The Design Exchange

The building at 234 Bay Street was completed in 1937 as the second home of the Toronto Stock Exchange, in a streamlined Art Deco style, its facade featuring a sculpted frieze by Canadian artist Charles Comfort. Considered one of the most technologically advanced trading floors in the world at its 1937 opening, the building was formally designated a heritage property by the City of Toronto in 1978. The Toronto Stock Exchange itself vacated the building in 1983 for larger quarters nearby.

From trading floor to design museum

A group calling itself "The Group for the Creation of a Design Centre in Toronto" began organizing in January 1986, incorporated in 1987, and eventually became the Design Exchange, which took over the historic building in 1994 as a design museum and industry organization. The Design Exchange's dedicated public design museum component closed in 2019; the organization has continued to run design-focused public programming, including the biennial EDIT design festival, while the historic building was renovated and reopened in April 2023 primarily as an event and exhibition venue.

Sources

• Design Exchange — Official Site
• Canadian Interiors — The End of an Era: The Newly Transformed Design Exchange

Continue reading

Church-Wellesley Village

Toronto's LGBTQ+ neighbourhood has roots going back to the 1970s, a defining act of resistance in 1981, and…

The Scarborough Bluffs' Erosion

The soft, layered sediment that makes the Scarborough Bluffs spectacular also makes them constantly unstable…

The Santa Claus Parade

Eaton's launched the Toronto Santa Claus Parade in 1905 to draw shoppers downtown, and the annual event…

Wattpad

Allen Lau and Ivan Yuen started a story-sharing platform out of a Toronto garage in 2006. Fifteen years…