page_title: Old City Hall (Toronto)
section_title: Architecture
hierarchical_section_title: Old City Hall (Toronto) / Architecture
caption_attribution_description: English: Architectural rendering of "Municipal &amp; County Buildings" in Toronto. Completed in 1899, the building is now known as "Old City Hall" and serves as a courthouse. Toronto, Canada.
context_page_description: The Old City Hall is a Romanesque-style civic building and court house in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was the home of the Toronto City Council from 1899 to 1966 and remains one of the city's most prominent structures.
  The building is located at the corner of Queen and Bay Streets, across Bay Street from Nathan Phillips Square and the present City Hall in Downtown Toronto. The heritage landmark has a distinctive clock tower which heads the length of Bay Street from Front Street to Queen Street as a terminating vista. Old City Hall was designated a National Historic Site in 1984.
context_section_description: Old City Hall can be described as an enormous square quad with a courtyard in the middle. Situated at the front elevation, its clock tower was placed off centre to provide a terminating vista for Bay Street. In spite of this seeming asymmetry, the balance of the design is still existent throughout. Ultimately, even though the clock tower was off centre, balance was achieved through the repetition of the subtle details of measure and pattern. For example, to the right side of the main entrance a narrow circular tower rises 21.4 meters from grade. It is cut precisely in half by the roof line; it extends above the roof line by 10.7 meters and is also 10.7 meters from the roof line to the base of the main tower. Further on, the east and west pavilions, although quite different in their designs, are very similar in shape. The double-storied oriel of the east tower is exaggerated to counter the weight of the double tower of the west pavilion. The subtle balance is able to stand out at the main entrance of the building and prevent it from being overshadowed by the clock tower. The exterior rock-face wall was built in a series of courses, in variable sizes separated by carved bands. Grouped columns are repeatedly used to accent the windows.
caption: Architectural drawings of Old City Hall from Queen Street West from 1887.
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