Urban Design
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Making places for Toronto’s Queer history
By Ed Jackson In June, 2016, U.S. President Barack Obama proclaimed the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar on Christopher Street in New York City, as an American...
By Spacing -
The oddities of the Dundas Street Extension
In December 1954, the railway tracks near Logan Avenue presented the final obstacle in one of Toronto’s first major post-war road building...
By Chris Bateman -
LORINC: Why the Libs’ planning mistakes are fuelling the GTA’s real estate madness
Until the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC) released a new report showing that a shortage of supply wasn’t, in fact, the culprit in the speculative...
By John Lorinc -
THE ARTFUL CITY: An Interview with Sean Martindale
Interview by: Melanie Fasche Sean Martindale is a Canadian artist and designer currently based in Toronto. He holds a Master of Fine Art from OCAD...
By The Artful City -
Yonge Street Mall: The fun and failure of pedestrianizing Toronto’s iconic strip during the 1970s
On June 3, 1971, there was a party on downtown Yonge Street. Around 8pm, following the news that Ontario Premier Bill Davis had cancelled the Spadina...
By Daniel Ross -
Sex on Yonge: Examining the decade when Yonge Street was the city’s sin strip
“I take a walk down Yonge Street, where good times are bought and sold.” When folk music great Ian Tyson penned those lines in 1970, he knew his audience...
By Daniel Ross -
The Artful City: A Year in Review
By: Jeff Biggar and Ilana Altman The Artful City was formed in 2015 with a simple mission to investigate public art in Toronto and spark a dialogue about...
By The Artful City -
Building community through the use of public space in the sharing economy
What happens when fare collectors start to become wise to over-turnstile Bunz trade activity occurring at Ossington subway station? The station’s central...
By Sarah Yellin -
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 ARTFUL CITY: A Tale of Two Seasons
By: Ilana Altman Toronto is a city of both climatic and cultural extremes. Hot long summer days are populated by more festivals than one can count; from...
By The Artful City -
PODCAST: Spacing Radio 007 – PopCanCrit: Crisis in Criticism
In part two, of our PopCanCrit special, we look at the role of the architecture critic, in a changing media landscape. Our experts discuss who gets to be...
By Spacing Radio -
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