[URBAN NOTE] "How Exhibition Place got the retro Dufferin Gate"

[rfmcdonald]

Spacing Toronto's Chris Bateman describes how Dufferin Gate came to be.

You can tell a lot about a place by how it greets its visitors.

The goofy lights at Honest Ed’s tell customers “there’s no place like this place, anyplace,” Nathan Phillips Square encourages tourists to pose for photos in front of the TORONTO sign, and the CNE Midway has the monumental Beaux-Arts Princes’ Gates.

These are all big greetings for big places.

Somewhat overlooked in terms of welcome architecture is the Dufferin Gate at the west end of Exhibition Place. The concrete parabolic arch, erected in the late 1950s, was maligned from its inception as a “loopsided hoop” and “half an egg.”

For more than 50 years, the original Dufferin Street entrance to the CNE was flanked by a festive arch designed by G. W. Gouinlock, who was also responsible for a slew of other Exhibition Place buildings, including the current home of Muzik nightclub.

More, including photos, at Spacing.