Infrastructure
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Lost and found in the PATH: the case for new wayfinding
This summer, a pilot project will be launched to test a new wayfinding system in the PATH — Toronto’s subterranean navigation-slash-commercial network of...
By Kieran Delamont -
Who will save Toronto’s old streetcars?
Toronto’s outgoing fleet of streetcars could be the first not to get a second life in another city. Perhaps due to advanced decrepitude, the current...
By Chris Bateman -
Brampton’s Etobicoke Creek: floods, concrete, and new public spaces
The City of Brampton — Canada’s ninth largest municipality — was founded as a small community in the mid-19th century, as the interior of Southern...
By Sean Marshall -
The half-built relics of nixed Toronto skyscrapers
In 1914, John Eaton, the third son of retail magnate Timothy Eaton, began preparing plans for a massive expansion of his family’s empire. Aged 38...
By Chris Bateman -
The modernist Bloor-Danforth line at 50
The Bloor-Danforth line turned 50 today. Five decades ago, on February 25, 1966, the first section of Toronto’s first east-west subway opened...
By Chris Bateman -
Remembering the ill-fated CN Turbo train
On December 10, 1968, a sleek new locomotive glided out from the sooty train shed at Toronto’s Union Station. Streamlined and silver with a bright...
By Chris Bateman -
How the TTC lost and found its subway style
Not many people could have known that behind the advertising billboards on the platform of College station was something no-one had seen for more than...
By Chris Bateman -
The cold war siren system Toronto never used
At Dundas West and Shaw, near Trinity-Bellwoods Park, there’s a conspicuous piece of Canada’s Cold War history. On top of a 15-metre pole sits...
By Chris Bateman -
How the Eaton Centre nearly wrecked Old City Hall
Ever since Toronto city council moved over the street in 1965, Toronto hasn’t quite known what to do with Old City Hall. The exquisite heritage...
By Chris Bateman -
GARDINER EAST: Using the rail corridor to crack the highway riddle
The Gardiner East Follies returns for yet another extended run at City Hall beginning on Tuesday morning, when city officials present three scenarios for...
By John Lorinc -
Happy birthday to the Toronto streetcar system
There are perhaps few things more symbolic of Toronto than its streetcars. For more than 150 years, surface rail has formed the backbone of the...
By Chris Bateman -
Unveiling the Bloor Viaduct’s Luminous Veil
At night, the Rosedale Ravine is dark. It’s so dark, in fact, that the Bloor Viaduct is just shapes overhead, cobwebby steel arches and thick square...
By Kat Eschner