Cross-posted from No Mean City, Alex's personal blog on architecture In my roundup of shows at the Contact festival, I somehow missed the latest exhibition by Michael Awad at Nicholas Metivier. An architect and artist, Awad has been at work for years on his Entire City Project - an encyclopedic take on Toronto's streets, public buildings and infrastructure. His show closes Saturday, May 19. There's another Awad event of interest on Friday: Photo + Design, a symposium at the Design Exchange that brings together Awad with three other notable photographers, Peter MacCallum, Montreal's Marc Cramer and Vancouver's Nic Lehoux, and the wonderful Toronto-New York architecture photographer Ben Rahn. They'll talk about their work and share "their unique perspectives on architecture and design."

Cross-posted from No Mean City, Alex's personal blog on architecture Now online and in this month's Dwell: my story about the CP Harbour House by MJ Architects. It's a very interesting model of second-home living: a getaway for two families, the architects and their good friends, with two houses that are separate but linked. They share a deck, an overhead "shed" and some of their utilities. It's a simple idea that depends on ...

Cross-posted from No Mean City, Alex's personal blog on architecture How do you bring a Brutalist building back to life? I've written about a couple of other successful renovations, at a library at York University and another at the University of Toronto. Here's another, very strong example. Kearns Mancini Architects have been renovating part of a former library in the South Building - an 1973 Brutalist complex that is massive in scale and presence - at University of Toronto's Mississauga campus.

Cross-posted from No Mean City, Alex's personal blog on architecture It's rare that a vacation home provides an opportunity to explore one of the basic questions in contemporary architecture. Yet: In today's Globe and Mail I've got a story on a contemporary 'barn' by Atelier Kastelic Buffey, and I do that, writing about the role of traditional building forms in contemporary design.

Cross-posted from No Mean City, Alex's personal blog on architecture. Coming soon, an improvement to one of Toronto's best public spaces: Market Street. The city has approved plans to expand the sidewalk across from the 19th-century main market building. The sidewalks will slope down to the street, eliminating a curb and creating seamless patios for new restaurants. This is all part of the redevelopment of the block on Market Street, from Front to the Esplanade, that's now being designed by Taylor Smyth Architects.

Cross-posted from No Mean City, Alex's personal blog on architecture Tonight (Friday) I’ll be attending the opening of what should be hugely interesting conference. It’s in honour of George Baird, the former dean of U of T’s architecture school and one of the most influential people in Canadian architecture, ever.

Cross-posted from No Mean City, Alex's personal blog on architecture. Before it closes Friday, I highly recommend you check out Migrating Landscapes at Brookfield Place. It's a show of proposals by young Ontario architects and designers on the theme of home, migration, and dwelling shaped by our cultural memories. See my piece in the Globe and Mail here. These are gestures and experiments that'll help ...

Cross-posted from No Mean City, Alex's personal blog on architecture. I wrote two weeks ago for The Globe and Mail about Janus House — a contemporary renovation and add-on to a Victorian in Cabbagetown. The architects, NMinusOne, restored the interior of the original house in a sympathetic way — and then tacked on a radically contemporary, wide-open glass-and-steel box to the back. It's a bold move by the architects and the owners, and they've done an amazing job of executing it.

Cross-posted from No Mean City, Alex's personal blog on architecture Welcome to the age of the fixer-upper condo, the older apartment that needs some work. Here’s one that has been done, beautifully, by Toronto’s RAD Design: a 600-square-foot unit in the St. Lawrence Neighbourhood that architect Golbou Rad renovated for just $30,000 and sold at a profit. I don't usually cover projects built to be flipped. But this one sets a very interesting example. Why? There’s tremendous untapped value in Toronto’s older apartments. There are no bargains if you are looking for a well-designed apartment in this city. The boom in highrise and midrise condominiums is being driven by good design – which means tight space planning, contemporary finishes, decent millwork and a tricked-out sales centre to market it all. But these things cost money, and the apartment you get will be small. RAD’s project represents an alternative approach, renovating a condo from the boom of the 1980s.

  Cross-posted from No Mean City, Alex's personal blog on architecture The architects Atelier Kastelic Buffey are definitely worth watching. I wrote last week for The Globe and Mail about a chalet they designed, at a ski resort near Collingwood, that is minimal and extremely well-detailed - all on a reasonable budget. More pictures after the jump.