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Nathan Phillips Square , one of the most distinctive of Toronto's landmarks, lies on Queen Street, just north of the banking district. Laid out by the Finnish architect Viljo Revell, the square is framed by an elevated walkway and focuses on a reflecting pool, which becomes a skating rink in winter. The square is overlooked by Toronto's City Hall , whose curved glass-and-concrete towers are fronted by The Archer , a Henry Moore sculpture that resembles a giant propeller. Revell won all sorts of awards for this project, which was the last word in dynamism in the 1960s, but has since become a rather jaded symbol of urban planning. On a positive note, it is at least associated with political change - its sponsor, Nathan Phillips, was Toronto's first Jewish mayor. Had Revell's grand scheme been carried out fully, the city would have bulldozed the Old City Hall , a flamboyant pseudo-Romanesque building on the east side of the square. Completed in 1899, it was designed by Edward J. Lennox, who developed a fractious relationship with his paymasters on the city council. They had a point: the original cost of the building had been estimated at $1.77 million, but Lennox spent an extra $750,000 and took all of eight years to finish the project. Nevertheless, Lennox had the last laugh, carving gargoyle-like representations of the city's fathers on the arches at the top of the front steps and placing his name on each side of the building - something the city council had expressly forbidden him to do. Immediately to the west of Nathan Phillips Square, along Queen Street, stands Osgoode Hall , a Neoclassical pile built for the Law Society of Upper Canada early in the nineteenth century. Looking like a cross between a Greek temple and an English country house, it's protected by a wrought-iron fence designed to keep cows and horses off the lawn. The elegant Georgian mansion on the opposite side of University Avenue is Campbell House (Mon-Fri 9.30am-4.30pm, Sat & Sun late May to early Oct noon-4.30pm; $3.50), built on Adelaide Street for Sir William Campbell, Chief Justice and Speaker of the Legislative Assembly - it was transported here in 1972. There are regular guided tours of the period interior and these provide a well-researched overview of early nineteenth-century Toronto. At the time, Campbell was a leading figure, and a progressive one too, eschewing the death penalty whenever feasible and even awarding the radical William MacKenzie damages when his printing press was wrecked by a mob of Tories in 1826.
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