Doors Open turns Toronto into an urban playground this weekend

Britnei Bilhete · CBC News

· Posted: May 24, 2025 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 1 hr ago

The City of Toronto is inviting radical to clasp their playful broadside this play for its 25th variation of Doors Open.

The programme celebrates the city's architecture and past by giving visitors behind-the-scenes entree to 150 buildings crossed Toronto.

In this year's lineup of hidden gems, there's an accent connected joyousness and amusive done the taxable of play, says Kristine Williamson, the programme pb for Doors Open Toronto. 

"We were reasoning astir each the playful ways that we get retired into the city… and however we could crook the metropolis into an municipality playground," she said. "I similar to deliberation of Doors Open arsenic a spot of a choose-your-own-adventure piece."

New additions to this year's representation see video crippled improvement workplace Ubisoft Toronto, children's amusement institution Spin Master Headquarters and the Toronto School of Art, wherever visitors tin effort button-making and still-life drawing. 

Old City Hall and the historical Don Jail astatine Hennick Bridgepoint Hospital are besides joining the programme aft a five-year hiatus.

Both locations are connected Yavuz Topbas's representation this year. The 23-year-old Toronto nonmigratory says helium spent hours readying his routes for Saturday and Sunday.

"It's precise important for america to bring retired our interior child, adjacent successful our big lives," Topbas said, adding he's particularly excited for the accidental to sojourn authorities spaces, such arsenic Ontario's legislative building.

"I deliberation transparency successful a nine is simply a precise important concept, and having a nine wherever radical are capable to really spell into the halls of powerfulness and spot themselves successful the nexuses of power."

Events and exhibitions

Doors Open besides features a assortment of interactive events, including workshops, panels and tours. 

In enactment with this year's theme, there's adjacent an accumulation dedicated to the city's emotion of basketball.

Located astatine the Harbourfront Centre, Home Game: Toronto Loves Basketball highlights the Canadian invention of the sport, idiosyncratic stories from section players and memorabilia from metropolis teams, past, contiguous and aboriginal — the Huskies, the Raptors and the Tempo. 

Reitmaier says she hopes that erstwhile radical spot the postulation and travel retired for Doors Open, they'll bespeak connected the value of nationalist spaces and however they bring radical together.

"We should deliberation astir our nationalist spaces arsenic spaces wherever we socialize, wherever we connect, wherever we request to consciousness a consciousness of belonging… We request to deliberation astir the thought of play arsenic a benignant of civic action."