Urban Planning Blog

One of the strongest first impressions I had as a newcomer to Toronto was how passionate the residents are about their city. It was amazing to see how many people, of all ages and backgrounds, showed up to open houses for new developments in order

I constantly hear my Torontonian colleagues using Vancouver as a benchmark for a well-designed city to emulate. I went on a deep dive to investigate why some of Vancouver’s contemporary developments seem more resident-friendly. Looking beyond architecture Interestingly enough, Toronto and Vacnouver are actually quite

What is the Naked House concept and how can it help solve Housing Affordability in Toronto? In search of affordable housing, what are you be willing to give up? Location? It will probably mean a longer commute and a less livable neighbourhood. Land? Smaller or

It’s incredibly difficult to sell a unit without a balcony — an outdoor space to enjoy with friends and family is at the top of many buyers’ wish lists. But too often balconies are poorly designed and end up being little more than outdoor storage

Today Toronto started the King Street Transit Pilot, eliminating through-traffic on a section of King Street to allow the streetcars move more quickly. Although the project was scaled down from the ambitious fully pedestrianized King Street to only limits on through-traffic, we still think it’s

Map of streets designated as Avenues In 2023 the City of Toronto started a review process of the mid-rise building design guidelines, specifically, the rear transition performance standard. Here’s a quick recap: In 2010, the city of Toronto came up with a new initiative that

Pipeline development Mid-Rises: The How do We Grow 2019 (pg14-15) Lack of Development Let’s start with the amount of development. In the 4.5 year period between July 2010 and December 2014 (the last date for which the city published data), about 5,323 units in 59

Until now, we discussed some problems with mid-rise development – now it’s time to propose some possible solutions. Some of the issues cannot be resolved in a simple manner, such as the costs of the safety measures that are required from buildings of this height

The City is reconsidering the Mid-Rise Building Rear Transition Performance Standards and exploring the option of changing the zoning to allow them as-of-right on Avenues.  The city is seeking to provide flexibility in achieving rear transition and include alternative rear transition approaches—it is clearly the

Possible Approaches to Solving Deep Units How to deal with the excessive depth and of units and the lack of balconies? One approach is to say that since there are willing buyers, there is no reason for intervention. We would normally accept such approach, however