Inn on the Park, Former luxury hotel in North York, Ontario
Inn on the Park was a luxury hotel on a hill overlooking Leslie Street and Eglinton Avenue in North York. Its original building, designed by architect Peter Dickinson, had a six-story central section and two-story wings in a parallelogram shape; from the air it resembled a Star of David. A 23-story tower with 269 rooms was added in 1971.
Four Seasons opened the Inn on the Park in May 1963 on former farmland in North York, its first hotel outside downtown Toronto, built for $4 million. A 23-story tower with 269 rooms, a convention area, a restaurant and a lounge was added in 1971. The property was sold in the 1980s, later became a Holiday Inn and then the Toronto Don Valley Hotel, and closed in 2005.
The hotel's Café Discotheque was described as Canada's first disco. Guests Pierre Trudeau and Nikita Khrushchev stayed at the inn, and pianist Glenn Gould kept a studio there. In 1974 Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, attended a regimental dinner of The Toronto Scottish Regiment.
The original structure was demolished in 2006 and the site was converted into a Toyota dealership. Today the location is accessible by car or transit along the main roads, though the new building does not offer public entry.
The original 1963 building, designed by Peter Dickinson, had a parallelogram plan that looked like a Star of David from the air. The 1971 tower by Venchiarutti Gagliardi Architect added 269 rooms, a 30,000-square-foot convention area, a restaurant and a lounge; Isadore Sharp later regretted the tower for ruining the resort atmosphere.
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