What the building did before
Every building in this guide had a job before this one. We start with that job — the jail, the brewery, the meadow, the market jetty — and only then describe what it is like to stay there.
No entry is written freehand. Each one answers what the building was, what survived the change, what was inserted, and what the place is actually like now. The order never changes, so entries can be compared against each other rather than read one at a time.
When the earlier work started, and when it stopped.
| 1830s | Hotel Katajanokka begins as a county prison |
| 1850s | The Liberty begins as the Charles Street Jail |
| 1870s | The Jaffa begins as a French hospital |
| 1900s | Conservatorium is built as a bank; Wythe as a barrel factory; Niagara puts a transformer station above the falls |
| 1960s | Expo 67 raises the France and Quebec pavilions on Île Notre-Dame |
| 1990s | Katajanokka closes as a prison; Casino Rama is built; Montréal Casino opens in the Expo pavilions |
| 2000s | Fallsview and River Rock open; capsule floors are cut into Tokyo and Singapore buildings |
| 2010s | Ottilia takes the Carlsberg brewery walls |
| 2020s | Kemi keeps a snow structure through the summer |