The idea of a new civic square at Queen and Bay streets surfaced before World War I, in 1905. Half a century of false starts followed. In 1954, three of Toronto's largest architectural firms produced a design: a conservative, symmetrical limestone building that retained the old Land Registry Office. The architectural establishment savaged it. Frank Lloyd Wright called it a sterilization. Walter Gropius deemed it 'a very poor pseudo-modern design unworthy of the city of Toronto.' The entire University of Toronto Faculty of Architecture co-authored a letter of condemnation. Voters rejected the proposal in a 1955 municipal election. Mayor Nathan Phillips then did something unprecedented for Toronto: he proposed an international design competition, open to architects worldwide. The Ontario Association of Architects had to change its rules to allow it - no international competition had ever been held in the province. Phillips required only a $5 entry fee, though he neglected to specify Canadian dollars, and received pesos, pesetas, kroner, and marks from around the world. One entrant offered a free vacation in Hungary.

By the April 1958 deadline, 540 satisfactory entries had arrived from 42 countries - 132 from the United States, 75 from Canada, 65 from Great Britain. The entries were displayed in the CNE's Horticulture Building, each model placed within a scale model of Toronto's surrounding neighborhood. Many submissions echoed Mies van der Rohe or Le Corbusier. Others resembled 'Neo-Classical designs that would have looked fresh around the time of the First World War and Soviet-style palaces that would have gladdened the heart of any Stalinist.' One included a dance floor, bar, and orchestra pit on the ground floor. After Saarinen rescued Revell's design from the discard pile, it became the only Finnish entry among the eight finalists. The jury chose Revell on September 26, 1958. Mayor Phillips, who actually disliked the winning design and had made 'numerous snide remarks' about it, announced the winner at 8 am. The announcement was broadcast live on CBC television.

Reaction was fierce and personal. Frank Lloyd Wright dismissed Revell's design as 'a head marker for a grave' and 'the spot where Toronto fell.' Critics called the towers 'two sewer pipes standing on end.' A politician said it looked like a 'Mexican Hotel.' But Revell's mentor, Alvar Aalto, wired congratulations: 'Seldom does a colleague feel so happy over another's victory.' Revell moved to Toronto to supervise construction, but the Canadian and Finnish governments both claimed taxes on his fees, leading him to conclude his tax exposure exceeded his actual revenue. He relocated to Boston and taught at MIT while commuting to Toronto three days a week. After suffering a stroke in Mexico in 1963, Revell returned to Helsinki and visited the construction site only once more. He died of a heart attack in October 1964, at age 54, just one week after his final visit - never seeing the completed building that would transform how Canadians thought about civic architecture.

Construction broke ground on November 7, 1961. The towers were clad in precast concrete panels with vertical strips of Botticino marble, designed to sparkle when floodlit. The building opened in 1965 to six days of celebration - military pageant, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Canadian Opera Company, National Ballet, square dancing, community folk arts, and 'Toronto A-Go-Go' dancing, each night concluding with fireworks. Then the problems began. The podium roof leaked persistently. By 1966, oyster mushrooms were growing beneath the ground floor ceiling, prompting Property Commissioner Bremner to remark: 'we are at least growing edible mushrooms.' Revell's planned landscaped rooftop pool had to be abandoned entirely. Meanwhile, the square's artwork provocation was playing out. Revell had insisted on a Henry Moore sculpture. Moore offered Three-Way Piece No. 2 (The Archer), created specifically for the site. The mayor's office received letters of opposition. Canadian Architect magazine offered a Coca-Cola bottle statue payable in one million bottlecaps. The sculpture was finally unveiled on October 27, 1966, prompting the New York Times to write: 'Thus did instant culture come last night to Toronto, a city known more for its hockey than its art.'

Toronto City Hall's influence extended far beyond its own square. The competition marked the first time an architectural design contest received national television coverage in Canada. It was designated as a property of historical and architectural significance in 1991 and received the Ontario Association of Architects 25-Year Award in 1998. The building sparked design competitions for city halls across Canada - in Winnipeg, Red Deer, Brantford, and beyond. Revell himself entered the Red Deer competition before his death. The podium roof, long neglected after its leaking troubles, was finally replaced with a green roof in 2009, converting barren concrete into living vegetation. Today the Neo-Expressionist design - two curved, asymmetric towers surrounding a saucer-shaped council chamber atop a podium - resembles nothing else in Toronto. The building that was nearly discarded from a pile of 540 entries, designed by a man who died before it opened, built over the ruins of Toronto's first Chinatown, became what one architecture guide calls 'one of the boldest leaps forward in the city's history.'