Building Styles

Ottawa

Edwardian Classicism was popular in housing in Ontario well into the 1930s. This house on Monkland St. in Ottawa is an example of concentrated Classical elements applied to a basically rectangular brick building. The front portico is an extended barrel vault held in place by modified Doric columns, a plain architrave and an exaggerated cornice with heavy dentil blocks. The barrel vault on the front takes the shape of a Florentine pediment, the lower cornice of which is broken in the Baroque manner.

The window surrounds are large but not ornate. The owners have taken the trouble to keep the original windows and have storm windows added and removed annually to protect the original design. The roof is supported by a soffit with heavy dentil blocks held in place by paired roof brackets.

Toronto

Like many Edwardian buildings, this factory on King Street has an imaginative frontispiece and exaggerated lintels on an unremarkable rectangular brick building.

The piers of the frontispiece are highlighted by heavy stone bands that encompass the Ionic columns. Above this is a lunette with banded voussoirs, an inflated keystone and a Baroque- inspired segmental curved pediment with stone dentil blocks. The pediment is supported by weighty but not ornate brackets.

Rather than a profusion of Classical details as in the Beaux Arts Classicism, Edwardian buildings have one or two concentrated Classical motifs. The stone portico or frontispiece with heavy horizontal banding on a dark building is a standard feature.

Toronto

Like the example above, this is a commercial building with exaggerated details. The design of the building is reminiscent of Italian Palazzo design. The ground floor is of a different material from the above floors, and the building is capped with a large cornice.

The Edwardian influence is easily recognizable. The second floor has oversized keystones. The first and third floor windows have colonettes with heavy bands. On the lower floor, there is a three-part window with an architrave. The front entrance is on a corner. It is flanked by two columns and topped with a balustraded balcony.

Hamilton

This apartment building in Hamilton illustrates the characteristics found in most Edwardian multiple occupancy buildings. Like the factories above, the detailing is localized to an exuberant doorway and a massive cornice.

The doorway sports ornate, Composite order, engaged columns and carved voussoirs over the flat arch. Above this is an entablature with the name of the building, and above this is a cartouche. The window behind the front door and directly above it has a lunette with another cartouche. The windows are simple with minimal detailing on the sills, but the cornice that tops the building is heavy and ornate with dentils, triglyphs, and cornice brackets. A decorative band accentuates the ground floor.

Thunder Bay

Here is another extravagant and imaginative frontispiece, this time on a CP Rail building. It was actually built as the Union Station for CPR and Grand Trunk Pacific trains. When the GTP went under, the CPR took over the station and the company still operates it today.

The niche effect of the semi-dome is found on many public Renaissance and Baroque buildings in Europe. The central cartouche is also a standard feature above doors, in Renaissance Château design particularly, and the plaque with guttae is a nice detail. The agraffe below the cartouche is also key to this style.

Within the doorway there is a clock surrounded by a metal grille and metal molding. The door beneath it is new, but is contextual.

Saint Catharines

Modest residences like this one in St. Catharines show their Edwardian influence largely on the front entrances.

Here we see a veranda that spans the whole front façade with a pediment over the staircase. The porch is supported by gently tapered smooth columns supporting ornate Ionic capitals and stylized abacuses. Above the columns, a plain architrave supports the porch. Under the soffit of the roof, a similar plain frieze board echoes this architrave.