Archindont is a database of architectural information and citations to periodical articles and books about buildings in Toronto. It is an electronic version of the card index that has been in existence since 1975.
Archindont began in 1975 as a LIP (Local Initiative Project) initiative of the Toronto Region Branch of the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario. Volunteer members compiled information from important Canadian architectural periodicals dating back to the 1850s. It has been available at the Metro Toronto Reference Library since the late 1970s, and continues to be maintained and updated by architecture librarians.
The scope of the index has varied over the years and has expanded to include information about Ontario buildings appearing in selected books, non-Canadian periodicals and local (Toronto) newspapers.
Archindont is a unique resource that is used by students, architects, renovators, planners, scholars, architectural historians and members of the public. Archindont has been selected as a pilot project for the automating many of the unique indexes of the Metro Toronto Reference Library which are currently only available as manual cardfiles. An important feature of the automated index is its ability to link users to other special collecions throughout the library: historic pictorial resources from the Baldwin Room and, eventually, scanned images.
The initial phase of the project involves the automating of approximately 1000 citations about buildings in the City of Toronto that have appeared since 1982, which is when about 17,000 previous citations were microfilmed. (There are also about 23,000 citations available in paper format for the remainder of Ontario). The material in the database does include some citations earlier than 1982, the result of indexing done retrospectively.
Adresses
Names of streets as well as street addresses of buildings have been known to vary between sources, and the main publications that have been relied upon for establishing locations are: Patricia McHugh's 'Toronto Architecture: A City Guide' (1989), as well as the 'Canada's Postal Code Directory'.
Building terms
The terms for 'building types' and 'building groups' are based on a modified version of the the Getty Art Museum's 'Art and ArchitectureThesaurus'. The pilot database, however, functions best with two hierarchical levels rather than three or four, therefore most of the relationships between terms have been modified. The authority terms that have been selected have been taken from the 'Single Built Works' as well as the 'Built Complexes' section of the AAT. In some cases, it has been necessary to utilize 'guide terms' as bona fide index terms, whereas they are not valid in AAT. The AAT's American spellings of some words (i.e. Centers, Theaters, etc.) have been converted to British spellings, since the majority of the users of Archindont are Canadian.
You can search Archindont by the following search types:
To search Archindont, you will see the following search form. This is just an example. When you are ready to perform a search, go back to the Archindont search page.
| Type of search: | First letter: |
You are shown the list of entries for that search type for the letter you chose. For example, if you choose search by Name of Building and the letter A, you will be shown a list of building names starting with A. An A-Z list will also be displayed at the top of the page so you can choose another letter of the same search type.
For example, to see information on the building "Annette Branch Library", click on the name Annete Branch Library.
You are shown a table displaying the building information. Search results appear in the same format and contain the same information no matter how you chose to search.
You may find the following information on buildings, but not all information is available for all buildings:
The results for a search on the building name Annette Branch Library look like this:
Address: 145 Annette Street Type of Building: Libraries Name of Building: Annette Branch Library
Architects: Ellis & Connery (firm)
Sillaste & Nakashima (firm)
| Journal or book | Year | Month | Page | Vol. | No. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best gift : a record of the Carnegie libraries... | 1984 | n/a | var. | ||
| Review of Architecture and Landscape Architecture | 1980 | x | ? | 3 |
Name of building: Annette
Architects: Ellis & Connery (firm)
Sillaste & Nakashima (firm)
| Dates | |
|---|---|
| Building Completed: | 1909 |
| Altered: | 1980 |
Pictures in Special Collections of the
Toronto Reference Library
| Collection | Picture ID |
| Historical Picture Collection | S 1-1135 |
| Canadian Postcard Collection | - |
| Toronto Postcard Collection | PC 1469 |
Citation Information looks like this:
| Author | ISSN/ISBN or Bib-Id | Call Number | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0705-1913 | M | Periodicals |
| Journal or book | Year | Month | Page | Vol. | No. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Review of Architecture and Landscape Architecture | 1980 | x | ? | 3 |
| Floor Plan: | 2 |
|---|---|
| Exterior Elevation: | 1 |
| Interior Photo: | 3 |
If you want more information on Toronto buildings, you may want to visit the Toronto Reference Library. The Main Reference Centre maintains a large Picture Collection that includes photographs of Toronto and other buildings. The Special Collections Centre holds some historical building resources.
As this Archindont database includes only Toronto buildings so far, you may want to see the print index that includes building information for Ontario as a whole.
For more infromation about any of these resources, please contact Ask a Librarian.