The University Club of Toronto, in cooperation with the Oxford Cambridge Society of Toronto, invites members and guests alike to join us for a conversation with Irene Galea about the history and architecture of Toronto’s financial district.

Toronto’s bank architecture charts the city’s transformation from small town to financial capital. From Toronto’s first purpose built bank on Adelaide Street to the soaring towers on Bay Street, these buildings tell the story of Canada’s evolving commercial life, its banking and merger laws and changing international influences. They also show how banks responded to new building technology, security needs and the fires that reshaped the city’s core.

In this illustrated talk about Toronto’s bank architecture from the early 1800s onwards, Irene draws on archival images and maps, newspaper debates and rarely seen architectural plans to decode the facades and interiors of familiar and forgotten buildings. From details hidden within columns to the location of elevator bays, she shows how to spot the clues that reveal how bank buildings worked and what they were meant to communicate.

About Irene Galea

Irene Galea is an award-winning business journalist with The Globe and Mail, host of the urban design podcast City Space and an architectural historian. She has reported on business, finance and history from six countries in three languages. 

Irene has served as board member of the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario, youth advisory board member for the National Trust for Canada, and Emerging Historian with Heritage Toronto. Her Masters in Building History dissertation for the University of Cambridge examines the development of Toronto’s financial district and bank buildings.