Spacing Saturday highlights posts from across Spacing’s blog network in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region. As cities around the world continue to push for titles of largest new urban parks, Christine McLaren looks at the pros and cons of large urban parks and in the process strikes at the comparative value of smaller parks that are responsive and well integrated to their specific community. Ian Lowrie contributes to the Cartographically Speaking feature with the first two of three installments in a series using mapping to show the relationship between crime an urban form in Greater Vancouver. First looking at broader areas of crime intensity and then focusing in on the details of these areas. As Saint John heads into a municipal election Abad Khan recaps a tumultuous year while attempting to frame the upcoming vote and the challenges the city faces moving forward. Alexandre Laquerre uses historical images to show how government office blocks have dramatically altered the urban context in Hull. Alanah Heffez discusses how plans for rejuvenating a Montreal school yard were dashed when it was realized the green space will be expropriated for the impending expansion of the controversial expansion of the Turcot interchange. A special guest contribution by Michael O'Shea reveals a fantastic winter use for underutilized urban alleys in the winter by showing an example of how one Montreal alley was converted into a hockey rink that created a neighbourhood gathering space.

Spacing Saturday highlights posts from across Spacing’s blog network in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region. As the Vague Terrain exhibit closed at the Surrey Art Gallery, Don Schuetze noticed the strange coincidence that another exhibit opened at the new downtown library in Surrey's emerging center; a fitting basis for a discussion of the relationship between city and suburbs. Gordon Price uses his Price Points feature to show a surprisingly traditional looking easter home in the heart of Vancouver's West End. A further look at the building reveals a lot about the issue the missing middle in Canadian residential construction. Drained for the spring, a contemporary view down the final leg of the Rideau Canal reveals how much space has been opened up along the waterway since the 1920's. Alexandre Laquerre compares post card images of Ottawa's evolving museum scene at the Canadian Museum of Nature. Allanah Heffez assesses the redesign of the historic Place d'Armes, which has been central to Montreal for over 300 years. The new design strives to integrate the square into the surrounding area and to better organize traffic. Guillaume St-Jean uses the Montage du Jour feature to look at the intensification and reorganization which has taken place over 80 years along boulevard de Maissonneuve in central Montreal.

Spacing Saturday highlights posts from across Spacing’s blog network in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region. Canadian planning students gathered in Vancouver this past February for the annual CAPS Conference. Andrew Cuthbert recaps the keynote messages delivered there by various planning luminaries while Cameron Barker profiles some of the conference's walking tours. Eve Lazarus looks at the interesting history of the eccentrically designed Dominion Building in downtown Vancouver, which for a brief period following its completion in 1909 was the tallest in the British Empire. At Elgin and Queen Streets in downtown Ottawa, historic photos show how space has been opened up to enhance public vistas. Along Wellington Street however similar photos show how building mass has increased significantly, filling a different demand of government. Allanah Heffez continues her discussion of Montreal's tendencies to marginalize its homeless population at Berri Square, citing conflicting desires to simultaneously clean up the area while keeping tourists away from it. Continuing the theme of public squares, Allanah Heffez also looked at the history of Square Chaboillez a space currently occupied by the Montreal Planetarium which as seen it boundaries re-drawn numerous times and now faces another period of uncertainty.

Spacing Saturday highlights posts from across Spacing’s blog network in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region. Kathleen Corey presents a plan to address the lack of places to sit on busy Robson Street that builds on the area's traffic calming mini-parks, drawing inspiration from abroad to create an exciting and much needed new public space. Patrick Condon presents the final instalment in a series of collaborative student work on the future sustainability of Vancouver, summarizing the group's push for new connections, good jobs and affordable places to live. Alexandre Laquerre shows the striking transition from a tight urban block to the Garden of the Provinces over a 100 year period in the heart of the nation's capital. Allanah Heffez tells the story of how the development of Montreal's public water works helped to extend the municipal vote to renters, connecting the private home to the public sphere and paving the way for urbanization. With street food rapidly growing in popularity and trendiness across North America Jonathan Lapalme gives a background into the uneven landscape of street food tolerance while exploring why it largely remains illegal.

Spacing Saturday highlights posts from across Spacing’s blog network in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region. Vancouver first lost its public market in 1897 when its building was converted into City Hall, Jeff Nield explains why the concept of a food system is still essential to a city's well being, profiling the hubbub around a soon to open new food hub. Peacock sits down with Jak King, the unofficial historian of Commercial Drive, the 'back door to Vancouver.' King uses his detailed knowledge of businesses, technological change and personal stories to look back on a unique part of a city which tends to spend more time looking forward. Alexandre Laquerre continues his photographic series looking at the changing streets of Ottawa's Centretown neighbourhood over the course of the 20th century. Allanah Heffez shares stories and observations from her time volunteering giving out free hotdogs to Montreal's homeless. The hot dog truck, which served as a connection to further services, played witness to a range of experiences. Emile Thomas reports back from his experience observing local democracy in action, noting the decidedly bitter tone of citizen question period at local council Thomas questions what to make of the array of complaints and grievances.

Spacing Saturday highlights posts from across Spacing’s blog network in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region. Vancouver's astronomical housing prices are well documented, the effects of the situation are beginning to show in rapidly falling numbers of school-aged children as Patrick Condon explains in the third instalment of his series on a long term vision for Greater Vancouver. Yuri Artibise profiles the new Constructing a Village, Creating a Community photography show by Leslie Hossack documenting the rise of the Vancouver's innovative and controversial Olympic Village neighbourhood. Ottawa's Centretown neighbourhood has continuously evolved along with the city, Alexandre Laquerre looks at the emergence of high density over 80 years on Sommerset Street. With a spat of recent development proposals calling the relevancy of the HRM by Design document into question, Spacing profiles a student conference at Dalhousie School of Planning aimed at engaging those concerned with shifting the debate around downtown Halifax. Stephen Archibald explores the abundance of historic iron fences and railings in central Halifax, looking at their history and their art. Joel Thibert looks at the trend of big box retailers abandoning their large formats in favour of smaller, more efficient locations and wonders if this could actually be bad news for main streets. Sharing an incredible find discovered while working on another story, Alanah Heffez flips the pages of the Montreal People's Yellow Pages an independently published guide to Montreal's underground from the 1970s. 

Spacing Saturday highlights posts from across Spacing’s blog network in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region. Vancouver Olympic Village Brent Toderian, former director of planning for the City of Vancouver, makes his debut post in part one of a new ongoing series looking at Vancouver's Olympic legacy and the challenges and opportunities of Olympic city-building in host cities around the world. Victor Ngo presents the results of a study looking into the best sites with potential for major Transit Oriented Development along Vancouver's SkyTrain lines using GIS mapping techniques and Statistics Canada housing data. Alexandre Laquerre takes a look at the difference 80 years makes at the corner of Bank and Sommerset in Ottawa. Alanah Heffez reminds readers that the practice of removing snow from Montreal's streets is not that old, illustrating that there was a time when snow was simply piled in the streets to form elevated carriageways. Is there really an ongoing Francophone exodus from Montreal? and if so then who is buying all the new condos? Joel Thibert unpacks the questions of regional migration around Montreal in the latest installment of The Regionalist.

Spacing Saturday highlights posts from across Spacing’s blog network in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region. Brent Toderian has been in focus in the urbanist community ever since the visionary and articulate former Vancouver Planning Director's contract was terminated early several weeks ago. Spacing Vancouver sat down with Toderian this week and presents the conversation in a two part interview about his legacy in Vancouver and the trajectory of Canadian urbanism. [Part One] [Part Two] Vancouver has set the ambitious goal of having over 50% of all trips in the city taken by biking, walking or transit. Spacing presents part two in a series showing the results of work by a team of UBC planning and landscape architecture students on how the city can realize this goal. Alexandre Laquerre shows the startling impact of grandiose public projects over a century of transformation at one of Canada's most monumental intersections: Elgin and Sparks. Following the recent announcement by Halifax's Mayor Peter Kelly that he will not run for re-election after 12 years in office, Jake Schabas proposes a basket of issues that should shape the city's next political period. In a nod to this weekend's Montreal Nuit Blanche, Andrew Emond profiles an event that will pay tribute to the path of the Rivière St Pierre, one of the city's most significant buried rivers. Allanah Heffez reports back on her presentation and other insights from this week's Conference on Urban Mobility in the Age of Electronic Payment .

Spacing Saturday highlights posts from across Spacing’s blog network in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region. European Lights Festivals may be a way to enliven public space in the Canadian winter.  With Vancouver having been many times named one of the world's least affordable cities Mayor Gregor Robinson has appointed a 'Blue Ribbon Affordability Task Force.' Sean Antrim profiles the appointees to the task force and critiques its composition. The theme of affordability was tied heavily with a discussion about the Downtown East Side, another major theme on the Vancouver Blog this week. Sean Ruthen profiles the interesting redevelopment of the historic Burns Block while Caroline Toth's Video Vancouver feature showcases an interview on the Gastown Project. Ottawa's pedestrian-only Sparks Street has long been fodder for ideas to increase its vitality. Marie-Judith Jean-Louis puts forward some stricking images of the Light Festival Ghent in Belgium has an idea to liven the pedestrian space in the winter time. Alexandre Laquerre takes a look at 102 years of change at the corner of Sussex and Rideau in Central Ottawa. Allanah Heffez writes about the challenges, opportunities and frustrations of dealing with the CP Rail tracks that separate Montreal's Plateau and Rosemont-Petite-Patrie neighbourhoods; the barrier is not the tracks themselves but bureaucratic inflexibility. The Photo du Jour feature took a look this week at, amongst other things, various scenes of outdoor pick-up hockey in Montreal's parks. 

Spacing Saturday highlights posts from across Spacing’s blog network in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region. Building on the idea of the 100 mile diet which encourages consuming local foods, Eric Villagomez profiles an ideas competition into the design of a 100 mile house. The competition aims to explore ways that a modern house could be constructed from local materials. Gordon Price brings readers the story of how the towers and striking gardens of the City in the Park development were successfully built in an unlikely location. The story is a another look at the history of town centers throughout Metro Vancouver and holds lessons for successful public consultation. A forced closure of the Transitway this week diverted a solid stream of buses onto nearby Scott Street, although the scene presented some interesting video, it also raised questions about how the city will deal with the impending closure of the Transitway to accommodate LRT construction. Devin Alfaro concludes a series of photographs documenting the monumental legacy of the British Empire around the city of Montreal, this week looking at a monument to Queen Victoria in light of the milestone in the current monarch's reign. The montage du jour feature also began taking a look at some of the striking decommissioned silos in Montreal's Old Port this week.