Noor Cultural Centre
Encyclopedia
Don Mills
Don Mills is a mixed-use neighbourhood in the North York district of Toronto, Canada. It was developed to be a self-supporting "new town" and was at the time located outside of Toronto proper. Consisting of residential, commercial and industrial sub-districts, it was planned and developed by...
neighbourhood of Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, on the east side of the Don Valley Parkway
Don Valley Parkway
The Don Valley Parkway is a controlled-access six-lane municipal expressway in Toronto connecting the Gardiner Expressway in downtown Toronto with Ontario Highway 401, the Macdonald–Cartier Freeway. North of Highway 401, it continues as Ontario Highway 404. The parkway runs through...
just north of Eglinton Avenue
Eglinton Avenue
Eglinton Avenue, originally known as the Richview Sideroad within Etobicoke, is an east-west arterial thoroughfare in Toronto and Mississauga, in the Canadian province of Ontario. Within Toronto, Eglinton Avenue is the only road which crosses through all six former boroughs...
.
Building
The building originally was the Japanese Canadian Cultural CentreJapanese Canadian Cultural Centre
The Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre is a Japanese cultural centre located in the Don Mills neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on the west side of the Don Valley Parkway just north of Eglinton Avenue.-Original Building:...
and was designed and built in 1963 by Canadian architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
Raymond Moriyama
Raymond Moriyama
Raymond Moriyama, CC, O.Ont is a Japanese-Canadian architect. He has designed several buildings at Brock University from the 1970s through the latest campus expansion and is the University's former chancellor....
; it was his first institutional project. The location and design of the building was carefully planned to support and honour the place of Japanese-Canadians in Canada. While the building materials are quite modern, the proportions of the building, the landscaping, and details are very traditionally Japanese.
The building also has elements designed to draw parallels to the experiences of those Canadians incarcerated during World War II
Japanese Canadian internment
Japanese Canadian internment refers to confinement of Japanese Canadians in British Columbia during World War II. The internment began in December 1941, following the attack by carrier-borne forces of Imperial Japan on American naval and army facilities at Pearl Harbor...
- the 2 story windows in the main hall have lattice reminiscent of bars, and rain water is directed off the roof using chains attached to stones on the ground.
Over time the building was no longer large enough for the growing JCCC, and the estimated cost of an addition was prohibitive. In 2001 the Lakhani family purchased the building. It was then redesigned in 2003 by Moriyama and it became today's Noor Cultural Centre.