Over the weekend I took part in Doors Open. Up to 150 buildings in Toronto were open to the public. Most of the buildings I visited had self guided tours, which meant I could wander throughout the building at my own pace. Each open room or area, had a couple of knowledgeable people standing around that were more than happy to answer any questions I had.

Gooderham Flatiron Building

This is the first Flatiron building in the world. It was built in 1892, ten years before the famous one in New York. Gooderham had this built so that his office on the fifth floor allowed him to see empire, the bank on the corner, the distillery district and the King St. James building. He supposedly had dealings with the famous Al Capone. Gooderham hated dirty money, not illegal money, but dirty bills, he would burn the money that came in that wasn't clean. Apparently one day a wheel barrel of money was sent down to be burnt, and someone left the door open blowing the money onto the street - it literally rained money.

The building itself is really nice inside, the law firm that owns most of the building has redecorated the inside which gave it a lovely modern feel. Throughout the building there are images of graffiti.

Old City Hall

The budget for this building started off at 200,000, and in the end grew to 2.5 million! The architect E.J. Lennox, wanted this building to be amazing, suggesting things that were totally outside of the budget, the owners and Lennox argueed a lot, and as one of the tour guides said, he made some of the faces throughout the building were angry and mean looking as a way to get back at them. The said that he couldn't sign his name on the building, so what he did is made one of the faces was his.

Everything in this building is gorgeous, there are a lot of columns, the ceilings are ornate, the paintings are old, but in amazing shape and very detailed, even the risers on the stairs have detailed carvings. One of the Doors Open volunteers told me that one of the words on the stained glass window was spelt the American way, 'honor', he said that the reason why they left the 'u' out is so that the number of letters in the word would match up with 'peace', which was in a panel on the other side.

Osgoode Hall

This was probably my favourite stop. The exterior is gorgeous, the building, the garden, but the inside is amazing. A fun thing that they did for visitors is allow them to wear a judges coat and sit in the chair at the head of the room. I thought it was a great way to involve people. The libraries in this building are incredible. The first one I visited was small and cozy, the books on the shelves looked ancient. The second library room was much larger, the detail in the ceiling made me stop and stare.

MaRS

This visit was definitely the most scientific. I was afraid that this building was going to be boring, and I thought I'd be there for maybe 10 minutes and take off, and hour and a half later I left feeling like I learned something. The building is a place where people in science, business and capital can work together. The addition that was added in the building is beautiful. When I walked inside there is so much glass and exposed brick it definitely gave me a feeling of being outside. The tour of the labs was my favourite part of this visit. Our tour guide Phil was very knowledgeable and explained in laymen terms what each lab was for.

Mackenzie House

I have walked by this home several times and always wondered what it was for. Mackenzie was the first Mayor of Toronto, he was an outspoken writer and her led the Upper Canada Rebellion. As a Graphic Designer, I'm interested in almost anything to do with printing. Mackenzie had a printing press in his home, so this was a very interesting stop for me. A printing demonstration was set up, we watched as they inked the template, placed the paper on top, and moved it under the press. Everyone was given a print out to take home. The people who worked there were very knowledgeable and explained in detail how each letter was loaded and how the images were created.