One of Toronto’s most prolific designers of developer housing, Uno Prii was responsible for over 250 buildings, containing some 20,000 apartment units, built between 1957 and 1981. While many of these are indistinguishable from the general production of Modernist apartment towers, a few stand out for their distinctive sculptural approach and playful whimsy.

Several of these buildings are located in Toronto’s Annex neighbourhood, interspersed among a dense fabric of 19th and early 20th century Victorian single family homes. Of these, 44 Walmer Road captures, perhaps better than most, Prii’s playful flamboyance coupled with an otherwise conventional planning strategy, allowing for the construction of highly identifiable buildings within typical market driven budgets. The units are assembled to produce a rectilinear, cruciform plan point tower, which Prii adorns with a layer of curvilinear balconies sporting a circular railing motif. A playful canopy and fountain in the forecourt recall the exuberance of the Miami hotels of Morris Lapidus, bringing an unexpected lightness and joie-de-vivre to sometimes staid Toronto.

Although 44 Walmer and other nearby apartment towers by Prii were criticized for their typical Modernist insensitivity to the surrounding Victorian fabric, their idiosyncratic quality and lightheartedness, along with a renewed interest in Modernism, have earned them a certain cult status among young architects, and they continue to attract media attention.

Marco Polo