Toronto style...

Like most cities Toronto has many faces. This pic above is out in Mississauga on the hottest day so far (36 deg and humid). I managed to direct us to the wrong part of town on public transport by not adding a 'W' to the street address... AND I had the street number wrong (I blame the heat) which meant we were 20mins late for our meeting but that meant we got to see these beautiful towers so there was a silver lining :-). 


There is some stunning architecture in Toronto, like the Gehry makeover of the art gallery (which is almost impossible to get a pic of!), and the school of design (that's about 4 floors up there in the checkerboard!) and some of the blending of old and new, such as in this cafe below.

In other places the architecture is well, just brave. Or could be anywhere kinda stuff. But then that's just my opinion and happens in every city.

Good design is about more than how things look of course.  How they function and are used is important too... In Kensington, houses have adapted to become mixed use, with a variety of retail enterprises on the ground floor.

The neighbourhood here is alive! Foot and cycle traffic jostle for space with several proud car owners and various street corner peddlers, and wall space is colonised by locals both here and in neighbouring Chinatown.

Both Chinatown and the Kensington area may be run down in places, yet they are vibrant and humming because they work for those who are there (possibly despite rather than because of the wider system...but I don't know that).


Denise