How an architect is using art and technology to preserve Toronto Chinatown’s history
Opened in the 1950s, Sai Woo was a two-storey restaurant in Toronto’s Chinatown, with a traditional Chinese banquet hall on the upper floor. Designed for wedding celebrations, the space featured a canopy with two columns, a golden dragon entwined on one and a phoenix on the other. Lazy Susans sat atop the round banquet tables.
Chinatown was also home to Charlie’s Meat and Seafood, a white-tiled butcher shop that opened in 1971. Inside was a glass display case filled with cuts of meat. On the...