Spacing Saturday highlights posts from across Spacing’s blog network in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region. A new city was founded this week, the city of Spacington . Spacing staffers will use Sim City to attempt to turn Spacington into a 21st century utopia over the coming weeks using feedback from reader commentary. Comment early, comment often and help build the city. Gordon Price uses the Prince Points feature to look into the story of a cluster of towers at Lougheed Town Centre. Through the work of David Pereira, Price explores the tower's connections to Simon Fraser University and why such density was built in the midst of what was significant greenfield at the time. While many questioned the future of the skyscraper after September 11th, Sean Ruthen shows that the last decade may have precipitated a century in which the tall building will be zeitgeist. Through his review of Andres Janser's new book Highrise Idea and Reality, Ruthen discusses the global phenomenon which has seen the number of high rise buildings on earth double in the past 10 years. Joel Thibert explores the hotly debated question of what really influences people's decisions on where to live. Delving into a variety of related studies conducted around the world Thibert proposes ways to make increased density more acceptable to the next generation. Devin Alfaro provides a glimpse inside Montreal's complex municipal governance, analyzing the potential outcomes in an upcoming by-election that promises to be a tough fight with implications for the city's opposition parties. As Saint John enjoys the completion of its new Official Plan, Morgan Lanigan comments on how the next step will be a thorough review of the Zoning By-law in light of the lessons learned over the 40 years of urban planning. As disagreement on council continues to leave Toronto's transit planning in shambles, John Lorinc weighs in on the roles of various actors in the debate and who needs to step up to restore order. Shawn Micalleff uses the Toronto Flaneur feature to react to John Tory's appointment to head up the revitalization of Ontario Place, making a compelling argument that the rethink should stay rooted in the site's rich past while emphasizing its role as a public space.

Spacing Saturday highlights posts from across Spacing’s blog network in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region. The Video Vancouver feature presented its first original video this week, capturing the atmosphere of Vancouver at the winter solstice, a feeling described as unique amongst Canadian cities. Yuri Artibise reviews new work by Emmanuel Buenviaje who uses mix of photography and graphic design to create images of his Mount Pleasant neighbourhood that capture the intricacy and history of Vancouver's older and industrial districts. Jacob Larson gives an update on the latest twist in the saga to replace Montreal's aging Turcot Interchange which involves a significant delay caused by sinking ground and wonders if this could be an opportunity for sober second thought. With an opportunity to share her findings at an upcoming conference, Alanah Heffez seeks reader feedback on Montreal's electronic fare payment system initiating a conversation about intricacies of the City's OPUS fare card. As part of the ongoing Altantic Snapshots series Stephen Archibald profiles the Wellington Barracks. Hidden within an active Canadian Forces Base, the barracks is amongst Halifax's most important mid-nineteenth century buildings, retaining significant elements of grandeur. Like the ends of many north-south streets in Toronto, the bottom of Leslie Street presents a fantastic opportunity to become a gateway to the waterfront. Dylan Reid presents a detailed plan to capitalize on an excellent opportunity at the bottom of Leslie despite heel dragging from the City. Niki Siabinis completes the tale of her three day cycling journey from Toronto to Montreal within a marathon last day that includes construction obstacles, night riding and lots of sore muscles.

Spacing Saturday highlights posts from across Spacing’s blog network in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region. Following the recent release of new redevelopment plans, Andrew Witt tells the story of the controversial Little Mountain social housing redevelopment. The project has been criticized for decade late return dates, encouraging gentrification and falling short of new affordable housing units. As part of his Price Points feature Gordon Price looks at the history of the Burnaby Metrotown as a harbinger of a growing regional awareness and planning initiative in the 1970's in light of thesis work by David Pereira. Devin Alfaro correctly predicted that the island of Montreal would be a battle ground in last spring's federal election. Predicting a similar groundswell of change in Quebec's coming provincial vote, Alfaro paints a picture of how all parties will vie for votes in Montreal and what this will benefit the city. As declining patronage and financing force the conversion of churches across Quebec into other uses, Alexandre Campeau-Vallée asks the question of what will happen to the sound of church bells, noting that such bells are some of the last sounds to enjoy immunity in our quest to reduce urban noise. Adria Young features a provocative public art installation on the site of Halifax's new downtown convention centre. The installation, Town Square by Scott Saunders draws on the site's public consultation controversy by populating the site with ghostly business figures. Abad Khan provides an update on a story which appeared in the fall issue of Spacing Magazine about two different strategies to road widening proposals in Moncton and Halifax. Moncton's bold approach of reducing car lanes has received vindication while Halifax's road widening has become tangled in politics. Spacing's Dylan Reid reports back from the fascinating proceedings of a recent University of Toronto conference "Is there Planning Law or just City Politics?" The conference provided a lot of insight and opinions on Ontario's convoluted planning process. Niki Siabanis continues taking readers along her summer cycling journey from Toronto to Montreal, with the second day including a brief stint on the 401 and the beauty of the thousand islands.

Spacing Saturday highlights posts from across Spacing’s blog network in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region. Toronto's City Place Neighbourhood Rises Don Schuetze continues the theme of urban screen, sharing his experience of stumbling across the opening night of a Surrey art exhibition and witnessing the reactions to it. Yuri Artibise reviews The Chuck Davis History of Metropolitan Vancouver written largely by Chuck Davis, the city's unofficial historian, and completed posthumously by friends and admirers. Artibise concludes that the book is perhaps the most accessible history of Vancouver yet written, talking down the idea that city has no history. Guillaume St-Jean looks at an attractive redevelopment on the site of a former hospital for infectious disease which has sat abandoned since 1978. The proposal tastefully incorporates key structures of the old site surrounded by low-rise condominiums. The Montage du Jour feature once again highlights that while time has dramatically altered some parts of Montreal, other parts remain very much that same, at least in built form. Could you cycle between Montreal and Toronto in three days? Niki Siabanis presents the first in a series of posts intimately and honestly describing a summer three day cycling journey between Canada's two largest cities. The jury is still out on City Place, the forest of sleek glass condominiums taking shape on Toronto's former railway lands. Ryan Bolton gives readers an inside scoop from a resident of the community, finding it far from a ghetto but still in need of some love.

Spacing Saturday highlights posts from across Spacing’s blog network in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region. Yuri Artibise tells the story of a specific group of the 'Vancouver Special,'  a stock housing design developed in the 1960's which was made cheaply available and manifested in several thousand houses throughout Vancouver. The group of houses tell a unique story of  the history of the Strathcona neighbourhood. Cameron Barker examines the striking architecture of the new Visitors Centre recently opened at Vancouver's Van Dusen Gardens. Alanah Heffez looks at the history of traffic lights on the island of Montreal, illustrating some of the process of how traffic signals became standardized and how some problems still haven't changed. Joel Thibert provides a glimpse inside Montreal's regional politics through a look at the tumultuous final approval of the area's first regional plan the Plan métropolitain d'aménagement et développement. Toronto's homicide rate hit a 25 year low in 2011, John Lorinc  reflects on the reasons behind this success as well as the shifting politics behind public safety in the city under Rob Ford. Alex Bozikovic's No Mean City architectural feature asks tough questions about the soullessness of international waterfront redevelopment based on recent states from leading architect Rem Koolhaas. In a separate post No Mean City also pays homage to the walk-up apartment, advocating how this residential form could fill an important niche in Toronto's housing market which is currently neglected.

Spacing Saturday highlights posts from across Spacing’s blog network in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region. Erick Villagomez recaps the results of the exciting re:CONNECT design competition to rethink the space currently occupied by Vancouver's downtown traffic viaducts. The story includes links to the winning designs. As part of the ongoing Video Vancouver series Caroline Toth features an incredible video by Rob Whitworth of the captivating flows of traffic in Vietnam's emerging metropolis of Ho Chi Minh City. Gregory McCormick's Montreal Lit feature returned this week featuring excerpts from author Dany Laferrière reflecting on the Point St-Charles neighbourhood and the experiences of a newcomer. The Regionalist Joel Thibert explores the question of whether regionalism, rooted in the systems that surround us, and cosmopolitanism, concerning itself with the broader human community, are really fundamentally at odds with each other. In doing so Thibert looks back to the origins of both ideas and their respective strengths and shortcomings. Hilary Best continued the discussion on breaking barriers to citizen engagement through The Fourth Wall series this week. The series looked at the increasing size of local government, analyzing the history of Toronto's amalgamations and comparing councillor to constituent ratios around the world. The series also began a look at the election process by suggesting ways improve outreach to run for office. Concerned about the way that cities are often neglected or portrayed darkly in children's books, Todd Harrison presents a selection from his family library of books for children that celebrate and take place in cities, just in time for Christmas.

Spacing Saturday highlights posts from across Spacing’s blog network in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region. Gordon Price used his Prince Points column this week to talk about the drawn out of history of a West End Vancouver condominium proposal. That the final proposal will likely result in the loss of a heritage building shows how extended community consultation must be accompanied with a willingness to compromise. Christine McLaren, resident blogger with the BMW Guggenheim Lab, tells the story of a trip to the first post-war planned suburb of Levittown, New York and subsequent interactions with leading authors with ideas of how to retrofit it. This week's installment of The Sunday Building Project comes complete with anecdotes about the first substantial snowfall in Montreal this year and how winter serves as a test of the true passion of Montrealers. Guillaume St-Jean uses the Montage du Jour feature to look back in history at the changing face of the intersection of Rue Saint-Catherine Ouest and Rue Guy. As part of the ongoing Fourth Wall series looking at ways to break the barriers of citizen engagement at City Hall, Hillary Best takes a look at ways to help facilitate community association organizations and also examines the idea of participatory budgeting and its international best practices. Continuing the discussion from the food theme in the latest issue of Spacing Magazine, Allie Hunwicks launches a series that will look at cafes and restaurants around the city that are expanding on their role to become community spaces.

Spacing Saturday highlights posts from across Spacing’s blog network in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region. Vancouver's Director of City Planning, Brent Toderian, shares his take on the early results of an exciting public design and ideas competition to re-imagine the city's downtown road viaducts. Links are provided to the submissions in the reCONNECT design contest. Urban Screens with interactive facades, buildings projections and networked communication are spreading to all kinds of urban environments around the world. Erick Villagomez showcases a an event held this week to discuss the issue of how these projections positively engage audiences and contribute to the experience of society. Of course, this week also saw the conclusion of the municipal election in Vancouver. Spacing was quick to provide interesting analysis and cartographic representation of the results. Alex Bozikovic discusses his recent piece in Architectural Record talking about the building boom currently reshaping the skyline of Toronto and other Canadian cities. Contrasted with the building stagnation in many American centers our situation is hope for both caution and optimism. John Lorinc used his column this week to talk about Mark Osbaldeston's new book Unbuilt Toronto 2 which looks at proposed major developments that were never built. Lorinc shows that book reveals several close calls with monstrosities as well as a possible origin of second guessing on transit. Emile Thomas shares a recent experience which revealed his deep and previously unbeknownst daily relationship with the neighbours in his building. Thomas uses this as an opportunity to reflect on how to treat ones neighbours and expectations of urban living. This week's Sunday Building Project offers up a little piece of the town of Mount Royal with a heavy theme of the city as provider, of curbside freebies.