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Planning City-Wide: A Primer – Part 1
Can city design be good? Few would doubt that they can, yet an honest answer must be tentative. It must pry into city planning, objectives, and the relations between objectives, reality, decisions,...
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EXCLUSIVE: John Tory discusses housing goals and planning reforms
Later this fall, city council will receive the first of what will likely be a long series of planning reports responding to a July motion (MM9.36) moved by mayor John Tory and housing czar Ana Bailao...
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Planning City-Wide: A Primer – Part 2
Common City Planning Initiatives We would be forgiven if our initial reaction to the nature of the contemporary city described in Part 1 is to run away screaming, but that does little for the problem...
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Is there a smarter way to spend Toronto’s housing dollars?
In June, 2019, Toronto’s Auditor General, Beverly Romeo-Beehler published an audit on Rent-Geared-to-Income (RGI) housing. According to her report, entitled “Opening Doors to Stable Housing, ” there...
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PODCAST: Spacing Radio 038, Take it to the Streets
Lanrick Bennett starts us off, talking about a pop-up pilot bike lane project on Toronto’s Danforth Ave. Jared Kolb is stepping down as executive director at Cycle Toronto. After nine years, he tells...
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Planning City-Wide: A Primer – Part 3
Planning Goals and Objectives – Shortcomings The usefulness of the methods and techniques described in Common City Planning Initiatives revolves around the fact that they generally avoid the...
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Planning City-Wide: A Primer – Part 4
Planning Goals and Objectives – Criteria In light of the common shortcomings described earlier, let’s consider a list of criteria that should be met by any set of goals and objectives for a city-wide...
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LORINC: When e-scooters hit Toronto’s streets
When city council this summer passed new and moderately more stringent training regulations for Uber and Lyft drivers, no one could have been shocked by the reason for the additional regulatory...
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Planning City-Wide: A Primer – Part 5
Weighting Goals and Objectives Now that we have a sense of how to approach setting usable goals and objectives for city-wide planning and criteria to weight them against, we’re still left with many...
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Planning City-Wide: A Primer – Part 6
Developing Alternatives Let’s assume that we’ve managed to develop clear, meaningful objectives that have been made more comprehensive through connecting them strongly to the form of the city, we...
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Planning City-Wide: A Primer – Part 7
Time and the City: A Living City-wide Plan We’ve come a long way in addressing the many challenges associated with city-wide planning, but the issue of time deserves further elaboration. When I...
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How to build a low-rise apartment building
If you’re in the Bloor and Dufferin neighbourhood a couple of summers from now and happen to head north on Dufferin, just past the subway station, you’ll be greeted by a couple of apartment buildings...
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Book Review – Growth: From Microorganisms to Megacities
Author: Vaclav Smil (MIT Press, 2019) There are few terms as pervasive in discussions about contemporary cities than “growth”. It monopolizes debates around everything, from economics and population,...
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Spacing’s Tactical Urbanism workshop
WHEN: Friday, September 27th, 9am-4:30pm WHERE: 197 Spadina Avenue, Lake Ontario Room, 5th Floor COST: $125 for professionals, $50 for students (five spots available) LINK: Buy your ticket now at The...
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Planning City-Wide: A Primer – Part 8
By Way of Conclusions We’ve come a long way, covering a lot of meaningful ground around the city-wide planning process. Like Lynch over half a century ago, however, we aren’t really any close to...
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LORINC: Is Toronto one small step closer to finding the missing middle?
At last week’s Toronto Urban Design Awards, Mayor John Tory announced that the City will launch an “ideas competition” meant to generate “new options” for potential missing middle, low-rise housing...
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Book Review: Design Process in Architecture – From Concept to Completion
Geoffrey Makstutis – Laurence King Publishing (2018) This book will be particularly useful for those who are considering – or are in their first year of – studying architecture. Because of the nature...
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What other cities can learn from Toronto’s ride-hailing experience
With British Columbia rolling out its ride-hailing regulations in August, Toronto City Council re-examining its bylaws, and Halifax looking to do the same, it seems like a good time to dive in on what...
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How long will ride-hailing apps last?
Part two of Nick’s look at the state of ride hailing. Read part one here. It has been almost ten years since Uber was founded in San Francisco. In 2011, saw their first services and app launched, which...
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The missing middle and the case for density transition zones
Over the past 20 years, Toronto has grown by over 500,000 people, even as its neighbourhoods have hollowed-out, with the loss of over 200,000 residents. This dynamic has led to the closure of schools...
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