{"id":24020,"date":"2011-11-24T14:20:36","date_gmt":"2011-11-24T19:20:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=24020"},"modified":"2013-01-21T14:48:43","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T19:48:43","slug":"no-mean-city-is-toronto-climbing-collapsing-or-both","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2011\/11\/24\/no-mean-city-is-toronto-climbing-collapsing-or-both\/","title":{"rendered":"NO MEAN CITY: Is Toronto climbing, collapsing or both?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Toronto's
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

Cross-posted from <\/em>No Mean City,<\/em><\/a> Alex’s personal blog on architecture<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Recently I met with an American magazine editor who was in town for a conference, and she was shocked by what she saw. In New York, where she lives and works, the economy is sputtering. Stores sit empty in Midtown Manhattan. Nobody\u2019s building. So the chaos of construction in downtown Toronto came as a big surprise.<\/p>\n

Because she\u2019s a smart editor, that insight turned into a story – which she asked me to write, for Architectural Record, about what\u2019s bringing all those tall buildings and big design ideas to town<\/a>. \u00a0I was surprised myself when I took stock of what\u2019s going on here and what is coming: 150 more towers now under way. Norman Foster, KPMB and architectsAlliance building on the watefront<\/a>. $5-million condos next to the Blinds To Go on Davenport.<\/a> And on and on. (I didn\u2019t even mention the suburban subway line that we are getting, or the Pan Am Games, or, even CityPlace – which any city in North America would love to have right now, with all its faults.)<\/p>\n

This is an amazingly positive story – especially when you contrast it to the very dark discussions we\u2019re having here about governance, poverty, bubbly real estate, gridlock and infrastructure. (As in John Lorinc\u2019s brilliant piece here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

So how do we bring those narratives together? One answer is that the positive factors of a stable and (relatively) welcoming society, a (relatively) solid economy, (relatively) generous social services and public institutions, (relatively) good city planning and architecture –\u00a0 are outweighing the bad. By many billions of dollars, and tens of thousands of people, every year. We are heading in a grim direction. But perhaps some of our problems will be conquered by the ingenuity and schlep of our growing city.<\/p>\n

I talked with Meg Graham of Superkul Architect <\/a>about the City of Toronto\u2019s planning process, and she said something that applies equally well to the region overall. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a city that isn\u2019t proactively planned – and hasn\u2019t been for years now,\u201d she said. \u201cBut we have a system that makes things work.\u201d<\/p>\n

..Hurray?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cross-posted from No Mean City, Alex’s personal blog on architecture Recently I met with an American magazine editor who was in town for a conference, and she was shocked by what she saw. In New York, where she lives and works, the economy is sputtering. Stores sit empty in Midtown Manhattan. Nobody\u2019s building. So theContinue reading “NO MEAN CITY: Is Toronto climbing, collapsing or both?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4088,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22,21759,15,20],"tags":[6296,174,12,19],"class_list":["post-24020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-architecture","category-features","category-media","category-urban-design","tag-alex","tag-no-mean-city","tag-planning","tag-toronto"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nNO MEAN CITY: Is Toronto climbing, collapsing or both? - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2011\/11\/24\/no-mean-city-is-toronto-climbing-collapsing-or-both\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NO MEAN CITY: Is Toronto climbing, collapsing or both? - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Cross-posted from No Mean City, Alex’s personal blog on architecture Recently I met with an American magazine editor who was in town for a conference, and she was shocked by what she saw. 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