The Mowat Block is an office building in Toronto, Ontario, home to Ontario's provincial Ministry of Education, Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development (MAESD), and Infrastructure. It is part of a massive 24 storey government complex east of Queen's Park at College Street and University Avenue. It is one of the buildings of the large complex called Ontario Government Buildings next to the Ontario Legislative Building.
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the most populous city in Canada, with a population of 2,731,571 in 2016. Current to 2016, the Toronto census metropolitan area (CMA), of which the majority is within the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), held a population of 5,928,040, making it Canada's most populous CMA. Toronto is the anchor of an urban agglomeration, known as the Golden Horseshoe in Southern Ontario, located on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A global city, Toronto is a centre of business, finance, arts, and culture, and is recognized as one of the most multicultural and cosmopolitan cities in the world.
The Ministry of Education (EDU) is the Government of Ontario ministry responsible for government policy, funding, curriculum planning and direction in all levels of public education, including elementary and secondary schools.
The Ontario Legislative Building is a structure in central Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It houses the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, and the viceregal suite of the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario and offices for members of the provincial parliament (MPPs). The building is surrounded by Queen's Park, sitting on that part south of Wellesley Street, which is the former site of King's College, and which is leased from the university by the provincial Crown for a "peppercorn" payment of CAD$1 per annum on a 999-year term.
The International Style office building was designed by Shore Tilbe Henschel Irwin Architects and Engineers (now Shore Tilbe Irwin + Partners), and built in the 1960s and named for former Premier and Father of Confederation Sir Oliver Mowat. Mowat Block is also home to other provincial offices. It is located at 900 Bay Street.
Sir Oliver Mowat, was a Canadian lawyer, politician, and Liberal Party leader. He served for nearly 24 years as the third Premier of Ontario. He was the eighth Lieutenant Governor of Ontario and one of the Fathers of Confederation. He is best known for defending successfully the constitutional rights of the provinces in the face of the centralizing tendency of the national government as represented by his longtime conservative adversary, John A. Macdonald. This longevity and power was due to his political maneuvering, in terms of building a political base around Liberals, Catholics, trade unions, and anti-French-Canadian sentiment.
Bay Street is a major thoroughfare in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the centre of Toronto's Financial District and is often used by metonymy to refer to Canada's financial services industry since succeeding Montreal's St. James Street in that role in the 1970s.
Other government buildings nearby include:
The Macdonald Block Complex is a set of office buildings in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, that houses 12 cabinet ministers, 15 Ontario government ministries and the largest concentration of Ontario public servants. Its address is 900 Bay Street, and is located just east of Queen's Park. It consists of four towers:
The Whitney Block is an important Government of Ontario office building located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located across the street from the Ontario Legislative Building, and contains the offices of the Premier of Ontario and most cabinet ministers. The street address of Whitney Block is 99 Wellesley Street West, though the principal facade faces west towards Queen's Park Crescent and the Ontario Legislature. The building is linked to the legislature by a tunnel under the street, by a bridge to the Macdonald Block, and through there via another tunnel to the subway. The Modern Gothic-Art Deco structure was built in 1926 by architect F. R. Heakes and the tower was added in 1932. Whitney Block is faced with Queenston limestone. The facade is ornamented by repeated sequences of quatrefoils, and figures designed by Charles Adamson, which represent abstract ideals like justice, tolerance, wisdom and power, as well as more ordinary pursuits such a mining, forestry, labour, law, education and farming.
The Ontario Power Building is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was built in 1975 for Ontario Hydro and has also been known as Hydro Place or the Ontario Hydro Building. It was designed by Kenneth R. Cooper and the architect of record was Adamson Associates. It is now the head office of Ontario Power Generation, which is a successor company to Ontario Hydro. Located at 700 University Avenue at the intersection of College Street in Downtown Toronto, the International Style building stands at 80.0 m and 19 floors with 113,898 square metres of space.
