Spacing Saturday highlights posts from across Spacing’s blog network in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region. 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. My City Lives, takes readers on a three part guided tour of the historic 'Old Town Toronto' neighbourhood with guide Bruce Bell. The first installment introduces the broader neighbourhood, while the second looks at the iconic Gooderham Flatiron Building. John Lorinc focuses on the topic of GTA transit funding, as the region looks to build off the momentum of the populist subway debates. Lorinc shares the results of a Spacing-Environics poll showing wide support for a gas tax and later goes into detail about the political difficulties ahead. 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 talk of Ford's subway notion subsides, transit advocates are turning their attention to a badly needed downtown relief line. But in light of urban/suburban divide and conquer politics, the search is on for a better name for the proposed line. Spacing put the question to readers and received over a hundred ideas. With the Hot Docs film festival set to get underway, Jacqueline Whyte Appelby starts a look at some the screenings which may of particular interest to Spacing readers. 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. Spacing's Shawn Micallef was fortunate enough to be part of a University of Toronto Architecture laneway studio this past semester. Micallef brings the intriguing results of this studio in a series of posts on ideas of laneways uses at sites throughout the city. Ryerson University students have finally succeeded in their long running campaign to close Gould Street to cars in the heart of the campus. Daniel Viola discusses the vote that lead to the creation of Ryerson Square and the site's future potential. 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. 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. With High Park's fantastic, labrynth-like play ground in ruins following a recent incident of arson, Emma Feltes shares the story of how the playground brought the community together, acted as a hub and is inspiring a new collective spirit in the drive to rebuild. As the redevelopment of Canada's largest public housing project continues at a remarkable pace, My City Lives brings a video previewing the exciting new Regent Park Arts & Cultural Centre opening this Fall. 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.

Spacing Saturday highlights posts from across Spacing’s blog network in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region. With Toronto's municipal political theater taking a twist towards mayoral impeachment this week, John Lorinc questions the merits of the strategy and its implications for the Mayor's opponents. Alex Bozikovic uses the No Mean City architectural feature to look at a recently approved plan to drastically improve Market Street, next to Toronto's Saint Lawrence Market. The improvements will open the street to patios and frame the last project advanced by noted developer Paul Oberman. 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. 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.  As turmoil continues around leadership at the TTC, John Lorinc provides strategic advice for LRT advocates, making the case for keeping moral authority in the messy debate. The No Mean City feature by Alex Bozikovic profiles a weekend architecture conference that will pay tribute to George Baird, a long time architecture professor and former Dean at UofT considered one of the most influential people in Canadian architecture.

Spacing Saturday highlights posts from across Spacing’s blog network in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region. Vancouver Olympic Village As the political drama around Toronto's transit planning continued this week Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler got into the details of an Angus Reid poll exploring what options Torontonians really support. In another post, Dylan Reid explored the positives of Rob Ford's push to start the debate on new funding sources for transit. Noah van der Laan continues the LRT Today series, looking at the Gold Line in Los Angeles as a system which passes through a variety of environments and may bear similarities to what could be built in Toronto. 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. 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 . Alex Bozikovik's No Mean City architectural profiles a fascinating addition to a historic home in Toronto's Cabbagetown neighbourhood that is beginning to collect some prestigious awards. Gary Webster's termination as the Chief General Manager of the TTC continued a string of dramatic transit events in Toronto. John Lorinc provides some his characteristic political analysis on the decision and its broader context.

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.  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.  In response to Mayor Ford's claims that LRT technology is the same as streetcars and trams, Noah van der Laan has undertaken a new feature showcasing some of the world's most impressive modern LRT systems. This week the feature looked at the world's largest LRT system in Melbourne and an impressive suburban system in Stockholm. Responding to the need for traffic calming on urban streets, Dylan Reid looks beyond the speed bump at examples of other effective design features in use both in Canada and around the world.

Spacing Saturday highlights posts from across Spacing’s blog network in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region. 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. Shawn Micallef continues his look into the potential future for  Ontario Place, the now defunct attraction on Toronto's Waterfront, bringing his own personal ideas as well as those of a host of other prominent planners and designers. Dylan Reid follows up on a previous post about the potential to develop lower Leslie Street into a gateway to the waterfront. His experiences at a recent public meeting show the interplay of politics and long-term planning as well as the need to rethink the EA process.