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A16 G T H E G LO B E A N D M A I L • T H U R S DAY , J U N E 9 , 2 0 1 1• NEWS

Hunter Milborne takes in thespectacular view from the

roof of the old Imperial Oilbuilding at 111 St. Clair AvenueWest. The handsome limestone-clad office tower with its lobbymural by York Wilson is beingtransformed into the ImperialPlaza, “the gold standard in lux-ury living.” Glass-walled pent-house suites just went on salefor between $5.1-million and$8.4-million.

What sort of people will buythese cloud palaces? Mr. Mil-borne, the grey-haired dean ofToronto condo salesmen, smiles.“Rich people.”

There seems to be no shortageof them. Dozens of urban aerieslike the Imperial penthouses aregoing on sale in Toronto, cater-ing to a new thirst for high-end,high-rise living. A 9,000-square-foot, 55th-floor penthouse at theFour Seasons project in Yorkvillejust went for $28-million, a Ca-nadian record. Aura, at Yongeand Gerrard, which is to be Can-ada’s tallest condo tower, is flog-ging a 75th-floor unit for$17.5-million.

Names like the Shangri-laToronto, the Residences at theRitz-Carlton and the Trump In-ternational Hotel and Tower alllure buyers with a vision of cos-mopolitan downtown living.“Imagine a life so perfect itcould well be a fairy tale,” saysthe Ritz-Carlton’s online come-on.

It’s hard to not to feel a bitnauseated, or at least amused, atthe Bonfire of the Vanities excessof it all. The bespoke Italiankitchens. The valet parking. Thespas that would make Neroblush. At the Imperial Plaza,top-floor residents have theirown express elevator because(says a representative) “peoplewho buy these private resi-dences don’t want to be mixed

in with just anybody.”Still, the flowering of top-floor

luxury has to be a good thingfor Toronto, a visible symbol ofits rise as an international city.Toronto has the biggest condomarket in North America, withone unit sold every 13 minutes.April high-rise condo sales set arecord for that month. Therecent action at the high-end isjust the latest development in amaturing market that now offersa huge variety of prices and liv-ing styles, from downtowncubbyhole lofts to glittering wa-terfront high-rises.

Some of the luxury buyers arewealthy foreigners who seeToronto as a good place to hangtheir hat or to invest in realestate. “They’ve done their duediligence, they’ve looked aroundthe world, and they’re choosingToronto,” says developer PaulGolini, executive vice-presidentof Empire Communities. “That’san endorsement of the political,economic and social environ-ment we provide.”

The prices attract them, too.Compared to New York, whereluxury apartments can go for$10,000 to $12,000 a square foot,the $2,000 to $3,000 that luxuryunits here are fetching is a bar-gain.

But, according to Mr. Milborne,the vast majority of luxurybuyers are well-heeled locals –business owners who are tradingin hard-to-maintain mansions inRosedale or Forest Hill for a con-cierge and a rooftop terrace.Their success reflects Toronto’s.A city that looked to getwhacked in the global recession– its manufacturing base erod-ing, its economic pre-eminenceunder threat from Western up-and-comers such as Calgary –has bounced back smartly.

The Imperial, for all its preten-sions, is a neat project. The de-velopers are celebrating thebuilding’s heritage as “a master-piece of mid-century Interna-tional Style modernism.” Thewonderful glassed-in lobby isbeing preserved and spruced up.Units on the lower floors start inthe $300,000s – but, sorry, youhave to ride the elevator witheveryone else.

LUXURY CONDOMINIUMS

In Toronto, plenty of people willpay top dollar for life at the top. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

MARCUS GEEmgee@globeandmail.com

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Dozens of portraits of women instarched white caps and crispwhite dresses grace the walls ofthe Gladstone Hotel’s third-floorgallery.

The images – from the pages ofthe Women’s College Hospitalnursing school yearbooks –appear innocuous at first. How-ever, Toronto artist Nina Levittpointed out that nearly all of thewhite-clad women in the photo-graphs also have white skin.

Ms. Levitt, who teaches visualarts at York University, was com-missioned to create a body ofwork about the history of thehospital.

In searching through the hospi-tal archives, she found that wom-en of visible minorities appear tohave been left out of the school’syearbooks – even when somewere clearly in class photographstaken in the same year. Shefound just four Asian womenamong the yearbook photo-graphs.

Ms. Levitt said the hospitalarchivist told her the yearbookswere likely student-produced,which could help explain theanomaly.

“It’s cliquey, so maybe somewomen were not part of the stu-dent body in the same way [as

others] due to racism,” Ms. Levittsaid.

The yearbook pages, takenfrom 1959 to 1971, speak to theways both medicine and theworld have changed since thehospital was founded 100 yearsago.

Ms. Levitt’s work will be fea-tured as part of an art exhibitcalled Being She: The Culture ofWomen’s Health and Health CareThrough the Lens of Wholeness,which includes photo install-ations and a juried art showdrawn from local submissions.

The exhibit is being held tocelebrate Women’s College Hos-pital’s 100th anniversary.

The Woman’s Medical Collegewas created in 1883 at the initia-tive of Dr. Emily Stowe, a Torontowoman who trained in the Unit-ed States at a time when Cana-dian medical schools would notadmit women. It built its firsthospital in 1911 and changed itsname to Women’s College Hospi-tal. It was merged with Sunny-brook Health Sciences Centre forseven years, but became inde-pendent again in 2006.

The exhibit also features artistsMeryl McMaster, Jane Martin andSarah Anne Johnson.

Admission is free and the ex-hibit is open to the public untilAug. 1.

Three works of art from Being She,a photo-basedexhibit featuringthe work ofCanadian artists.

WOMEN’S HEALTH

One hundred years of healing Celebrating the centennial of Women’s College Hospital, an art exhibitat the Gladstone Hotel explores the culture of women’s health care

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KIM MACKRAEL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .