Architecture
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Opening Maple Leaf Gardens
We often grumble about how long it takes for large urban construction projects to be completed. But there was little time to grouse when it came to Maple...
By Jamie Bradburn -
A Perfect Fit: KOPS Records at its original Queen West location
Between 1995 and 2020, Canada’s oldest independent record retailer, KOPS Records, occupied an aged storefront at 229 Queen Street West, between Simcoe and...
By Peter MacCallum -
CNE’s grand plans of the past: Visionary days for people places in Toronto and Ontario
EDITOR: Landscape architect and urban designer Walter Kehm worked on the CNE master plans in the late 1960s and recently found these images that included...
By Walter Kehm -
BOOK REVIEW — Portraits of Queen West: Spadina to Bathurst, by Kevin Steele
Portraits of Queen West: Spadina to Bathurst is being published through a crowdfunding campaign that launches today. Check the campaign website for...
By Ian Darragh -
What’s really happening at Ontario Place? (Part 2)
Sequel to Part 1 of “What’s really happening at Ontario Place?“ Ontario Place was conceived by Conservative Premier John Robarts in 1968 as an...
By Ian Darragh -
What’s really happening at Ontario Place? (Part 1)
The investigation by Ontario Auditor-General Bonnie Lysyk into the Ford government’s removal of 7,400 acres of prime farmland and wetlands from the...
By Ian Darragh -
Re-imagining laneways in Toronto
What’s missing in the media coverage about laneway suites is a discussion about the laneways themselves. Currently, they are primarily used for driving...
By Dean Goodman -
Lost heritage on Queen West
According to a recent CBC News report, the gable-roofed wooden commercial storefront at 520 Queen Street West was about 170 years old when its new owner...
By Peter MacCallum -
Field notes from a parks conference
From green roofs on new buildings, to quantifying visitors (beyond counting toilet paper rolls), to how much to mow, here are some notable ideas to emerge...
By Ian Darragh -
Farewell to Malabar, Toronto’s former costume emporium
Malabar Limited, the famed costume emporium, closed in March 2022. Although it had been a fixture of downtown Toronto’s cultural landscape for 99 years...
By Peter MacCallum -
LORINC: Can the Ontario Science Centre save Ontario Place?
Here’s a strange little detail about the 20-car pile-up that is the Ontario Place redevelopment scheme: Shortly before Christmas, the province...
By John Lorinc -
As is: Photographs of Ontario Place, 2021- 2022
In advance of Spacing’s upcoming issue focused on Ontario Place, we are sharing some of photographer Steven Evans’s images of the site. See...
By Steven Evans