WHERE: Urban Strategies: 197 Spadina Avenue, 4th floor WHEN: Thursday, February 4th, 5 – 7 pm HOW MUCH: Free (Requires registration) There will also be a live webcast of the event here. Social Media Week is a week-long international conference that explores “the profound impact that social media has on culture, business communications and society at large.” Toronto is one of six cities participating in this year’s conference, which features several events that may be of interest to Spacing readers. In particular, “We Built This ...

Spacing contributor Ian Malczewski spent September 30-October 3 in Niagara Falls at a joint conference held by the Ontario Professional Planners Institute and the Canadian Institute of Planners. He is sharing some of the lessons he learned there and reflecting on their implications on public space, livability, and sustainability in cities. When referencing urban planning processes, the term “public participation” often conjures up mental pictures of half-empty community centre halls, text-filled Powerpoint presentations, and confrontational NIMBY-inspired battles. These images are part of the reason that discussions of these processes often elicit responses ranging from indifference to frustration. Yet public participation remains one of the foundations of contemporary planning practice, and, in Toronto, some well-publicized stories have brought them to the forefront in recent years. The formation of Active 18 in the Queen West Triangle is probably the best-known of these stories, with residents and  business owners banding together to try and influence planning in their community. So when I saw a seminar at the OPPI / CIP Conference called “Joining the Conversation: New Strategies for Consultation and Action,” I highlighted it as one I needed to attend.

Spacing contributor Ian Malczewski spent September 30 - October 3 in Niagara Falls at a joint conference held by the Ontario Professional Planners Institute and the Canadian Institute of Planners. He is sharing some of the lessons he learned there and reflecting on their implications on public space, livability, and sustainability in cities. Like most people interested in Toronto's heritage, I harbour a bit of bitterness; perusing the Toronto Archives or learning about failed battles to preserve historic structures will do that to you. But amendments to Ontario's Heritage Act in 2005 changed the landscape for heritage preservation, giving planners and municipal governments new tools with which to preserve the character of our cities. A session at the OPPI / CIP conference on this subject, entitled “Saving our Cities: Contemporary Approaches to Heritage Planning,” piqued my interest. It was lead by Antonio Gà³mez-Palacio of the Office for Urbanism and architect Phil Goldsmith, who have worked on a number of heritage-related projects together. Although heritage often appears to be an issue of saving significant buildings, there is another, equally important conversation that I feel often gets short shrift: the preservation of intangible heritage.

Spacing contributor Ian Malczewski spent September 30 - October 3 in Niagara Falls at a joint conference held by the Ontario Professional Planners Institute and the Canadian Institute of Planners. He is sharing some of the lessons he learned there and reflecting on their implications on public space, livability, and sustainability in cities. The first session I attended at the OPPI / CIP conference was called LEED-ing by Design. The purpose of this workshop was to educate planners about Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design - Neighbourhood Development (LEED ND), which, according to the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), aims to “integrate the principles of smart growth, urbanism and green building into the first national system for neighborhood design.” Knowing a bit about LEED Building certification (as well as some of its critiques), I was curious to see what design elements would apply at the neighbourhood scale.

Spacing contributor Ian Malczewski spent last week in Niagara Falls at a joint conference held by the Ontario Professional Planners Institute and the Canadian Institute of Planners. He is sharing some of the lessons he learned there and reflecting on their implications on public space, livability, and sustainability in cities. My visit to Niagara Falls last week to attend the OPPI / CIP Conference, Building a Better World, was my first time to the city in a few years. I always find visiting Niagara Falls to be a ...

CityBuilders Toronto has been looking for nominations of young individuals or groups that are actively working towards building a better Toronto. Tomorrow, August 31st, is the deadline to nominate anyone you think fits the bill. Selected referrals will be published in an upcoming new book and photography exhibit, so head on over to their website to help contribute to a "snapshot of Toronto's love movement." WEBSITE: www.citybuilders.to

I spotted this sign at the Scarborough Bluffs last weekend, not long after ignorantly (but gleefully) breaking rule #2. I'm generally not a huge fan of signs detailing what activities are prohibited in public space, but rule #4 seemed particularly unreasonable...

A few weeks ago I came across this video by the Livable Streets Initiative, "an online community for people working to create sustainable cities through sensible urban planning, design, and transportation policy." One of the organization's projects transforms public spaces into classrooms for kids, using place-based activities to get them to research and think critically about urban issues. The video above shows students interviewing pedestrians about car traffic, making photo journals of litter on the streets, and analyzing air quality. Just like the School ...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_el3-9WN7Ss[/youtube] A few days ago I took the streetcar from Chinatown to Union station en route to visiting a friend. It was the first time I had traveled along the waterfront by streetcar in a while, and it gave me an opportunity to take in some of the work undertaken by Waterfront Toronto over the last few years. With the Spadina wavedeck and HTO park complete and open, and two more wavedecks under construction and scheduled for completion this year,  there is a palpable sense of change on the waterfront. The process has had its hiccups - and no ...

Cross-posted from ERA Architects' Tower Renewal Blog. Day: May 3rd Time: 11 am Start Location: North Kipling Community Centre, at 2 Rowntree Rd, Kipling and Rowntree Road, North of Finch End Location: Albion Centre Food Court Home to thirteen thousand living in nineteen towers, it is one of Toronto's largest apartment clusters. Arranged along the Humber Valley, these towers sit in an almost agrarian setting. The result is what may be the uniquely Toronto phenomenon of the ‘Tower on the Ravine'.