Clik here to view.
Robarts Library, an architectural oral history
When the University of Toronto’s John P. Robarts Research Library, located at St. George and Harbord streets, opened its doors in 1973, it was the largest academic library building in the world,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
NEW ISSUE: Celebrating 20 years
Twenty-one years ago, I read an article about the Toronto Public Space Committee in Eye Weekly. Intrigued, I visited their website (back in Web 1.0 days) and, poking around, came across an obscure...
View ArticleOP-ED: Road Safety for All — What’s Not to Like?
By Albert Koehl and Roger Morier, road safety advocates and members of the We Belong on Bloor campaign of Community Bikeways. There’s nothing new about NIMBY-ists circling their wagons to bleat about...
View ArticlePublic Washrooms: The gift that keeps on giving
The holiday season is well underway, and many retailers are racing to keep their storefronts open for longer hours. Despite this, there is one pivotal piece of public space infrastructure that remains...
View ArticleClik here to view.
LORINC: Olivia Chow’s next big move
It’s five months today — July 12 — since Olivia Chow was sworn in as mayor and I think it’s safe to say she has delivered the goods by cutting a multi-billion funding deal with Queen’s Park that sets...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Tradition of Christmas Window Displays
Holiday-themed window displays have long been part of our retail landscape. This story, originally published by Torontoist on December 23, 2015, touches upon the greatest Christmas window rivalry in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
REID: To rename Yonge-Dundas Square, let’s follow the process
There’s no doubt Yonge-Dundas Square needs a new name. Whatever you think about the Henry Dundas controversy, the square’s current name sounds like placeholder, a purely descriptive moniker holding...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A year-end interview with Mayor Olivia Chow
With the final council session of the year now in the rear-view mirror, Mayor Olivia Chow is spending part of this week powering through year-end interviews with City Hall reporters. Although she...
View ArticleClik here to view.
REID: 10 walking improvements in Toronto over the past 10 years
Walk Toronto was founded ten years ago, in 2013 (I was one of the founders and am still a member of the steering committee). It’s a grassroots, volunteer advocacy group dedicated to making Toronto a...
View ArticleOP-ED: Olivia Chow’s message of hope and a new kind of politics
Recently I watched a brash Bonnie Crombie accept the leadership of the sad Ontario Liberal Party. I’d been catching up on the winning ways of Toronto’s new mayor Olivia Chow and listening to her...
View ArticlePODCAST: Spacing Radio 074, 20 Years of Spacing
Spacing is celebrating its 20th Anniversary. To celebrate, we talk to publisher Matthew Blackett and executive editor Dylan Reid about how the magazine came together, the latest issue and anniversary...
View ArticleRe-naming Yonge-Dundas Square
It’s not often that I strenuously disagree with Spacing editor Dylan Reid, but when I read “To Rename Yonge-Dundas Square, Let’s Follow the Process,” I felt a visceral need to offer a countervailing...
View ArticleOP-ED: Noise Pollution – no defense from a slow killer
My friend and I both nearly jumped out of our skin. The difference between us is that I could see it coming. Two rows of vehicles were stopped at a red light when I saw the motorbike weave into the...
View ArticleThe debate about e-scooters on Toronto streets will speed up in 2024
Ontario’s first attempts to keep pedestrians safe on our roads began a century ago in 1923 with the passage of the Highway Traffic Act. Back then, the focus of regulators was on a relatively new...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Anatomy of a bus shelter removal
During the week of December 2, 2023, the City of Toronto removed a TTC transit shelter at Dundas Street East and Sherbourne Street, in Moss Park. The removal, carried out by the street furniture...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Rejecting the condescension of Metrolinx advertising
I was sitting in the Cineplex at Yonge and Eglinton, watching the pre-show for the new Nic Cage film Dream Scenario. We were still in the ever-expanding advertising portion but not quite into the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Book Review: The Painter Le Corbusier, Eileen Gray’s Villa E1027, and Le Cabanon
“From the end of the 1930s onwards, Le Corbusier tested the possibilities of mural painting to enliven architectural space. Following a first project in Vézelay in 1936, the walls of the Villa E1027...
View ArticleClik here to view.
LORINC: Toronto’s ongoing property tax drama
There are some pundits who specialize in setting up the double-loaded trap for left-leaning politicians. If they break their election promises, they get scorched for pulling a fast one on the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
LORINC: Why is Toronto obsessed with taxing foreigners who buy real estate?
Governments across Canada have an apparently bottomless appetite for foreign buyers’ taxes, a mild and very Canuck form of policy racism that begins with the premise that people from away are driving...
View ArticlePODCAST: Spacing Radio 075, What does change cost?
With the Toronto budget about to be voted on shortly, we talk to crisis worker and homelessness advocate Diana Chan McNally about what the City needs to invest to help refugees and other unhoused...
View Article