Infrastructure
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A new low for the Scarborough Subway champion
For 2016’s annual Torontoist Heroes and Villains feature, I nominated Toronto Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker (Ward 38, Scarborough Centre) as...
By Sean Marshall -
The demise of the first “air rights” project in Toronto
When Toronto’s first subway line opened in 1954, much of track north of Bloor Street was located in a shallow, open trench. The money-saving open cut...
By Chris Bateman -
The Shell Oil Tower is a lost 1950s masterpiece
A little over 30 years ago this winter, one of Toronto’s earliest Modern buildings was pulled to the ground. When the Shell Oil Tower at Exhibition...
By Chris Bateman -
LORINC: A watchdog for all those $2 road tolls
During the (only half-finished) debate over John Tory’s road tolls scheme, the mayor offered up what looked mostly like a nerve-soothing rider for the...
By John Lorinc -
Metrolinx’s suburban plans for an urban transit system
At its last board meeting on December 8, Metrolinx presented an update on the status of 12 new GO Transit rail stations, all located on existing lines...
By Sean Marshall -
LORINC: The new Toronto Courthouse emerges from The Ward
As archeologists begin to reveal two centuries of commerce on the North Market site, Toronto’s other major active dig site – the Centre Avenue parking lot...
By John Lorinc -
LORINC: Trump, Trudeau and the Liberals’ economic agenda
The surrealist performance art show that is the Trump transition process has provided the world with a torrent of distraction that would un-moor even...
By John Lorinc -
The life and death of Peter Dickinson and The Inn on the Park
Peter Dickinson was dying when he designed the Inn on the Park. From a bed in Mount Sinai hospital, his body weakened from cancer, Dickinson listened to...
By Chris Bateman -
Toronto’s Summerville pool is a slice of the Mediterranean
It’s easy to overlook the Donald D. Summerville Olympic Pools. Despite its sturdy presence on Lake Shore Boulevard East, the futuristic elevated...
By Chris Bateman -
The sidepath: a solution for suburban cycling infrastructure
On busy suburban roads, sidepaths offer an appealing alternative to installing bike lanes. But where they have been implemented, there are some major...
By Sean Marshall -
LORINC: The Scarborough subway and the climate change agenda
What will future residents of Scarborough think, 30 or 40 years hence, when they cast their minds back to the craven transit decisions being made today by...
By John Lorinc -
How Toronto built the CN Tower
The CN Tower is one of the most important buildings ever constructed in Canada. Like it or loathe it, the absurd, 553-metre concrete tower, which opened...
By Chris Bateman