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To the east of the CN Tower, the beaux-arts subtleties of Union Railway Station - and the matching Royal York Hotel opposite - mark the boundary of the banking district, whose bizarre juxtapositions of old, low buildings and high-rises evidence one of Toronto's stranger ordinances. The city's buildings have a notional maximum altitude and although owners of older properties are not allowed to extend their buildings, they are permitted to sell the empty space between their roofs and this notional maximum. Thus, the builders of new structures can purchase this space and add it to their own maximum, thereby creating the skyscrapers that the ordinance would seem to forbid. The arrangement enhances neither the old nor the new, but some of the high-rises are undeniably impressive, such as the colossal twin towers of the Royal Bank Plaza , at Bay and Front, and the four reflective-black blocks of the Toronto Dominion Centre , along Wellington Street West between Bay and York. Just one of these four blocks is on the south side of Wellington and here you'll find the Gallery of Inuit Art (Mon-Fri 8am-6pm, Sat & Sun 10am-4pm; free), which boasts an exquisite collection of Inuit sculpture. The exhibits are owned by the Dominion Bank, who commissioned a panel of experts to collect the best of postwar Inuit art in 1965. Exhibited on two levels, their haul features some simple and forceful stone carvings by Johnny Inukpuk, whose impressionistic style contrasts with the precision of the Migration by Joe Talirunli, in which the rowers crane forward in eagerness and anxiety. Even more detailed is the incised caribou antler from Cape Dorset, on which natural dyes pick out a cartoon strip of Inuit life. Around the corner at 234 Bay St, the old Toronto Stock Exchange has been mutilated by its incorporation within a skyrise that imitates - but doesn't match - the sober black blocks of the adjacent Toronto Dominion Centre. Nevertheless, the facade has survived, its stone lintel decorated with muscular carvings of men at work, a frieze given a political twist by the top-hatted figure - the capitalist - who dips his hand into a worker's pocket, a subversive subtext by an unknown stonemason. The interior of the Stock Exchange now accommodates the temporary exhibitions of the Design Exchange (Tues-Fri 10am-6pm, Sat & Sun noon-5pm; free except during some exhibitions), the DX, whose purpose is to foster innovative design. From the DX, it's a short stroll to the old Bank of Montreal building, a solid Neoclassical edifice of 1885 that now houses the Hockey Hall of Fame , 30 Yonge St at Front Street West (mid-June to Aug Mon-Sat 9.30am-6pm, Sun 10am-6pm; Sept to mid-June Mon-Fri 10am-5pm, Sat 9.30am-6pm, Sun 10.30am-5pm; $12). The place is stuffed with ice-hockey memorabilia, has a replica of the Montreal Canadiens' dressing room and proudly exhibits the sport's most important trophy, the Stanley Cup.
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