Old Toronto Star Building

The Old Toronto Star Building was an Art Deco office tower in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The building was located at 80 King Street West and was the headquarters of the Toronto Star newspaper from 1929 until 1970. The building was demolished in 1972 to make way for the construction of First Canadian Place.

Toronto Star Building
Toronto Star building in 1961.
General information
StatusDemolished
TypeOffice
(Newspaper publishing)
Location80 King West
Toronto, Ontario
Completed1929
Demolished1972
CostCA$1.5 million[1]
OwnerToronto Star
Height
Roof88 metres (289 ft)
Technical details
Floor count22
Design and construction
Architect(s)Chapman and Oxley

The skyscraper is the second tallest voluntarily demolished building in Canada behind the 120.1 m (394 ft) tall Empire Landmark Hotel that was demolished in 2019.

Overview

The building was designed by the firm of Chapman and Oxley and opened in 1929. It was 22 storeys and 88 metres (289 ft) tall. The front facade around the main entrance was clad in granite, the entrance itself having a bronze screen. The first three floors of the building were clad in granite; the upper floors in limestone. On the third floor, the facade was wrapped in elaborate stonework in geometric and floral motifs, which also adorned the interior and the limestone piers at the crest of the building.[2] The first six floors were built in reinforced concrete, while the tower was built with a structural steel frame.[1]

Decorative stone panels and parapets from the Toronto Star building's sixth and other floors, now located at the Guild Park and Gardens.

The first six stories held the offices of the Star, and the rest was rental office space. The 21st floor housed the newspaper's radio studios. The ground floor facing King Street housed a few retail stores and a Stoodleigh's Restaurant at the east end. The basement had a restaurant and barbershop.[2]

Some stonework from the building can be found at Guild Park and Gardens, along with other portions of facades of lost buildings of Toronto.[3]

Superman co-creator Joe Shuster, a Toronto native and former Star newsboy, used the building as a model for the Daily Planet Building.[4][5]

See also

References
  • Morawetz, Tim (2009). Art Deco architecture in Toronto. Toronto, ON: Glue Inc. ISBN 9780981241302.
Notes
  1. Morawetz 2009, p. 25.
  2. Morawetz 2009, pp. 24–25.
  3. Boyd, Kevin A. (March 18, 2009). "Joe Shuster's final interview with Henry Mietkiewicz". The Joe Shuster Awards. Retrieved 2014-05-02.
  4. Bateman, Chris (November 13, 2012). "That time when the Toronto Star was the Daily Planet". www.blogto.com. Retrieved 2019-10-22.
  5. Stamp, Jimmy (June 12, 2013). "The Architecture of Superman: A Brief History of The Daily Planet". Smithsonian. Retrieved 2019-10-22.
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