This is what it feels like when a “working artifact” morphs off the pages of history and into today. This particular artifact is located in the Birkbeck Building at 10 Adelaide Street East, Toronto, a historic 1908 building that houses the headquarters of the Ontario Heritage Trust. Bubelis is the trust’s architect and the man who decided to rebuild the elevator to look and operate as it did in 1908, the year the building opened.
Read MoreRecently our team was contacted to inspect a 19th century building where the new owner had found a hand-powered (pull-rope) elevator. Completely in tact and fully preserved complete with original rope and pulley, platform and counterweight system along with painted on data tags, it was immediately identified as an Otis-Fensom Elevator from the 1890’s.
Read MoreWhile the details aren’t entirely public, it looks like the block is getting a street elevator. The proposed architectural appendage will provide direct access to a rooftop bar and break up the concrete monotony of the block.
Read MoreIn 1861, English-born machinist John Fensom first appeared in Toronto city directories. He and Charles Levey set up shop on Colborne Street and began making lathes. By 1864 the Fensom and Levey partnership had dissolved, and John Fensom was in business for himself. He set up shop on Adelaide Street West in 1867. There he remained for 15 years, first as John Fensom Iron Works, then in a venture called Gurney & Co. Central Iron Works from 1874 to 1878.
Read MoreWithout elevators, the model of vertical growth that distinguishes our cities from those of other stages of history would not have spread and contemporary architecture would not be the same.
Read MoreExplore elevators and their indispensable role in cities and architecture across Toronto from the turn of the century to the latest advances in the vertical transportation industry.
Read MoreLocated on Princess Boulevard, The Shell Tower was built by the Shell Oil Company in 1955 for the Canadian National Exhibition. It was a glass and steel structure, almost 12 storeys in height (120’), containing a central elevator shaft, two glass staircases, and an observation deck near the top overlooking the entire CNE grounds.
Read MoreThe Canadian Otis Elevator Company, a subsidiary of the Otis Elevator Company of New York, started in a small factory in Hamilton, ON in 1902. Three years later, it merged with the sizable Fensom elevator works of Toronto to become the Otis-Fensom Elevator Company.
Read Moreel·e·va·tor /ˈeləˌvādər/ noun
a platform or compartment housed in a shaft for raising and lowering people or things to different floors or levels. "in the elevator she pressed the button for the lobby"
