Classicism in Canada (Ambition, Utopia, Hubris)

The classical architectural and planning schemes conceived by Canada’s Anglo-settler elite in the early twentieth century embodied a prescriptive vision of power and grandeur for the country and its people on a scale almost unimaginable today. This provocative collection of essays examines the classical design precepts that shaped much of Canada’s built environment – leaving an imprint for how we continue to experience place today.

Classicism in Canada brings together essays by planning, architectural, art, political, and social historians. Drawing on primary sources and the physical sites themselves, the contributors probe the meaning of a style that melded the École des Beaux-Arts with the sensibilities of the City Beautiful movement and that was rooted in assumptions about order and historical continuity. The transformation of built space and land was motivated by pragmatism, aesthetics, and an ideological infrastructure that reverberated with utopian zeal as much as it was driven by racial discrimination and Indigenous erasure. The book analyzes cities, towns, banks, parks, and tourist sites while also offering a microhistory of Hamilton, Ontario, a case study par excellence where municipal officials, planners, and architects pursued so-called improvements to the expanding industrial city.

Richly illustrated with many previously unpublished images and framed through spatial, social, and decolonial perspectives, Classicism in Canada shows how building and planning aimed to shape a place for Canada within the British imperial fold.