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Blog Post RESIDENTIAL APARTMENT COMMERCIAL (RAC) ZONING
Illustration by Daniel Rotsztain As of October 2016, five hundred apartment tower neighbourhoods in the City of Toronto acquired the ability to reconceive the social and economic character of their communities. A multisectoral group of partners, including United Way Toronto, Toronto Public Health, the City of Toronto, and the Centre for Urban Growth + Renewal, have worked for several years to replace an outdated strict zoning category with a new, more flexible framework. The result, known as the Residential Apartment…
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Research Report Strong Neighbourhoods and Complete Communities: A New Approach to Zoning for Apartment Neighbourhoods
A follow up to the findings of the Poverty by Postal Code 2: Vertical Poverty (2011) report by the Centre for Urban Growth and Renewal (CUG+R) and United Way Toronto.
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Blog Post Cities Alive Podcast – Zoning Out! Pt. 1
How do zoning laws contribute to – or prevent – the creation of complete communities? The Cities Alive podcast episode, Zoning Out! Part 1 addresses issues surrounding this question. Hosts Ross Soward and Danielle Davis invite guest speakers to talk about new trends in zoning that are allowing the formation of vibrant neighbourhoods. Today there is a rethink in how zoning works – from once rigid and separated into fixed single uses – to more flexible and mixed. Desire for zoning reform…
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Blog Post RAC Tower Zoning approved for 2014
In an important step forward, Toronto City Council voted Wednesday April 3, 2013, to approve the new Harmonized Zoning bylaw, including the new Residential Apartment-Commercial (RAC) Zone. Starting in 2014, the RAC Zone will be rolled out in key Toronto neighbourhoods. These include: Thorncliff Park, North Jane St., Rexdale, Oriole Community (The Peanut), Taylor-Massey Neighbourhood, East Scarborough, and Pape and Cosburn The new RAC zone supports as-of-right low-impact mixed uses within Apartment Neighbourhoods. Such uses include small shops, farmers markets,…
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Blog Post Graeme Stewart interviewed: Toronto Zoning
As part of the Tower Neighbourhood Renewal project, the Centre for Urban Growth and Renewal (CUG+R) continues to work with United Way Toronto, the City of Toronto, and key stakeholders to establish a new approach to zoning that will enable Toronto’s hundreds of Apartment Neighbourhoods to emerge as more complete, better-served communities. Recently, Canadian Apartment Magazine interviewed ERA’s Graeme Stewart, as well as Aird & Berlis LLP partner Tom Halinski, on exciting changes coming to Toronto’s zoning laws. Play the…
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Blog Post New Apartment Tower RAC Zoning in Ontario Planning Journal
The newly proposed ‘Apartment Residential Commercial Zoning’, developed by the Centre for Urban Growth and Renewal, City of Toronto, United Way and other partners features as the cover story in the January / February 2013 issue of the Ontario Planning Journal. Article authors, Elise Hug (Tower Renewal Office, City of Toronto), Jason Thorne (CUG+R, planningAlliance), and ERA’s Graeme Stewart explore the opportunities of the proposed zoning framework, next steps for implementation, and further research and policy initiatives moving forward. The…
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Blog Post Toronto Zoning Reform to Empower Apartment Neighbourhoods
As part of ongoing work on Tower Neighbourhood Renewal, the Centre for Urban Growth and Renewal (CUG+R) has been working with partners United Way Toronto and the City of Toronto to establish a new approach to zoning that will enable Toronto’s hundreds of Apartment Neighbourhoods to emerge as more complete and better-served communities. This work has recently taken a significant step forward, as Toronto’s Planning and Growth Management Committee has endorsed a new zoning category: the “Apartment Residential Commercial” Zone…
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Blog Post New Report from CUG+R and United Way Toronto: Strong Neighbourhoods and Complete Communities: A New Approach to Zoning for Apartment Neighbourhoods
As a follow up to the findings of Poverty by Postal Code 2: Vertical Poverty, the Centre for Urban Growth and Renewal (CUG+R) and United Way Toronto are pleased to release a new report entitled Strong Neighbourhoods and Complete Communities: A New Approach to Zoning for Apartment Neighbourhoods. Download the full report. The aim of this report is to identify existing policy barriers and consider policy alternatives to enable Toronto’s hundreds of apartment neighbourhoods to reach their potential as healthy,…
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Blog Post TRP releases new affordable housing infill report
In the spring of 2020, the Tower Renewal Partnership completed CMHC-funded research examining the opportunity and challenges of utilizing existing Tower in the Park sites for the creation of new affordable housing to contribute to addressing Canada’s current housing supply challenge. The research identified many opportunities in Tower neighbourhoods including Not for Profit developers as well as private for-profit developers. Overall, Not for Profit developers, both public and private, are best positioned to deliver affordable housing through mixed-income developments, as well…
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Blog Post ULI Panel proposes significant City action for Tower Renewal
The Tower Renewal Partnership and the City of Toronto recently partnered with the Urban Land Institute (ULI) to bring experts to Toronto for a weeklong visit to explore one of the biggest resilience challenges facing Toronto: retrofitting our aging apartment towers. Experts from across North America formed an Advisory Panel and visited Toronto during the week of February 24 to learn about Toronto’s challenges, meet with leaders on this topic, and make recommendations. Watch the Advisory Panel’s presentation See the…
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Blog Post Tower Renewal Partnership in AD Magazine
Calling All Architects: New Approaches to Old Housing For the past decade, Tower Renewal has been defined by research, policy design and action. Through multi-sectoral partnerships, best-practice and primary research, our work has evolved into program design, capacity building, and on-the-ground project implementation with a wide range of stakeholders. This ongoing program of ‘research to action’ was featured in Architectural Design Magazine special issue: Calling All Architects: New Approaches to Old Housing. The issue showcases international leaders in rethinking…
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Blog Post The RAC Zone is recognized with an Ontario Professional Planners Institute (OPPI) Award for Excellence in Planning
The RAC Zone, a partnership between ERA Architects, the Centre for Urban Growth and Renewal, United Way Toronto & York Region, Toronto Public Health and the City of Toronto, has this week been honoured with an OPPI Award of Excellence. Through research, advocacy, and collaboration, this new zoning framework has been developed and is poised for implementation in hundreds of Toronto’s vertical neighbourhoods, that will remove barriers for a range of exciting small-scale businesses and community services. A City-wide zoning…
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RAC Zone – Enabling Complete Tower Communities
The Centre for Urban Growth + Renewal, United Way Toronto and York Region, Toronto Public Health, and the City of Toronto have worked together to replace an outdated zoning category with a new, more flexible framework — paving the way to more complete communities in tower neighbourhoods.
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Intermunicipal Tower Platform
The Intermunicipal Tower Platform brings together Ontario’s four largest cities, including Toronto, Ottawa, Mississauga, and Hamilton, to secure the future resilience of Ontario’s tower neighbourhoods.
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Blog Post Update: RAC Zone Launch Event
On Wednesday, July 19th, leaders in the development of Toronto’s Residential Apartment Commercial (RAC) Zoning by-law gathered at York University to celebrate and explore challenges and next steps in empowering communities to utilize Toronto’s newest zone. The esteemed panel had representation from property owners, entrepreneurs, community members, academics and city builders with Graeme Stewart, Principal at ERA Architect and the Centre for Urban Growth and Renewal as the Panel Moderator. Panelists included: Michael Mizzi Director, Zoning and Secretary-Treasurer Committee of…
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Blog Post Launching the RAC Zone
Property owners, entrepreneurs, community members, academics and city builders will gather at York University in celebration of Toronto’s newest zone: the Residential Apartment Commercial (RAC) (www.raczone.ca). Moderated by Graeme Stewart, Principal of ERA and the Centre for Urban Growth and Renewal, this event hosted by the City of Toronto will centre discussions on the zone’s implementation as well as its economic and social opportunities. Topics will touch on: Where does the zone apply? What new things can be done…
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Blog Post RAC Implementation Roundtable
As of October 2016, five hundred tower neighbourhoods acquired the ability to re-conceive the social and economic character of their communities. Ontario’s apartment tower neighbourhoods help give the region an urban form unique to North America, reflecting progressive ideas that were considered “smart growth” in post-war Canada. While built with progressive ideas about density and suburban growth, they lack key features that many neighbourhoods take for granted: convenient and walkable access to local shops, services, amenities and the broader opportunities…
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About Tower Renewal News Articles
2022 06 23 – MIT Technology Review: The future of urban housing 2022 06 01 – Architectural Record: Housing and Climate 2022 05 17 – Lessons from Grenfell 2022 04 22 – Metropolis Magazine 2022 04 07 – Ken Soble Tower becomes world’s largest residential Passive House retrofit 2021 10 21 – Tall Stories 276: Ken Soble Tower: Monocle Radio – The Urbanist 2021 10 01 – Ken Soble Tower Raising the Bar – Canadian Architect 2021 09 29 – Hamilton’s…
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About Tower Renewal RAC Zone
RESIDENTIAL APARTMENT COMMERCIAL (RAC)ZONING Toronto’s mid-century Tower Neighbourhoods help give the region an urban form unique to North America, reflecting progressive ideas that were considered “smart growth” in postwar Canada. Yet while built with progressive ideas about density and suburban growth, they lack key features that many Toronto neighbourhoods take for granted: convenient and walkable access to local shops, services, amenities and the broader opportunities of neighbourhood life. In fact, these features are not only missing in many of Toronto’s…
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Research Report Ontario Planning Journal – February 2013 issue
Elise Hug (Tower Renewal Office, City of Toronto), Jason Thorne (CUG+R, planningAlliance), and ERA’s Graeme Stewart explore the opportunities of the proposed zoning framework, next steps for implementation, and research and policy initiatives moving forward.
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Research Report Toward Healthy Apartment Neighbourhoods: A Healthy Toronto by Design Report
This report was commissioned by Toronto Public Health in 2011 to examine design tools for improved community health outcomes in Toronto’s hundreds of apartment neighborhoods.
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Impact Area Complete Communities
Transforming isolated tower neighbourhoods into more convenient, livable and resilient vertical villages: Over past decades, Canada’s Apartment Neighbourhoods have emerged as the Nation’s most diverse localities, acting as our ‘Arrival Cities’. While the communities in these towers have changed to reflect modern Canada, their physical forms remain largely stuck in 1960s ideas planning focused on single-use zoning, separated uses and a heavy reliance on the automobile. As a result, they lack key features that many neighbourhoods take for granted: convenient…
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Blog Post Thorncliffe Park – Cultural Café in the Park
Throughout September 2016, Thorncliffe Park will host a cultural café, music, art and storytelling circles in its R.V. Burgess Park. These events, taking place each Saturday of the month, are spearheaded by the Thorncliffe Park Action Group (TAG), a dynamic collective responsible for the cultural café, and their supporting partner organization, Diasporic Genius. For the second year, ERA has been an active partner in this initiative, working alongside these organizations to design and build a unique mobile landscape.…
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Blog Post Video of Graeme Stewart at the Great Cities Institute
Following up our teaser blog to Graeme’s talk at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Great Cities Institute, we would like to share with you the link to the whole talk.
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Blog Post Arup’s Doggerel Covers Tower Renewal
Image by Jesse Colin Jackson Joshua Thorpe’s article, “How to rethink the suburbs: A lesson from Toronto,” in Arup’s Doggerel explores the new Residential Apartment Commerical (RAC) zone and the potential benefits it will bring to Toronto’s tower neighbourhoods. The article provides background information on the history of these tower neighbourhoods, the challenges they currently face, and how new zoning laws can help promote complete communities with access to business, health, and public engagement. Read the article here and learn more about the…
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Blog Post Arrival City: Bookclub and Webinar
ERA’s Graeme Stewart is pleased to be participating in a webinar presented by Cities of Migration and Centre for City Ecology as part of their Citybuilders Bookclub. The Bookclub is global in reach, aiming to foster a deeper understanding of how cities work, and brings together a diverse group of thinkers and writers from around the world to weigh in on and debate the issues raised through reading. The current edition is focused on Doug Saunders’ seminal book, Arrival City. Saunders’ Arrival…
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Blog Post Tower Renewal crash course, update on “Showcase”
Recently ERA’s Graeme Stewart and Evergreen Cityworks‘ John Brodhead presented a webinar on Tower Renewal in partnership with the Social Innovation Generation and Cities for People. The webinar presents an impressive picture of the last eight years of Tower Renewal efforts, and includes discussion of Toronto’s unique built form in relation to other cities, its history of progressive modern planning, the challenges and opportunities faced today by its aging tower neighbourhoods, and exciting new developments in City zoning and Tower…
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Blog Post RAC Zone in Spacing: Rise of Mixed-Use Tower Neighbourhoods
The fall issue of Spacing Magazine features a short piece by ERA’s Graeme Stewart in a section called “Opinion Makers.” The article reviews Toronto’s history of residential tower development and explains the evolution of the new RAC zone allowing new program and land use in our apartment neighbourhoods. Read the full text below:
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Blog Post New initiative w/ Evergreen CityWorks & Derek Ballantyne
As announced recently in the Evergreen CityWorks’ Intersection Magazine, the Centre for Urban Growth and Renewal is teaming up with Evergreen CityWorks and Derek Ballantyne (CEO, Community Forward Fund) to engage in new initiatives in Tower Renewal. The purpose of this Tower Partnership will be to develop feasible funding and implementation strategies for a series of Tower Renewal sites in the GTA, working with project partners City of Toronto, United Way, Metcalf Foundation, Toronto Atmospheric Fund and more. The ultimate goal…
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Blog Post Incremental Strategies w/ Filipe Balestra
Image courtesy of Architecture for Humanity Toronto Recently Architecture for Humanity and Ryerson University hosted a charrette to explore opportunities for Toronto’s Thorncliffe Park neighbourhood in light of the newly developed RAC Zone. Kicking off the event was a presentation by Filipe Balestra of Urban Nouveau, who discussed his work in “Incremental Housing Strategy” in India, Brazil, Portugal, and Stockholm, as well as the approach’s applicability to Toronto’s Towers. For the rest of the day, Filipe, ERA’s Graeme Stewart, and Elise Hug from the City…
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Blog Post Jane Jacobs Prize to Graeme Stewart & Sabina Ali
The 2014 Jane Jacobs prize has been awarded to Graeme Stewart of ERA and Sabina Ali of the Thorncliffe Park Women’s Committee. According to the creators and stewards of the Jane Jacobs Prize, Ideas that Matter and Spacing Magazine, this honour “celebrates individuals who contribute to the fabric of Toronto life in unique ways that exemplify the ideas of Jane Jacobs. The prize recipients reflect the diverse aspects of city life.” Graeme has been awarded the prize for his…
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Blog Post New Tower Study: Affordability Tenuous
Photo by Jesse Colin Jackson Update: A new edition of this report is available as of March 12, 2014. It has long been understood that while Toronto’s tower neighbourhoods are areas of social need (see reports “Vertical Poverty,” and “Tower Neighbourhood Renewal in the Greater Golden Horseshoe”), they also provide a vital source of affordable housing in the region. Just how tenuous that affordability can be, however, is the subject of a recent U of T Cities Centre report by…
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Blog Post Mapping Tower Renewal: Areas of Opportunity / Priority
Map identifying areas of high potential / priority for Tower Neighbourhood Renewal. Click on image for additional mapping. As part of the ongoing to work to re-examining zoning in Apartment Neighbourhoods, a series of maps have been developed to identify trends, patterns and areas of high impact in phasing the implementation of the new RAC apartment zone. The RAC zone is a new set of policies to provide tools and opportunities as part of the larger initiative of Tower Neighbourhood Renewal. Building…
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Blog Post Charrette: Apartment Neighbourhoods and Healthy Corner Stores
On Saturday January 18, The East Scarborough Storefront hosted a public design charrette with partners United Way Toronto, Toronto Public Health (TPH), Sustainable TO, Architext, and ERA. Saturday’s discussion focused on TPH’s new program “Healthy Corner Stores,” a project that proposes to give suburban communities better access to fresh produce, and other healthy food options, through convenience stores. Healthy Corner Stores is part of the growing Tower Renewal initiative, which aims to bring new amenities, healthy choices, and life…
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Blog Post Fresh Food on Wheels – Bringing Fresh Food Trucks to Apartment Neighbourhoods
Photographs by Toronto Public Health One of the key challenges facing the region’s Apartment Neighourhoods is providing convenient access to healthy fresh food to the thousands of residents that call these neighbourhoods home. Over the past few years, ERA, CUG+R, and project partners United Way Toronto and Toronto Public Health have advocated for, and are in the process of implementing new zoning by-laws to allow the sale of food, goods and services in these neighbourhoods, which is today often prohibited. Yet…
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Blog Post Chief Planner’s Rountable: Toronto’s Modern Suburbs
Chief Planner Jennifer Keesmaat, Councillor Peter Milczyn, and panel participants. Photo by Garry Weiler, City of Toronto On Sept. 30, 2013, ERA’s Graeme Stewart participated in a City of Toronto Chief Planner’s Roundtable, hosted by Jennifer Keesmaat. The Roundtable, entitled “The Shape of Toronto’s Suburbs,” is the first of three sessions devoted to critical thinking about the history, evolution, and future of the GTA’s suburbs. Participants included John van Nostrand, Leo deSorcy, Pamela Blais, Laurie Payne, and Leona Savoie. The…
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Blog Post Tower Renewal Office Report: Successes and Next Steps
The City of Toronto’s Tower Renewal Office (TRO) recently published two new reports describing the project’s accomplishments in the last two years, as well as future goals that were adopted by the City of Toronto’s Community Development and Recreation Committee in Sept. 2013. The two reports show TRO’s impressive outreach to over 300 buildings in the City, with plans for engagement, assessment, and action in many more in the years to come. Taking advantage of new zoning to be initiated…
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Blog Post Transformative potential of Tower Renewal: Globe & Mail
Alex Bozikovic, Toronto-based writer on architecture and design, recently provided an update on Tower Renewal efforts in the GTA. The article describes the uniquely Canadian and Torontonian inventory of high-rise post-war tower apartment neighbourhoods, and recent efforts by local architects, not-for-profits, and city departments to rethink these neighbourhoods. With aging buildings in need of maintenance and energy efficiency upgrades, and zoning laws that see neighbourhoods underserved and undernourished, Toronto is ready for some practical changes. Bozikovic is optimistic: By his…
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Blog Post CIP award to Tower Renewal
We are pleased to announce that the Canadian Institute of Planners (CIP) has awarded the Planning Excellence Merit Award for New and Emerging Planning Initiatives to a collection of strategic studies that form part of the Tower Neighbourhood Renewal initiative. Since 2007, the Tower Neighbourhood Renewal initiative has been working to tackle one of the most pressing planning challenges of our times – the renewal and revitalization of Toronto’s post-war Apartment Tower Neighbourhoods. ERA Architects, planningAlliance and the Centre for Urban Growth and Renewal (CUG+R), have been…
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Blog Post Tower Renewal Panel at Innis College
On December 11, 2012, Toronto’s Tower Renewal Office hosted a panel that brought together leading Toronto participants in the Tower Renewal program, including ERA’s Graeme Stewart, with Keynote speaker Dr. Rebecca Leshinsky. A professor of law, Dr. Leshinsky has conducted research on the sustainable retrofit of apartment buildings in Melbourne and the State of Victoria in Australia. Dr. Leshinsky noted that Toronto and Melbourne share opportunities related to Tower Renewal. Her research relates to the legal and governance mechanisms…
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Blog Post Visualizations: Toward Healthy Apartment Neighbourhoods
As part of the recent reports developed for United Way Toronto and Toronto Public Health, a series of diagrams were developed illustrating the use of various strategies for more healthy and better served communities at the small, intermediate and larger scales. These reports, Toward Healthy Apartment Neighbourhoods, and A New Approach to Zoning in Apartment Neighbourhoods, discuss thirty-one strategies for healthy and vibrant communities, and the policy and zoning framework for their realization. The full set of diagrams can…
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Blog Post New Report from CUG+R and Toronto Public Health: Toward Healthy Apartment Neighbourhoods
The Centre for Urban Growth and Renewal (CUG+R) and Toronto Public Health are pleased to release Toward Healthy Apartment Neighbourhoods: A Healthy Toronto by Design Report. Download the full report. As part of the ongoing work related to Tower Neighbourhood Renewal, this report was commissioned by Toronto Public Health in 2011 to examine design tools for improved community health outcomes in Toronto’s hundreds of apartment neighbourhoods. As has been demonstrated in numerous previous studies, growing poverty is linked to poor…
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Blog Post Learning from Europe
Over the past several years, the Tower Renewal team at ERA and CUG+R have conducted a series of study tours throughout the European Union, visiting numerous cities and neighbourhoods, and meeting with local experts to learn about best practices in tower refurbishment and neighbourhood revitalization. Many of these findings have been compiled in the report Tower Neighbourhood Renewal in the Greater Golden Horseshoe, and its accompanying International Best Practice Research Highlight. This past weekend, The Toronto Star featured highlights of…
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Blog Post Transit City and self-sufficient communities
Map 1: Toronto’s modern apartments with existing rapid transit Map 2: Toronto’s modern apartments with the proposed rapid transit of ‘Transit City’ The legacy of modern planning has left us with a stock of high density housing and adjacent open space nearby to existing transit. As compared with the low-density suburbs with typify North America, this is an advantageous starting point for the creation of a connected and sustainable region.
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Blog Post Toronto/Moscow: Comrades in towers
Comparison of tower districts in Moscow (top) and Toronto (bottom) Next time you are in Chicago or Philadelphia try looking for an apartment tower neighbourhood outside the city core – the kind we have throughout Toronto. They’re rare in North American cities but common in other Commonwealth countries, like Australia, and they are an even more significant force in many European cities, such as Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, and especially Moscow. Aspects of Toronto suburbs display a remarkable similarly of what…
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Blog Post Jane and Finch: Progressive intent
Aerial view of Jane and Finch, Courtesy of Lance Dutchak Each area of the City has evolved with its own history. Take District 10 – the area we now know as Jane-Finch. The 1962 master plan proposed to transform the existing farm lots in the area into a complete community based on a set of principles that focused on employment, servicing, and social equity. The basic form of the District Plan was a residential strip bisected by a ravine and…
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Blog Post Pockets of inherited high density
For Toronto, the most significant planning question may not be the form and placement of new density, but how to turn our enormous pockets of inherited high density into genuinely sustainable and complete communities. The density of Toronto’s apartment neighbourhoods makes this city unique. In fact, surprisingly, Toronto has a denser metropolitan area than Chicago, Los Angeles, or even Greater New York City. Counter to popular belief, this is not the result of the city core, but rather thanks to…
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Blog Post Flemingdon Park: North America’s first high-rise newtown
Flemingdon Park master plan, including housing, community facilities, commerce, employment and natural space, 1958 Toronto’s aging apartment neighbourhoods are not all the same. They are predominantly based on the idea of the tower-in-the-park; they have large simple tower blocks placed in abundant open space. But after that common denominator there are plenty of differences which provide each of these neighbourhoods with their own individual character. The arrangement and location of apartment neighbourhoods throughout Toronto gives them a loose taxonomy. These…