The North Market has been sitting across Front Street from Toronto's iconic St. Lawrence Market since 1967, serving as a home for Farmers' Markets, Antique Shows, and events of all types since then. The City has been planning to improve the building for years now, and also wants to add public parking underground, and new quarters for the City's Traffic Courts.

On May 7, the City presented 5 finalists chosen from a field of 30 expressions of interest after it launched the competition in November of 2009. Public input is now being sought to help the jury determine the winner, which will be announced on June 7. The City has budgeted $75 Million over the next several years to complete the project. The designs have all been colour coded to keep a the lure of starchitecture from influencing the voting process, as well known Canadian and International architectural practices are amongst the finalists. Finalists are

• Adamson Associates Architects and Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners,

• Cohos Evamy + Hotson Bakker Boniface Haden Architects,

• Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects,

• NORR Limited, Architects Engineers Planners,

• Taylor Hazell Architects and Montgomery Sisam.

Three images per design are presented below, but more can be found on the City's website here, where you will also find information about passing your comments on to the jury.

Blue

Image courtesy of The City of Toronto

Image courtesy of The City of Toronto

Image courtesy of The City of Toronto

Green

Image courtesy of The City of Toronto

Image courtesy of The City of Toronto

Image courtesy of The City of Toronto

Orange

Image courtesy of The City of Toronto

Image courtesy of The City of Toronto

Image courtesy of The City of Toronto

Red

Image courtesy of The City of Toronto

Image courtesy of The City of Toronto

Image courtesy of The City of Toronto

Yellow

Image courtesy of The City of Toronto

Image courtesy of The City of Toronto

Image courtesy of The City of Toronto