"Multiculturalism Shapes Canadian Life. Does it Shape our Architecture?" Read the inaugural essay in my new monthly series of Canadian architecture criticism — EXPO. www.expothemagazine.com/expo-essays/...

'Based on estimates I’ve seen, a single data center campus would have an annual carbon footprint equivalent to the emissions of about 80,000 passenger vehicles in a year.' so... that means capturing waste heat from data centers is not circularity. www.planetizen.com/blogs/137025...

So it looks like Carney not only supports this US-Israel illegal war against Iran, but that he was dishonest when he said that Canada isn’t participating militarily. Yet, Canadian army, airforce and navy members are actively engaged in the targeting efforts and in this attack as “exchange officers.”

In the second issue of EXPO, I look at the history of the condominium in Canada. Why did condos become the primary mode of delivering multi-unit urban housing? Why did we build so many? And what happens now that nobody's buying?

The final form of historic preservation is a Gilded Age mansion where 10 apartments used to be: www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...

In the second issue of EXPO, I look at the history of the condominium in Canada. Why did condos become the primary mode of delivering multi-unit urban housing? Why did we build so many? And what happens now that nobody's buying?

A chart I just want to bring to every housing conversation in the city of Toronto. H/T to @jensvb.bsky.social

Many people in South Africa, where Elon is from, died to create a genuinely multiracial polity. They were killed by people who thought like Elon. The people who thought like Elon also lost. Seems their “common culture” of white supremacy wasn’t enough. bsky.app/profile/alan...

I can’t believe we’re already circling back around to the Bilbao Effect…

📢 @brenttoderian.bsky.social Rubbing digital shoulders w/ @mbonsma.bsky.social @novakovicto.bsky.social @ianwalker.bsky.social @jaypitter.bsky.social @sgoodyear.bsky.social @davidzipper.bsky.social @modacitylife.com @tomflood.bsky.social @jasonthorne.bsky.social & @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social !✊🏾

We know gentle density can work; replace a single detached with a few townhomes, adding SDUs, even modest 4 st apartments that are well designed doesn’t alter the overall community, creates housing opportunities and sustainable #PlacesForPeople @novakovicto.bsky.social @alexbozikovic.bsky.social

that's riiight

February 11th of #BlackHistoryMonth in #TorontoDanforth Who were Lucie and Thornton Blackburn? The Blackburns: Freedom seekers, entrepreneurs, anti-slavery activists and community benefactors and that was before they really got down to the business of transforming their new home of Toronto.

Important job alert! Toronto’s City Planning Division is looking for a new Director of Urban Design. If you have a passion for cities and for the importance of architecture, urban design, art and heritage in successful city-building, you should check out our job posting at tinyurl.com/3e8s3br8

Reading that there are only 5 fulltime salaried books critics now bsky.app/profile/adam... It's been a while since we did the architecture critic headcount but I think it is about the same

A wonderful piece on how our ideas of self and society are always being made and unmade.

Excited to ride the Eglinton Crosstown LRT! First take: it’s a lot better (faster, more comfortable) underground than above ground. It gets way slower, and you’re stopped outside in freezing February with doors open. A subway underground, a streetcar above. 1 hr 7 min end to end for 19 km. Too slow.

Don’t let anybody tell you that developers won’t build single-stair buildings on larger sites. Three right in a row.

This is the “condo language” of Toronto architecture translated to an institutional setting. All the same moves — set backs, breaking up the massing, replicating the rhythm of varied storefronts at grade — in a different context. 1) It’s kind of forced. 2) That’s not what campuses feel like anyway.

thanks for tip, excited to see, just subscribed. Great stuff @novakovicto.bsky.social & @jacquelineloch.bsky.social 💯. I've appreciated related @spacing.bsky.social magazine for yrs, esp while unplanned staying in TO in Sept-Dec. Got stack of old issues at Spacing store! bsky.app/profile/alex...

. @novakovicto.bsky.social returns to the field with a new publication, Expo, and an excellent essay on diversity in Canadian architefture. www.expothemagazine.com/expo-essays/...

Yes, we had a major snow event. Yes, the city is triaging, and many sidewalks in particular still need work. But it's been a week and arterial bikeways are remain unrideable and worse appear to be dumping grounds for snow-clearing. What's the plan, Toronto? www.torontotoday.ca/local/transp...

We are all immigrants. Unless you came over on the Mayflower. I am an immigrant to Canada having grown up in the US. America was built by immigrants. Some people have forgotten that.

"Multiculturalism Shapes Canadian Life. Does it Shape our Architecture?" Read the inaugural essay in my new monthly series of Canadian architecture criticism — EXPO. www.expothemagazine.com/expo-essays/...

An extraordinary paragraph. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

extremely wholesome scenes in my neighborhood (I bet in yours too): kids building snow forts, neighbors freeing each others' cars and sidewalks from ice. nice to get the opposite of the doomscroll in

Another entry in the proud North American tradition of clear roads and snowy sidewalks.

Been in Minneapolis the past week ish. Here are some photos I took while I was here.

I'm sorry to pile onto Finch West LRT further, but 350 delays in December is wild, considering it was only scheduled for 392 operating hours in December; that's nearly 1 delay per hour - and that ignores the hours it was supposed to be running but wasn't! www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Hotter, drier summers in the UK are shrinking clay-rich soil and destabilizing building foundations. "Well over a million London properties will be at risk of subsidence by 2030 as temperatures rise." Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

"Toronto doubled its number of speed cameras from 75 to 150 last year, a measure that studies show did change driving habits. By the end of 2025, the city saw its fewest fatalities and serious injuries since the beginning of the Vision Zero program."

Something interesting about arctic construction: it strongly resembles that of the metropole. Some climactic adaptation, but Nuuk, Murmansk, Fairbanks, and Yellowknife are all very different. It suggests that mainland construction differences are also driven more by socioeconomics than geography.

and that's *with* spiral staircases, and without sprinklers.

Interesting floor plan that shows what mitigations are possible that are not a second stair or sprinklers (neither of which are common in new apartment buildings in France). The lower floors have a short double-loaded corridor with five units of up to 4BR, which I... divisare.com/projects/548...

I've received many messages about this over the last two weeks — people still read, reference, and link to these stories WRITTEN BY REAL REPORTERS who knew their cities better than anyone else. I figured a fix might have been delayed due to holiday breaks but this needs to be remedied immediately!

Late last year, I shared some of my thoughts on the best buildings of 2025 with the Toronto Star. Nice to see a few of my picks make the cut:

One thing I wrote about here is how technology has made buses *way* more convenient while techno-futurists were obsessed with flying taxis and self-driving cars.

also bored. here's the canadian cities (from apta) vancouver = 0.507 calgary = 0.410 victoria = 0.278 edmonton = 0.264 winnipeg = 0.259 have to dig around for more ridership data for these two given all the agencies in the metro area, but they're at least this much: toronto >0.539 montreal >0.424

single stair isn't deregulation. neither is eliminating parking minimums. hell the largest single stair building in the world is 97 single stair conditions at karl-marx-hof, built by red vienna reason.com/2025/12/29/t...

ICE raids appear to be 100% responsible for the current housing crunch in south Texas. Indeed, they have brought residential construction to an end.

Yeah, as I've been saying, we overcompensated because the media ran with the stupid 'GDP per capita' and 'immigrants hurt housing' framing. This is long-run damage to the economy by short-term thinking, feeding xenophobia, and helping to further destroy Canada's world class universities.

TORONTO! Save the date. We'll be coming to what is arguably the birthplace of the war on cars for a live show on February 5th, 2026. Patreoners will get first dibs on tickets. Stay tuned for more details! Doug Ford will not be our special guest. www.patreon.com/c/thewaronca...

wow this is incredibly bleak

I wrote a piece for @archpaper.com about 18F, the National Design Studio, and the insidiousness of “rebranding” government services instead of improving them. Thanks to my editors for letting me use the phrase “tread on me daddy” in an architecture publication 🫡 www.archpaper.com/2025/12/nati...

Coming up at the @ccaconversations.bsky.social in Montreal: a closer look at Culture Lab, the symposium held in the back of a club in Toronto, from 1991 to 1994. That club was: The Rivoli.

Registration is now open for my upcoming Heritage Ottawa lecture on #OttawaBrutalism. (link below) Thu Dec 18 2025 @ 7:00pm Beechwood National Memorial Centre, Sacred Space Room, 280 Beechwood Avenue, Ottawa

One of Canada’s great bldns (despite de-brutalizing reno) - exposed aggregate should be the symbol of Canada. This is my weird cause I will quietly push until I fade into obscurity.

“Like its counterparts in Toronto, Vancouver, London, Lisbon, Dubai and Dushanbe, Houston’s new Ismaili Center proudly conveys both cultural specificity and cosmopolitanism,” writes @novakovicto.bsky.social. www.azuremagazine.com/article/hous...

Line 6 late evening maintenance replacement bus is scheduled for a 34 min runtime, about 26% faster than the train (46 mins). Kinda bad. In reality, the replacement bus can make the trip in ~24 mins, about 54% faster than the on-street runtime I experienced on the train (~53 mins). Really bad.

Legendary architect Frank Gehry has passed away at the age of 96. In tribute, we revisit a 2003 profile by Adele Freedman.