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. 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 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.  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.

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. 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.  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. 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. 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. 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.