ALTERED: A Visual Archive of
Toronto's Church Landscape 1787-1834

Project Altered examines the symbolic and built form landscape of pioneer churches during the initial settlement of Town of York (now known as the downtown core of the City of Toronto). To both the pioneers and the British government overseas, churches represented the triumph over the wild, both of the natural landscape and human immorality.

This project archives the evolution of the pioneer churches from their construction to their current state using primary sources such as sermons and letters. It discusses the degree of success and failure in shifting the boundary from nature to urban, uncivilized to civilized, and wild to cultured. Archival maps, photographs and sketches show how this triumph was realized
in built form.