Arts
Lansdowne Underpass Project Continues
BIG on Bloor comes back this weekend for its second year of street festivities from Lansdowne to Christie. And Toronto artist Richard Mongiat has returned to paint the north side of the Lansdowne & Bloor underpass, continuing the mural he created last year for the south side of this otherwise dreary stretch of Bloor. City
Sexy Simcoe WaveDeck Waves Hello
Fun... sexy... unique. The sleek, curving design of Toronto's new waterfront WaveDeck isn't the only attractive aspect of the latest addition to our evolving waterfront. Today it was unveiled, coming in at half a million dollars under budget and opening two weeks ahead of schedule, after eight months of intense construction.Acrobats danced across the deck at today's ribbon-cutting. The opening means the new $5.5. million urban dock is ready for tonight's Luminato finale, Cirque du Soleil (free, starting at 7pm).
The wonderful flamboyant new deck more than doubles the width of a pedestrian space that used to be grimly utilitarian. The deck is the latest in the Waterfront redesign by Adriaan Geuze, whose Dutch firm West 8 won Toronto's 2006 Waterfront design competition. Over time, a vibrant lakeside walkway will stretch from Bathurst to Parliament Street.
City
Jan Gehl Inspires Toronto
Danish urban planner extraordinaire, Jan Gehl, was at the Design Exchange on Wednesday, talking about public spaces for the 21st century. Gehl is the powerhouse behind Melbourne's successful urban design strategy and he recently worked with New York City's radical Commissioner of Transportation Janette Sadik-Khan for the PlaNYC Initiative, including the new pedestrianization of Times Square. If you want clearly-stated, clearly-do-able urban design, Gehl is the man to listen to. And the city of Toronto is listening.
City
PUG Awards go to AGO and One St. Thomas
Last night's PUG awards didn't bring any surprise winners: Gehry's fantastically-successful AGO won as best commercial/industrial building, and One St. Thomas Residences won as best new residential. But the event brought out the city's who's who of architecture and urban design, at the gorgeous McKinsey & Co. building on Charles (a fortuitous last-minute move from the Gardiner Museum), and included a panel discussion that got some blood boiling. City
Habitats: Wychwood Barns
Artscape's Wychwood Barns opened to huge fanfare this past November, and I've been curious how residents are feeling, now that the dust has settled. I had a chance this past week to check out both the work spaces and the live-work studios. City
Snowing in the Annex in May
Just when I thought it was safe to go out in my flip-flops... along comes a film shoot to mess up the corner of Bathurst & Bloor in the Annex. The piles of cotton batting snow was no problem, but the melting mess outside Honest Ed's was all too convincing for my taste. A friendly crew member says they're filming "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World" and that it'll be in theaters next year. 
