Today's ad features your stereotypical 1950s architectural professional: trenchcoat, tie, hat (preferably a fedora), and a fistful of building plans. The building this dapper construction supervisor is depicted next to would quickly become one of St. Clair Avenue's architectural landmarks. Pigott Construction was based in Hamilton, where company president Joseph Pigott contributed heavily to the community as a president or board member of institutions such as McMaster University and the Art Gallery of Hamilton.......

Architecture in Toronto has been getting a lot of attention lately. Some of the coverage has even been positive. The Toronto Archives and the Friends of the Archives of Ontario are capitalizing on the trend, presenting a lecture series (PDF) in coming weeks to be hosted by the Star's architecture critic and urban affairs columnist, Christopher Hume. The series kicks off this Thursday, February 21 at 7 p.m. at the Toronto Archives building at......

Will people ever appreciate the fine architecture or heritage value of such widely-detested buildings as Robarts Library or the Sheraton Centre? If history is any guide, they will—but only if the buildings manage to survive our collective hatred (or apathy) for another 40 years or so. As the Star's Christopher Hume has written on several occasions, buildings are most at risk of demolition when they are 40–60 years old. That's when their architectural styles are......

Photo of the Montreal edition of Mille Femmes from Galerie [sas]'s Picasa album. Consider the first editions of Toronto's two major multidisciplinary arts festivals: Nuit Blanche 2006 was a stunning success, a magical playground that revived the spirit of the blackout and provided a moving conclusion to Let's All Hate Toronto; Luminato 2007 was a mixed bag of highfalutin performances not attended by anyone you know (with the exception of the George F. Walker......

Photo by matthewpiers from the Torontoist Flickr pool. One week ago today apparently marked the opening of HtO, Toronto's new "urban beach," on a parcel of land south of Queens Quay West, between Rees Street and Lower Spadina Avenue. We say "apparently" because we'll believe it when we're standing on the sand with our own two feet; the relatively modest (yet nevertheless impressive) project having already been delayed multiple times over several years, we......

Almost 80,000 high school students applied to Ontario universities this year, and the universities are using the surge as a powerful bargaining chip. If you're a student of the University of Toronto, you'll know that the current strategy for dealing with this increase in enrollment is to pack the students in tight. With their debt climbing into the $100-million range, universities are demanding financial assistance from the government or they will stop accepting so......

Torontonians are, to say the least, an opinionated bunch. So instead of a simple "Best Of" list to cap 2006 off, the Torontoist staffers have racked their brains about everything (books, songs, restaurants, people, places, stores, newspapers, politicians, musicians, and a lot more) to bring you their choices for the very best and the very worst of our city this past year. It's Torontoist Love/Hate 2006, and you can find a new one every......

Toronto officials are currently engaged in a last-ditch effort to save the 2015 World's Fair. Is it just me or would the Expo be a colossal mistake? In semi-related news, Christopher Hume doesn't think Toronto is on the road to a better future. With election day fast approaching, David Miller makes his final campaign pledges. A Richmond Hill man, missing for 28 hours, turns up at a police station. I'd been counting down this......

These 45 seats might be empty now but come November 13 we'll get to help decide who should fill them. Yes, the municipal elections are upon us. So where should those addicted to municipal politics go for their online fix? Spacing Votes is the go-to choice. Matt Blackett and the team that brings you your favourite horizontally-inclined magazine has gathered a gaggle of bloggers, students and journalists to cover the election. They link to......

Things get worse for the TTC. In light of GM Rick Ducharme's resignation the TTC have decided to tell him to leave right away instead of waiting around till November. Ducharme is fighting this and threatening to call his lawyers. He also pins the blame for his resignation on interference by TTC Chair Howard Moscoe and even Mayor Miller . Many councillors are now calling for Moscoe to step down. Ducharme is the third TTC......

Christopher Hume weighs in on the $20 million design competition run by the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation. Hume seems generally pleased by the wide variety of ideas presented by the five finalists from all over the world. They range from pedestrian bridges, eight-storey teardrop shaped buildings, towers that change colour with the weather, floating wooden platforms, planting thousand of trees, building more urban beaches and more. He especially praises the design from West 8......

Yesterday we wrote about the destruction of the Inn on the Park, a Modernist landmark that will probably be missed in 20 or 30 years when architectural historians are looking for good examples of Modernism in this city and notice that everything has been torn down. The Star's Christopher Hume was upset about how council dragged its feet on issuing the permit that would've saved the building. There's general discontent on the Urban Toronto forum.......

Christopher Hume laments the destruction of the Inn on the Park, a great example of Modernist architecture. It's being replaced with an auto dealership. Hume points fingers at a City Hall unwilling to stand up to business interests, and negligent in protecting the City's architectural history. The Post weighs in here. In other building news the Bay-Adelaide project might start up again. The project was first started in the 1980s but the property market fizzled......

The Toronto Sun and Torontoist agree on something. That Toronto Unlimited Logo totally bites. It bites so much that a giant room of monkeys working in front of iMacs would eventually design a better logo. Instead of going this experimental route billboard company Astral Media teamed up with OCAD advertising students to come up with alternative slogans for the city. The winner was "Metropolitan Flavour" and an image of a giant ice cream cone that......

A North York teenager was stabbed to death over a bus ticket the Star reports. Christopher Hume celebrates plans for the Don River Park. The park is designed to be usable year round, might include a "fireplace" of some sort, and a necessary berm to protect the nearby area in case the Don floods. Also here's more on Douglas Coupland's new park in the Post. A 10-year old open murder case has been solved in......

The Toronto blogosphere is abuzz with the Star's "What If" special issue that ran this Sunday. The special issue was a number of think pieces on how the city could be drastically improved. Christopher Hume wants to see the Hearn turned into Toronto's Tate, something that Reading Toronto latches on to. Christopher Hutsul (or Christopher the Younger, as we like to call him) argues for ways the city can nurture its creative communities, including decriminalizing......

Everyone's been reporting on the Tim Horton's explosion/fire but the Sun gets at the most important question, just what will this do to Tim Horton's stockholders? The answer, probably not much. We're getting smacked around with another mild dose of winter weather. Don't take Torontoist's word for it, take the Weather Office's. The city is staging a five day blitz on idling drivers. They're targetting the busiest part of Front St. right around Union Station.......

Someone please fire the marketing team at Landmark Building Group. The marketers at this developer's have come up with this painfully obnoxious video advertising their lofts. We've seen better acting and production from late night spots and these ads simply scream gentrification. The video touts the location of their project (right across from the Drake) and has one of the most asinine slogans we've seen in recent memories ("Are you on the list?"). It's a......

Torontoist's favourite magazine about the city (sorry Toronto Life) is celebrating the launch of its fifth issue at the Arts and Letters Club this Thursday night (14 Elm St., 8pm, $10 includes a mag). The most exciting development over at Spacing is the fact that the new issue is in glorious colour, which fits the new issue's theme of public art. Torontoist got its hands on the new issue at Sunday's uTOpia book launch and......