The rest of the building has been refitted and redesigned for its new purpose as a museum, the only one of its kind in North America. It now serves to preserve the achievements of past Canadian design in its many variations, and to foster new design.

This conversion from stock exchange into a design museum, the DX, had its difficulties. Just as the original building opened its doors at a time when Canada still reeled from the Depression, so creation of the DX suffered setbacks from the late 1980s and early 1990s recession. It finally opened its doors at a gala on September 21, 1994 in the presence of then Prime Minister, Jean Chrétien, 11 years after the TSE moved out. Needless to say, just like any other museum in the city, it is chronically short of funds as it virtually receives no public grants from any of the three levels of government. Private funding is, therefore, highly essential to its existence.

But, my story is really more about this special building and what it signifies in Toronto's architectural history, not the DX. This is especially so because Art Déco has of late come to the recognition it deserves. Exhibits such as Art Déco at the ROM in 2003 and this year's Déco Lalique at the same museum are part of a worldwide reawakening to this design feature that span just a few decades of the early 20^th century.

In the world of architecture, the Edwardian style, also called the Beaux-Arts style, had a fairly firm hold on Toronto's buildings. Then came the simpler style of Art Déco. Although it had been around in a variety of forms for more than a decade, the name Art Déco was coined only after an exhibition in Paris in 1925 called Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratif et Industriels Modernes. It had grown out of Art Nouveau, a style full of curves and undulating lines that had appeared not just in architecture but every aspect of art and design, from high art to utilitarian products for everyday home use. Art Déco also covered this vast visual territory.

The call for a design competition — limited to six architects — came in late 1935. The committee shelved the competition in March of '36 and appointed the firm of George & Moorhouse to carry out the project. Walter Moorhouse had originally been hired by the TSE's managing committee to prepare a preliminary report on the new building required for the then newly combined Toronto Stock Exchange and the Standard Stock and Mining Exchange. An associate architect, Samuel H. Maw, joined the firm of George & Moorhouse following the appointment. He must be given much of the credit for the look and feel of the building. Maw had been, among other things, the supervising architect of Eaton's College Street store, another of Toronto's Art Déco icons.

Maw brought on board artist Charles Comfort. A contemporary of the Group of Seven, he also became one of Canada's most well known WWII war artists. His eight murals for the stock exchange trading floor and his frieze on the exterior of the building are just two important aspects of this fine building. The frieze stretches almost the width of the structure just above the two entrance doors.

There is also the 1937 Art Déco staircase, considered one of Toronto's most refined. Swirling upward, it continues in streamlined stainless steel and features lacquered birch handrails. The DX project architects, Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects (KPMB), restored it to its full glory when the DX came into being. The stainless steel doors that feature medallions designed by Comfort and those on the elevator doors, the staircase, the trading floor's murals and the 12-meter-high ceiling with its decorative medallions combine to take us back to a very different time than ours.

The murals as well as the frieze pay homage to Canada's major industries once traded here: pulp and paper, agriculture, mining, construction and engineering, refining, transportation and communication, oil and smelting. The murals and the frieze are rooted in realism, but they also reflect the mood of the time through aspects of cubism.

There is a bit of unwitting humour included on the frieze. It went unnoticed by the ever vigilant press of the day, but became an insider joke among the exchange brokers. Over the north doorway, a top-hatted stockbroker's hand appears to be in a worker's pocket. Comfort stated that this was wholly unintentional. He simply created a work that was to be a public symbol of the lifting of the Depression — men at work in every stratosphere of society. The 22-meter frieze was sculpted with pneumatic chisels during in just two months by sculptor and stonemason Peter Schoen on behalf of Comfort.

Today, the DX features many exhibits. I happened to see By Design: Historical and contemporary objects from Canadian Collections across Canada. The DX's VP of public relations, Susan Rutledge, kindly walked me through the building and let me walk through the exhibit. It was great to see historical as well as modern object, probably never shown by the museums from whence they came. Whether it is a sofa from the 1830s, the turbine rotor from the late-lamented AVRO Arrow jet, a record turn table, a modernistic two-cup coffee pot or Innu kamiks (boots), these objects all express Canadian sensibilities in design. There are also displays of individual designers on the ground floor of the building. This space formerly served as the TSE members' dining room. To stay in keeping with the tone of the building KPMB used authentic materials such as stainless steel, cherry wood, polished concrete and limestone throughout the building.

The Design Exchange, a non-profit educational organization is committed to promoting greater awareness of design. Hence, for youngsters, who are looking for something special to do this summer, the DX offers a design summer camp from July 10 to Sept. 1 that covers a large spectrum of design. For information call 416-216-2138 or go to www.dx.org.