The Canon Theatre was due for a renaming after the sponsorship deal expired.
“The signage was a priority, because it evoked part of the long history of the former arena, which is recognized as a national historic site,” says Brian Burton, a research and development specialist for Exp.
Exp’s work on the project, which addressed a number of structural and building science challenges, went on to win an Award of Merit from the Consulting Engineers of Ontario.
Ed Mirvish Theatre
Not far north of Maple Leaf Gardens stands the Ed Mirvish Theatre. It originally opened in 1920 as the Pantages Theatre, featuring a mix of movies and vaudeville acts. In 1930, it was renamed the Imperial and dropped the live entertainment, becoming exclusively a cinema for many decades to come.
Finally, in 1989, the building was restored to the 1920 esthetic and reopened as a live theatre. This new Pantages Theatre’s debut show, The Phantom of the Opera, was hugely successful and ran for 10 years. After it closed, there was a change of ownership and a new sponsorship deal, renaming the building the Canon Theatre in 2001. The sign was converted accordingly.
In 2008, the Canon was bought by Mirvish Productions. Once the sponsorship deal expired in 2011, founder David Mirvish decided to rename the venue in honour of his father, theatre impresario Ed Mirvish, who had passed away in 2007. A revised sign was needed.
Toronto-based ID, an independent contractor that has customized illuminated signs since 1995, was hired for the job in March 2012.
“We put a proposal forward to both rename the sign and reduce its energy consumption,” says Paul Kenny, founder and president of ID. “Also, the marquee amendment required a heritage permit from Toronto’s Heritage Preservation Services and a sign permit from the Building Division’s sign bylaw unit. We offered to work directly with the city, whereas another company would go through a third party and take three months instead of a couple of weeks. These days, the design, engineering and permits can be more time-consuming than manufacturing and installation!”
For the renamed Ed Mirvish Theatre, the sign was refurbished with new aluminum faces, lighting fixtures and internal wiring before it was reinstalled earlier this year.
The 8.5 x 1.8-m (28 x 6-ft) Pantages sign had been built with letters cut into an aluminum background. When the Canon sponsorship deal began, these letters were simply covered up with more aluminum, then new letters in circular sign cabinets were affixed to that surface.
ID took the sign down and refurbished it with LED-illuminated cabinets with routed and infilled aluminum faces.
“We didn’t touch the background,” says Kenny. “We took the old circles off and put new ones on.”
During the refurbishment, some 3,000 11-W incandescent bulbs were removed from the marquee’s perimeter and exterior and replaced with 1.2-W light-emitting diode (LED) fixtures, connected to a mechanical flasher to enable ‘chaser bulb’ animation. As a result, power consumption was cut by 90 per cent.
“The sign now draws approximately 35 A at 120 V,” Kenny explains, “whereas previously, the draw was approximately 300 A.”
Besides the bulb and cabinet replacement, the internal wiring was refurbished, in keeping with the more efficient lighting system.
“The marquee had a cascade of wires inside, leading to every socket,” says Kenny. “We were able to cut out so many circuits.”
