NEW ISSUE: City Growing
Sometimes we get a series of pitches that don’t fit well into a particular issue, but relate to each other as they accumulate in our pitch pile over time. That’s how it was with the various proposals...
View ArticleCorner Commons: Creative placemaking on a suburban scale
Clara Stewart-Robertson is Manager of Community Planning and Development, Jane/Finch Centre; Ernestine Aying is Community Design Coordinator, Jane/Finch Centre; Eunice Wong is Urban Designer and...
View ArticlePODCAST: Spacing Radio 064, Toronto Shelter Collapse
Those working with unhoused people in Toronto, like Sanctuary Toronto outreach worker Lorraine Lam, are warning about the total collapse of the City’s shelter system: as COVID continues to sweep...
View ArticleLORINC: Debunking the misinformation about garden suites
While most people were riveted last weekend by the wretched spectacle of extremist-palooza in Ottawa, the busy beavers of the tiny world of ratepayer activism were filling their own airwaves with...
View ArticleBook Review: The Stahl House – Case Study House #22
Written by Shari Stahl Gronwald, Bruce Stahl, and Kim Cross, Chronicle Books (2021) Considered one of the most iconic and recognizable examples of mid-century modern homes in the world, it was first...
View ArticleLORINC: In praise of low-tech crowd control to thwart the trucker convoy
Like many angry and aghast Canadians, I felt deep satisfaction this past weekend watching the images of ordinary Ottawa residents blocking the route of a convoy with nothing but their bodies and a few...
View ArticleThe Meadoway: Realizing the power of connectivity
This article was first published in November in the Park People “10 Years Together in City Parks” series, and is republished here with permission. Read the complete 10 Years Together in City Parks...
View ArticleA More Beautiful Journey on the TTC
A new way of experiencing your public transit commute is coming to Toronto this year. A More Beautiful Journey is an upcoming public art project that will provide TTC riders with soundtracks of ambient...
View ArticleThe Overhead: Bringing balance to the housing crisis
Spacing and the Balanced Supply of Housing research node proudly present The Overhead: Understanding Canada’s Affordable Housing Crisis, a special podcast series. THIS EPISODE: Bringing balance to the...
View ArticleJoan Didion was an urbanist
After a month of reading the essays of Joan Didion—the American author whose literary reputation seemed to ascend to new heights when she died late last year— I discovered something unexpected: Didion...
View ArticleBlack History Month: Eartha Kitt’s forgotten visits to Toronto
If there is one thing I have missed more than anything else during the pandemic, it is nightlife. In 2020, at least 22 music venues, including clubs and music-friendly bars and restaurants, shut their...
View ArticleSpacing’s ‘Remnants of Mid-Century Toronto’ book wins Lt. Governor’s Ontario...
Spacing is proud to announce that our book, Remnants of Mid-Century Toronto, has won the Lieutenant Governor’s Ontario Heritage Award for Excellence in Conservation. The Lieutenant Governor’s Ontario...
View ArticleLORINC: Trying to police the way cops use AI-based investigation tools
Late last month, the Toronto Police Services Board released a new policy meant to guide the agency’s future procurement and use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies for law enforcement. The...
View ArticleReconnecting with the Waterfront: Bentway Design Competition Winners
Two major intersections on Lake Shore Boulevard under the Gardiner Expressway will be looking quite different very soon, as the Bentway’s Waterfront ReConnect design competition has recently announced...
View ArticleLORINC: NIMBYs vs Garden Suites, Season 2
Here’s an odd little mystery about a freshly filed appeal by a residents association coalition of council’s new “garden suites” bylaw, which was approved by council in February. Last week, a group of...
View Article36 Questions that Lead to Loving TO
What do you love most about Toronto? Which places in the city would you like to share? A new exhibit in downtown Toronto, 36 Questions that Lead to Loving TO, invites you to give your answers to...
View ArticleFrom Sunlight Park to East Harbour, Part 2 of 2
This second part of my feature on Lever Brothers soap and detergent manufacturing in the lower Don Valley will examine the eight-decade history of Plant No. 1, known as the Sunlight Soap Works within...
View ArticleLORINC: Holding an easily re-electable Mayor John Tory accountable
Elections matter, as the old rule of thumb goes, but maybe some matter less than others? It certainly seems, at this point, that Toronto’s 2022 mayoral race will be a going-through-the-motions kind of...
View ArticleBook Review: The Women Who Changed Architecture
Foreword by Beverly Willis, Introduction by Amale Andraos, Edited by Jan Cigliano Hartman, Princeton Architectural Press, 2022 The Women Who Changed Architecture establishes a comprehensive and...
View ArticleWhy we must stop the ‘urbicide’— the killing of cities
The 21st century was supposed to be the “century of the city.” As of 2007, 50% of the world’s population lives in cities, and the United Nations has estimated that by 2050, that figure will rise to...
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