, Edward James Lennox was a formidable force in Toronto’s architectural community. Many of his buildings are still landmarks in a city that continues to evolve. Born and educated in Toronto, Lennox looked to the past for inspiration but was never captured by it. His prototypical Annex houes on Madison Avenue, Old City Hall, and Casa Loma bear witness to his technical expertise and aesthetic sensibilities. Through text and illustrations, this volume tells the story of the a resolute architect whose vision helped shape an emerging city, and who in his time was called the "builder of Toronto." Edward James Lennox, "Builder of Toronto" is the first volume in the Canadian Master Architect series. Each publication will profile the work of an individual Canadian architect. The series editor is Marilyn M. Litvak.

Leading architect E.J. Lennox designed Casa Loma for the flamboyant Sir Henry Pellatt and Mary, Lady Pellatt as an enormous castellated mansion that overlooked the booming metropolis of Toronto. The first scholarly book dedicated to this Canadian landmark, Casa Loma situates the famous “house on the hill” within Toronto’s architectural, urban, and cultural history. Casa Loma was not only an outsized home for the self-appointed “Lord Toronto” but a statement of Canada’s association with empire, an assertion of the country’s British legacy. During and after the Pellatts’ occupation, Casa Loma was a major landmark, and it has since infiltrated the iconography and collective memory of the metropolis. The reception of Casa Loma, variously loved and abhorred by Torontonians, reflects many of Toronto’s major aspirations and anxieties about itself as a modern city. Across ten chapters, this book charts the history of Casa Loma from the purchase of the estate atop Davenport Ridge in 1903 and its construction from 1906, through to its sale and the dispersal of its contents in 1924, its subsequent life as a hotel, and finally its transformation into one of the city’s major entertainment venues. Casa Loma brings to light a wealth of hitherto unpublished archival images and documentation of the house’s visual and material culture, weaving together a textured account of the design, use, and life of this unique building over the course of the twentieth century.

This book summarizes the five major legislative approaches for the conservation and revitalization of buildings and districts.