Someone once said that a city gets the architecture it deserves. If that's true then Toronto must have made a karmic error sometime in its history because our architectural fabric is a bit, let's face it, dull. That began to change a few years ago when local architect Steve Teeple teamed up with Morphosis Inc. to design the University of Toronto's Graduate Residence. This building is anything but dull. The oversized text that helps shape the U of T's western boundary causes more than its share of apoplectic rants from Toronto citizens more accustomed to ivy and brick then glass and steel. After all isn't a university best symbolized by a doric calm?

That is not to say this is a perfect building. There is much that an informed critic can take issue with. And many do. But the energy and technical spirit of the building almost single handedly launched a discussion about civic architecture in the city that continues to bring us buildings that we do deserve. These buildings celebrate intellectual curiosity, worldliness, and openness - qualities that represent the best of Toronto.

Photographs by Tom Arban