Fresh drawings of the plans for Queen’s Park North by JRALA. Scaled back.

And, of course, it wouldn't be Canada if it hadn't a cluster of apt buildings cornered between two huge arterials and a strip mall. "TOD urbanism is my passion" meme

Dan says it right: this is a city, and we need leaders who will say so.

Mamdani: "New York will remain a city of immigrants, a city built by immigrants, powered by immigrants, and as of tonight, led by an immigrant."

It will be interesting how this federal budget frames "infrastructure." Does that mean housing? And for other things, how and where do they envision it? www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/art...

In Jane Jacobs’s old neighborhood, more heritage rules will mean more exclusion and gentrification. We know how the story ends. It shouldn’t be allowed to happen again. www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...

Has this firefighters’ union done a comparative study to explain why almost every one of the world’s richest nations allows single stair access? Or are they just making stuff up? www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

In Jane Jacobs’s old neighborhood, more heritage rules will mean more exclusion and gentrification. We know how the story ends. It shouldn’t be allowed to happen again. www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...

Imagine a city of great apartments where everyone knows their neighbours. The Neptis Foundation has a vision: www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/art-...

As a resident of one of the mid century towers, I appreciate this piece by @alexbozikovic.bsky.social. It's incredible to have a home at this price point so close to downtown, and rare for a tower to be off main streets as is normal in planning today.

We’ll always have Ontario’s Ring of Fire

Hanging out in a hotel bar, watching the bottom of the 9th with a bar mitzvah party-turned-World Series event. 13-year-old boys huddling in the doorway, craning necks at the TV.

Everyone who talks about bail reform but also everyone who funds the carceral system (so, all of us) should read this.

Some good vibes from a walk around the neighbourhood!

Decided to scare pedestrians for Halloween!! Oooooo!! Beg to cross the 8 lane stroad!!! Spooky! 👻👻

Considering its extreme scarcity, its provenance, and its immaculate condition, the Lincoln Bathroom's now-destroyed #Vitrolite walls—original to the 1949-51 Truman reconstruction—were considerably more valuable than Trump's common marble-by-the-yard. #HistoricPreservation #20thCenturyPreservation

Is he okay?

Revised plans for the waterfront ampitheatre at Ontario Place: now PARTISANS with @genslerdesign.bsky.social www.newswire.ca/news-release...

#Montreal's municipal election is coming up on November 2. It's looking bad for the party that built North America's best bike lane network, and built up the Bixi bikeshare system to 13 million riders a year. I'm trying to decide how to vote. I sat down with two of the mayoral candidates... 🧵

The Don River today

This is one of the most aggressively stupid things ever written on architecture. The head of state is breaking laws to attack the most beloved and symbolic building in the country. It is a power play. That is all that matters. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/25/o...

On the contrary, destroying a beloved public building - illegally and for no good reason - is very bad. Not all change is good. This is not complicated.

Imagine a city of great apartments where everyone knows their neighbours. The Neptis Foundation has a vision: www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/art-...

“We tore down the historic building, but we’re replacing it with a fake-historic building financed through corruption, so the Commies are to blame here.” Orwell would blush

In Toronto, the stadium is near the country’s biggest transit station and now surrounded by dense urbanism. Sometimes we get it right.

Leaders “have failed to support the one sector that makes Canada, well, Canadian: culture.” @hertzbarry.bsky.social crushed it here: www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/film...

“Others say it was time for change”

Whether it’s conservatives complaining about a redesign of Cracker Barrel’s across the country, or liberals complaining about President Trump bulldozing the East Wing of the White House, it’s clear both sides are engaged in a new political battleground over architecture and design

As Toronto embraces broader intensification, @diannesaxe.bsky.social allies herself with NIMBY neighbourhood groups to build obstructionist heritage policy. secure.toronto.ca/council/agen...

Good question from the senator and @brodiefenlon.bsky.social’s response was not convincing. X is now a right-wing institution hostile to journalism and CBC should be leading Canadians to the alternatives.

The Cdn nonprofit housing sector keeps exaggerating the speed and the potential of current work. This project is big and was approved quickly. OK: now show another one. Also, this site spent 4 years in “predevelopment” prior to the announcement. In all, 8 years. www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

Sportswriting on deadline is its own art, and Cathal Kelly is incredibly good at it. www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/baseb...

This is how we celebrate in Toronto.

My book Live to See the Day is off to the printer and available for preorder. I’d love it if you bought a copy or spread the word. It took me around the world — and took seven years to write! Which is fitting for a book about things that might never happen. www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/645965...

In Toronto, we are bad at design designing robust landscapes. All of these plants are going to die, brined in road salt and dog urine. The grade level is flat and there are no barriers. New TCHC / Context Development building in the Beach. How does city urban design sign off on this?

the cover of Thomas Pynchon's new novel just dropped

This is 4chan stuff from the Vice-President of the United States. Bottomless disrespect for the people in the institution he is meant to serve. Contemptible.

Buongiorno! Today I’ll be at the Venice Biennale, sadly via Zoom, to discuss the state of criticism with Christopher Hawthorne. 4pm local if you happen to be there. www.labiennale.org/en/agenda/ge...

Marshall Berman, from New York Calling (2003). Sounds remarkably quaint now, but no less important.

After Google, Toronto moves ahead with a bold new neighbourhood. My column: www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/art-...

From runway to city. Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates Inc. will guide the redesign of the YZD runway into an urban neighbourhood with a dose of nature. My piece: www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/art-...

From runway to city. Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates Inc. will guide the redesign of the YZD runway into an urban neighbourhood with a dose of nature. My piece: www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/art-...

Can’t wait for another wildly expensive subway project with poor architecture by an engineering firm/US defence contractor www.metrolinx.com/en/news/firs...

An interesting case!

Details aside: imagine heritage being a significant issue in municipal election, as it is in @craigsauve.bsky.social’s platform

One of the smartest people on Canadian immigration, this @dougsaunders.bsky.social post with four major reforms to immigration, should be a template for other countries too www.dougsaunders.net/2025/09/four...

We and @dornsife.usc.edu have launched a #ShadeLA design competition to create cooling shade zones across public places in LA. @weareshadela.bsky.social uses our national Shade Map to identify areas that need it the most. Read in @nbcla.com: www.nbclosangeles.com/weather-news... #UCLA #UCLALuskin

After Google, Toronto moves ahead with a bold new neighbourhood. My column: www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/art-...

1) Toronto was going to use development charges to fund a project that was critical for existing residents 2) Now the feds are putting in money as a reward for Toronto reducing DCs, which they didn't actually do