This page provides some information about the creator of this site, and provides copyright and contact information.
Bob Krawczyk is a former archivist. He has no formal training in architecture but enjoys the built environment, cycling, taking photos, researching, and organizing data. He is a somewhat frequent contributor at UrbanToronto.
I embarked on began this work in 2003 as a contributor to the website Skyscrapers.com (now Emporis), which focuses primarily on tall buildings. Eventually, I more or less completed the work on tall buildings in Toronto, and stopped contributing to Emporis. Considering other options, I eventually began photographing and gathering data buildings on the City of Toronto's Inventory of Heritage Properties, adding other lists of buildings into the mix, such as those that have won awards. Currently, I am quite liberal in what I will include in TOBuilt.
Here are highlights of the site.
August 4, 2006: The site, still under development, has its unofficial launch at UrbanToronto when I post a link to the site.
September 23, 2006: The Globe and Mail runs a profile of the site in the Toronto section. Click here to view.
September 25, 2006: Torontoist profiles the site.
December 11 and 14, 2006: Dave LeBlanc interviewed me for this radio show, Architourist. You can download the interview by right-clicking here and choosing to save the file to a local drive.
December 20, 2006: Spacing.ca runs a profile of the site.
January 19, 2007: The Globe and Mail's Dave LeBlanc features the site in his column in the Real Estate section. Click here to view.
January-February 2007: Persistent problems lead me to seek a new ISP, and the site is frequently down.
March 2007-February 2008: Continuing problems. During this time I was travelling frequently and was unable to give attention to the site.
March 2007: Design Lines magazine runs a profile of the site. Click here to view.
February 2008: The site is largely rebuilt and reloaded using PHP technology, and becomes stable. However, not all functionality was restored, nor was I making updates to the data.
August 2008: Data is updated and the problems are being addressed.
2008-2010: Updates continue
I am indebted to a number of people for this site.
My partner Yvon was instrumental in getting this site working. He set up the technical environment in which it operates, patiently assists me when I struggle with various programs and problems, and bought the tobuilt.ca domain for me for my birthday. He also puts up with my many long absences on sunny days while I take photographs, and my subterfuges with him that involve joint cycling trips that somehow turn into building expeditions. Visit his website on his hometown, the village of Acadieville, New Brunswick.
My friend and colleague Carolyn Gray assisted with proofreading the text of the site, made comments about the site navigation and with copyright information.
Since the site has gone live, I am indebted to Catherine Dawson March of the Globe and Mail for proposing and promoting the site through the Globe, and to Dave LeBlanc of CFRB and the Globe and Mail for writing about the site and for having me on his radio show. Both articles and the radio interview were joyful and accurate.
Most photographs, and all site graphics and text on this site are copyright Bob Krawczyk. Please contact me before using the images in another context, or provide a citation.
For questions or inquiries about the use of any material on this site for which copyright is not held by Bob Krawczyk, please send a note below. Please be as specific as possible about the image.
Comments are welcome. See below for a feedback form. Note the following:
Buildings to include: I welcome suggestions for buildings that should be in TOBuilt. Keep in mind that buildings are added as they are photographed, and that this work is ongoing. There is a difference between not included yet and not in scope, so the buildings you are suggesting may already appear on lists of targeted buildings.
Information about buildings in TOBuilt: I welcome additional information about the buildings included in TOBuilt. For verification and documentation purposes, please provide a full reference to the source of the information.
Data errors, inconsistencies: I welcome corrections or suggestions for improvement.
Technical problems: If you encounter problems or bad links, please let me know.