The City of Toronto has a bad name in terms of preservation - it's undeniable. But it's questionable of why the city still allows important architecture to be demolished, listed on the inventory of heritage properties or not.

An office building located on 45 Charles Street is to be demolished for a condominium, replacing our few surviving examples of modernist architecture, and works by the architect.

45 Charles was designed by the late Macy Dubois, who was an essential architect in Toronto's second urban renewal during the 1960s and 70s, when concrete architecture became a popular material. The building received much praise for it's angular form, even from Progressive Architecture magazine in its' August 1967 issue.

Dubois moved to Toronto after competing in the architectural competition for a new city hall in Toronto. During his career as an architect in the city, he went on to win two Massey Medals, Low Energy Building Design Award of Excellence, Governor General's Medal in Architecture, and Toronto Historical Board Award of Merit.

Macy Dubois is undoubtedly an important architect to Toronto. His concrete designs were critically acclaimed everywhere. His projects include the Central Tech High School Arts Centre (which received praise from, and a feature in The New York Times), New College, Oxford University Press, Canadian Embassy in Beijing, Toronto Emergency Services headquarters, and the Ontario Pavilion at Montreal's Expo '67. He also started two architectural firms in Toronto. His work extended to designing buildings for many southern Ontario schools, including Lakehead University, Trent University, and Ontario Police College.

The time at which Modernism in architecture was popular, Toronto also erected many examples, making this era an essential time for the city, in which it brought in architects from around the world. These architects made iconic structures in Toronto's skyline, like Mies van der Rohe's TD Centre and Viljo Revell's New City Hall.

Toronto has a history of demolishing beautiful modernist architecture, for example, the Shell Oil Tower and other buildings at the CNE.

And now, a condo developer has been granted permission to destroy Dubois' building, and replace it with a glass and metal condo that goes as far as to mimic the design, from the angles at the balconies, right down to the blocks at the top.

45 Charles is, without a doubt, a heritage site and a most valuable building to Toronto, not just for modernist architecture. Macy DuBois is a missed and highly respected architect, and it would be a crime allow one of his buildings to be erased from the city's history.