Nathan Phillips Square

This guide to Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto opens with a judge, Eero Saarinen, pulling a rejected design back out of Toronto's 1958 international City Hall competition — a modernist plan by little-known Finnish architect Viljo Revell, chosen over 540 entries from 42 countries. Revell spent his final years on the twin curved towers and round council chamber and the open square in front of them, built for parades, skating and protest. City council initially refused to pay for Henry Moore's bronze Archer, now curving near the square, until the mayor raised the money by public subscription.