Anthony Jim is a civil engineer with a very unique artistic talent, that he combines with his incredible passion for preserving the façade’s of Toronto’s historical buildings, in precisely-scaled and hand-rendered pencil sketches, that are architecturally accurate, right down to the number of bricks on the building. Anthony began learning his artistic craft by studying free-hand classical drawing and drafting techniques from British Engineers, while he was a teenager growing up in early 1960’s Hong Kong. Anthony furthered his studies when he immigrated to Canada in 1973 (first living in Riverdale for 7 years), and apprentice trained with the renowned and internationally respected master of classical and renaissance architectural & civil engineering – the late Professor Anthony Souroshnikoff, of Imperial Russian lineage. Outside of working for the TTC – Anthony Jim started using his lunch hours to sketch the houses of Wychwood Park, back in 1998. At their begging requests, Anthony sold his original sketches to the individual home owners in the Park, and raised over ten thousand dollars for the United Way, during the 5 year project.
In 2003, Anthony started his current Riverdale Art Project. An undertaking that he hopes the outcome will be a collaboration of his sketches, other’s stories, and accurately referenced facts of the historical buildings of Riverdale and the people who worked and lived in them.
On June 23, 2006, Anthony was profiled by the National Post as “The Steel-Toed Sketch Artist” – a notoriety that led to interest for TV spots and a number of other publicity offers – all of which Anthony declined in favour of the quiet solitude and passion for his historical art. Presently, Anthony is drawing the Wychwood Library, the TTC Inglis Building, and the Historic Don Jail. If you are interested in collaborating on the written and historical research, or book publishing aspects of Anthony’s Art Projects, please be sure to speak to him personally as he is actively seeking assistance with these endeavours.