Toronto’s St. Lawrence Market celebrates grand opening, but the redevelopment has its flaws

On a recent Saturday, business was good at the St. Lawrence Market North Building: merchants showed an array of jade plants, spring blooms, arugula and luscious orange peppers. A time traveller from 1803, when the first market opened on this site, would have understood exactly what was happening. But the building would have surprised them. Sunlight poured down through a central skylight, cutting through an atrium between two wings of provincial courtrooms, their steel beams painted a sunny orange. Tall windows showed the Georgian masonry of St. Lawrence Hall to the north, and to the south, the great Victorian shed of the South Market building. With the new $128-million North Market, designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour Partnership (RSHP) and Adamson Associates, a Toronto landmark has come back to life.