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I'm glad that Marcus didn't compare Toronto with Eastern Europe today. The major cities you find in Poland, the Czech Republic, and the Baltic states generally seem to be doing better than Toronto with regard to the public realm. Public transit is ample and modernized, the roads are in great...

The metro area also had (and still has) the massive Hooker Chemical plant, now OxyChem, whose chemical waste dumping sites included Love Canal and other EPA Superfund sites in the area. While Love Canal got all the notoriety, it's also disturbing that one of the waste sites, the 102nd Street...

The corrugated metal cladding is already dented. I wonder what it'll look like in 30 years when the sleek sheen fades from the metal.

I strongly dislike courtyard spaces like that one on top of a podium that haven't been activated to be used for anything. It seems like a waste of the building's massing. I feel the same way about office buildings that are terraced but don't have balconies on the terraces.

I find the current hodgepodge of provincial highway designs to be annoying on long road trips since the road configuration keeps changing. It's hard to know how much time it will take to cover a certain distance or how demanding the driving will be. Freeways are typically less stressful to...

16 feet of lot width. If they can build 5 storeys on that with proper fireproofing between buildings, it would be amazing. They'll probably need to be excused from minimum parking requirements to make the economics work and to reduce car dependence.

Then, all the commercial landlords and condo corporations who seek out banks and large chain retailers for their retail will wonder why fewer people are coming downtown. No one wants to travel 1 to 2 hours downtown in traffic or lousy transit for the likes of a street of retail bank branches...

We've seen a (decidedly) minor Brutalist revival movement around the world in the past 5 years. It's on trend.

The situation with Mount Dennis GO station seems similar. It's a concrete platform with a shelter structure. Finish it and open it up for service, even if the LRT line isn't ready yet. Give the long-waiting residents and businesses some relief from the construction. Caledonia GO station should...

The design is heavy handed and banal. I could forgive the tower as background filler, but the podium doesn't look very interesting to walk by at all.

This approach isn't "just so the transit map looks better to some". That couldn't be further from the truth. It's so that the people who actually use transit can take rapid transit to more places in the city. I don't think we should deliberately undersize to the point that the system can't meet...

The sculptural curves allow it to harmonize nicely with the Victory Soya Mills silos in the cityscape.

I agree completely. I'd rather have lower-capacity lines that compel the government to keep expanding the system to more neighbourhoods to relieve the existing lines than to have a single high-capacity line that leaves system expansion to be a "want" that can get ignored versus a "need". If...

I wonder how long-lasting the colour is in the precast cladding panels. Concrete pavers are manufactured with vibrant colours, but the colour usually fades over the next 2-3 decades towards the grey end of the spectrum. They end up looking dated and disposable.

We might also need the money to put the surface part of the Crosstown LRT underground, as well, if it proves a failure in terms of trains running quickly and on time.

The new beach is for sunbathers who also want to show off to sailors.

I hope they bought a lot of spare cladding to store somewhere. If it's this hard to source the product now, imagine what it's going to be like in 20 or 30 years when it comes time to replace broken or leaking panels.

It's not something that helps a big bank, Rogers, or a well-organized BIA make money, so it's done slowly and reluctantly.

This area needs a change in cladding materials for future projects to something that compliments but stands out from the sea of grey glass.

The LRT saga in Hamilton is the most bizarre sh*tshow since Rob Ford's handling of Transit City. Just build it. It'll improve your city.