architects and built as the Imperial Oil Building on St. Clair Avenue West. Design competition Led by Mayor Nathan Phillips, the Toronto city council decided in 1956 to hold an international competition to choose the new design under terms created by the International Union of Architects. This caused some controversy as some felt the work should be done by a Canadian. Phillips assembled a five-person panel of judges from some of the world's greatest architecture experts with Eric Arthur serving as advisor. By the deadline of April 18, 1958, the committee received over 500 designs from 42 countries from which it selected eight semi-finalists. In September 1958, three judges selected Viljo Revell's design, though it almost missed the short list. Eero Saarinen, as member of the panel of five judges, arrived a day and half late and chose Revell's design from the other judges' list of entrants that could summarily be rejected. He convinced two other judges on the panel that Revell's unique design should be the winner. One of the two dissenting judges was William Graham Holford, who was skeptical that the design could be built within the $18 million budget set by the city. Revell received a $25,000 prize plus an estimated $1 million in fees to supervise construction. He complained that not enough credit was given to his design collaborators, Heikki Castren, Bengt Lundsten, and Seppo Valjus, and asked that all names be listed as the architects. Revell died in 1964 before the project was finished. Construction Construction began in 1961, and the building was completed four years later. The time capsule for City Hall was placed in a large ceremony on November 7, 1962 and Governor General Georges Vanier officially opened the new structure September 13, 1965. The area of Toronto City Hall and the civic square was formerly the location of Toronto's first Chinatown, which was expropriated and bulldozed during the mid-1950s in preparation for a new civic building. The location of City Hall itself was also the site of the 1917 Land Registry Office. It was designed in the Roman Classical style and was itself intended as part of a prior urban renewal plan for the area. It was demolished in 1964. The south side of Queen Street opposite City Hall was considered a 'commercial slum' and in August 1964, Toronto City Council voted to expropriate the south side for development appropriate to the