Celebrate apartment tower neighbourhoods as diverse, dynamic and resilient parts of our cities. Canada’s apartment towers were built as symbols of modernism and progress of their time, a key aspect of post-war prosperity and the national coming of age. Today they are among the world’s most diverse and international communities, home to our ‘Arrival Cities’ where we welcome the world. Too often dismissed, our legacy of Apartment Tower Neighbourhoods provides a remarkably rich cultural foundation upon which to explore, discover,…

  This past spring, the Design Exchange hosted Carrot City; an exhibition examining the potentials of achieving future food security, sustainable food networks and engaged communities through urban agriculture. Tower Renewal participated in this project, contributing research related to the potential for urban agriculture within Toronto’s post-war tower block communities. The following is a review of the exhibition by Canadian Architect:

Toronto high-rises under construction in former farmers fields, early 1960’s The idea of the tower in a genuine ‘park’ or ‘landscape’ setting was a popular notion after the Second World War. As a result, during the post-war boom in Toronto, a minimum of 60% open space around multiple dwellings was promoted as a best practice. If developers wanted larger buildings, they were to provide a greater ratio of open space to building footprint. The results are the large towers and…

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Health, the City of Toronto, and the Centre for Urban Growth + Renewal, have worked for several years to replace an outdated strict zoning category with a new, more flexible framework.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…

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…

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.

How can investing in natural heritage enhance the livability of our cities? On April 26th this question became the framework for a dialogue between Canadian and Dutch design professionals at the Ravines and Wedges Workshop on Metropolitan Landscapes for Talent and Welfare. Hosted by Deltametropolis, TRCA, U of T, City of Toronto, and Evergreen, the workshop was organized to continue conversations that began at the Urban Land Institutes Electric Cities Symposium a few days earlier.  As cities expand and grow, society’s relationship with…

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…

A varied perspective of the global phenomenon of post-war mass housing through the lens of ‘documentation’ and ‘conservation’. Articles explore the tower block legacies of France, Russia, Brazil, Singapore, as well as Toronto.

What is Tower Renewal? Tower Renewal is a strategy that promotes, supports and directs enhancement and reinvestment in Canada’s affordable apartment tower stock. During the boom years of the 1960s and 70s, Canada built a significant volume of modern apartment towers in response to rapid urbanization. Predominantly privately developed, but supported by public planning policy and incentives, these towers shape the urban and suburban landscape cross county – with at least 750,000 Canadian households calling them home.  Half a century…

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:

A new article in Satellite Magazine on Toronto Towers by ERA’s Graeme Stewart, Josh Thorpe, and Michael McClelland. The article compares Toronto’s two high-rise housing booms, which have generated housing in volume and distribution unlike anywhere else in North America: first, the suburban tower boom in Toronto’s post-war period, and next the contentious condo boom of recent years. The two Booms: Housing Starts in the Greater Toronto Areas, 1950 to 2012 (CMHC) In both cases urban form and infrastructure have…

The Toronto Standard launched this week with a Q&A with ERA’s Graeme Stewart, covering the Tower Neighbourhood Renewal initiative, Concrete Toronto, and the city in general. The article can be found here. The Toronto Standard is a daily digital briefing on the life of the city, covering urban affairs, business, technology, culture and design — and all the sparks that happen in between. For more information visit www.torontostandard.com

  In February 10th and 11th, 2011, the Civic Action Summit assembled over one thousand civic leaders from Greater Toronto to discuss the future of the city reigon. Topics ranged from Arts and Culture, to Transportation, to Sustainability. ERA actively participated in the planning and organizing of discussions related to housing and complete neighbourhoods – particularly how these broader themes intersected with the opportunities of Tower Neighbourhood Renewal, and complete and livable communities in general. A key output has been…

Day: May 2nd Time: 4pm Start Location: Front steps of North Albion Collegiate, 2580 Kipling Ave. End Location: Action For Neighbourhood Change, 2667 Kipling Ave. As a follow up to last year’s Janes Walk – Towers on the Ravine, this year’s walk – North Kipling Stories, will feature youth and adults who live, work and play in this community sharing their stories. The walk is part of the North Kipling Storymapping project, a partnership between MicroSkills, Jane’s Walk, the Centre…

“..In Toronto…the continent’s private enterprise-dominated housing system, when coupled with a structure of strong regional planning  dedicated to the fostering of high-density ‘hot spots’ in the centre and periphery, succeeded in generating a landscape of massed towers and slabs in open space, almost rivaling the USSR in consistency and grandeur ”._ Miles Glendinning Introduction to the Docomomo Journal 39 The Docomomo Journal’s 39th issue is dedicated to post-war mass housing. From the Docomomo lens of ‘documentation’ and ‘conservation’, the issue…

Map 1: Toronto’s post-war apartment towers and rapid transit, overlaid with the wealthy ‘City #1’ (Grey) and intensification zones (Red). Map 2: Toronto’s post-war apartment towers and rapid transit, overlaid with the impoverished ‘City #3’ (Grey) and Priority Neighbourhoods (Dark Grey). Toronto is quickly becoming a polarized city. New research out of the Centre for Urban and Community Studies at the University of Toronto has revealed startling trends related to changing income distribution patterns across the city. Toronto in the…

  In the 1960’s, high-rise towers were thought to be the best solution to meet the growing need for rental units, while efficiently organizing new housing with services. The resulting apartment neighbourhoods help us recognize how quickly the city evolves, and how each generation tries in different ways to address the challenges of growth, social and community needs. Take Crescent Town near Dawes Road and the Danforth. In 1900, this was the site of Walter Massey’s experimental farm which he…