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Long before Toronto peppered its downtown with skyscrapers, Vancouver threw bridges across its inlets and Montreal built a wonderland in the middle of the St. Lawrence River, architectural illustrators were on hand to show everyone how it would look. This hidden class of artists are no mere picturemakers. Skilled, calculating and versed in the art of manipulation, these unseen and unsung artists may have more sway over the shape of Canada’s cities than we know.

Years ago, said Vancouver illustrator Ron Love, he stepped into a meeting with an architect and a client clutching the first renderings of a proposed 20-storey building.

“The client looked at the illustration and said ‘is that my building?’” said Mr. Love. “The architect proudly said ‘yes’ and the client turned around and walked out.”

Good or bad, architectural illustrations have a way of stirring up emotions.

In 2005, the final drawings were unveiled for what would become One World Trade Center, the 1,776-foot skyscraper pegged to replace New York’s destroyed World Trade Center. All it took was one glance at the shimmering structure projected to rise where the Twin Towers had once stood, and scores of New Yorkers were brought to tears. “This new building is like a beacon, a symbol of strength and endurance,” reads a typical online comment.

Only months after Vancouver won its Olympic bid, one of the organizers’ first visible acts was to circulate plans for the sustainable, ultra-modern venues that would host the games. The West Coast metropolis spends its winters cloaked under a near-incessant drizzle – as the world would indeed learn during the 2010 Olympics – but these buildings lived under perpetually blue skies.