A planner’s guide: conserving Brutalist and concrete modern architecture in Toronto

This guide establishes a rationale and presents tools and best practices for the conservation of Brutalist and concrete modern heritage in Toronto. Brutalism and concrete modernism are valuable because they are architecturally compelling and they evoke the ethics and the politics of the postwar period. In Toronto there are many Brutalist and concrete modern civic buildings, infrastructure, university buildings, cultural institutions, buildings built through capitalist investment and high-rise towers. These buildings have architectural and cultural heritage value and they should be protected. Planners should leverage the emerging international movement for the protection of Brutalist and concrete modern buildings to support the case for conservation. Conservation tools include advocacy and education, legal protection through policy and adaptive re-use.