Archives /// History of our Future
What would happen if people simply disappeared from the intersection of a large metropolis, never to return? How would this depopulation change a place that has been traversed by thousands of people each day for a century? If everything done to maintain it — the washing, paving, building, repairing — suddenly ceased, what would become of this landscape in ten years' time?
Upon initial consideration, it may seem like little would happen. An intersection such as Queen and Spadina has looked much the same for decades. Change has been incremental and relatively superficial: the repainting of a building, new streetlights, the ...
All buildings are haunted. Toronto has some pretty stubborn ghosts living in its warehouses and refurbished lofts and empty brick monoliths — their earliest tenants seem slow to let go. You can see their spectral faces on the buildings' bricks: old ads in old fonts still cling for dear life in spite of time and weather.
Liberty Village and the Distillery District have lots of these ghost signs, which is unsurprising, because they're historic places where you'd expect ghosts to live. But there are dozens more, lurking where you live and work and think you're safe. They skulk in the ...
Thousands of years old and buried alive, their ghosts are awakened with the advent of spring. Foundations creak and floorboards rot as the undead bleed into the basements of homes and buildings beneath our city. Such is the wrath of the rivers and creeks our forefathers poisoned with garbage and smothered in concrete.
Throughout the Greater Toronto Area, networks of buried waterways continue their stifled flow. Many were the progeny of glaciers and lived for tens of thousands of years before 19th century industrialization polluted their currents and rendered them hazardous or obstacles to development. But recent interest in our entombed ...
Excerpted from the Toronto section of "The Green Traveller Guide", 2043 edition.
"...No trip to Toronto would be complete without a visit to the iconic Port Lands, one of the first truly sustainable communities to be built in North America.
A BRIEF HISTORY At the beginning of the 21st century, the Port Lands were a barren expanse of underused industrial sites. Although their potential was acknowledged, bureaucratic wrangling and improbable schemes (such as bids for the Olympics and a World's Fair) paralyzed any revitalization initiatives. In the end, however, these delays proved fortunate. They gave time for a widely-based grassroots movement to ...
The following short story by Jim Munroe takes place in the year 2020 near the intersection of Yonge Street and Steeles Avenue.
"What's that smell?" Christina said, her nose wrinkling.
"It's mostly farms up here," Jason said, trying to sound casual. "Fertilizer, probably."
"Shit, you mean," a voice from behind them in line said. "Why don't you call it what it is, Fernandez?"
Jason tried not to let his irritation show as he looked at Brad. Some time between getting off the school bus and getting in line for the ...
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The first half of the 20th century saw Toronto's civic leaders contemplate a number of different city hall and civic square proposals, but it wasn't until 1946, when the city purchased land just west of Old City Hall, that things started to get serious.
Up until 1956, Toronto considered a number of plans from local architecture firms, but none of the ideas captured the imagination, as most submissions reflected the style and designs of buildings found on University Avenue at the time. City leaders wanted something daring and bold, to tell the world that Toronto had arrived on the scene ...
