Residents near the Broadview subway station are used to inconvenience in the name of progress. The station reconstruction project that added elevators, a second streetcar platform, more room for buses, and extra subway exits dragged on for five long years before finally wrapping up in the closing weeks of 2007. For most of that time, the parkette on the north side of the station had been surrounded by construction hoarding and used by crews......

Dear Distillery District, We really like you, but that doesn't mean that we can't offer suggestions for improvement. We'd like to introduce your sign makers to two magic words: "during construction." They could help avoid giving visitors the wrong impression about the pride you have in the site and your stores. Wordfully, TOist.......

Ontario will spend more than $2 billion this year to improve provincial roads and highways, widening the QEW and 401 and repairing over 450 kilometres of highway, as well as building and repairing over 100 bridges. In related transit news, the government is spending $5 million on a commission that will study exactly how much cooler cars are than nerdy bicycles, and how many more chicks a guy driving a car gets as opposed......

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.......

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......

For reasons that were surely thoroughly considered, York Mills was not a stop on the recent Type & Tile Tour of the Yonge-University-Spadina line. Nevertheless, due largely to escalator maintenance that has been ongoing for over a year, it is still quite the treasure trove of wacky signage. Here are some recent highlights: Top left photo: On the collector's level, riders are directed to the buses and subways via laser printouts that fail to......

Urbanist is a photo series that will look at developments, architecture, trends and activities happening in various cities––including our own––to inspire the urbane urbanist at home to make Toronto a better place. Sometimes what makes a city great are small, less obvious things that make you smile, or better yet, engage your environment in a more active way. Around Ottawa, you can find swap boxes like the one shown above on telephone poles or construction......

A few months ago, Torontoist wrote about the practice of façadism in the downtown core. Façadism—which refers to the practice of retaining the front face, or "skin," of an old building and affixing it to a newer, usually larger structure—has become increasingly popular in recent years as the city continues to grow up and out at its breakneck pace. Façadism began to be seen in Ontario after the 1975 Heritage Act, which gave municipalities......

Last week, Maple Leaf Gardens quietly turned 76. When the Gardens was sold to Loblaw in 2004, it appeared that the grocery store chain would fast-track the historic building into a supermarket. Now the projected summer 2007 construction date has come and gone, and nothing has changed since Torontoist covered the Gardens' 75th anniversary. We worried that the Gardens would be neglected while Loblaw dealt with its financial woes and ailing restructuring of existing......

A massive fire at a townhouse complex on Jarvis Street near Mutual resulted in the death of an unidentified victim on Saturday night. Construction on the townhouses had been abandoned for ten months and the building was being inhabited by squatters, says a resident at the adjacent Radio City condo tower. Novelist Norman Mailer died this weekend. Kim Ruehl at Seattlest has a nice eulogy: "He was, as most great novelists are, a complete......

Transformation AGO will soon be entering the final stages of its expansion project, estimated to finish sometime in mid-2008. But before the AGO closes its doors in order to begin reinstalling over 5,000 pieces of art into 110 galleries, they will be offering free admission to the public for its closing weekend this October 6 and 7. This will be your final opportunity to view the four exhibitions that have been on display since......

While going to York University may seem like a giant hassle (Torontoist recommends you pack a snack for the trip), this year’s Ioan Davies Memorial Lecture is shaping up to be worth the drive or TTC ride to York. The Ioan Davies Memorial Lecture commemorates the life and work of Ioan Davies, journalist, author, and professor. Each year, invited lecturers have re-invigorated the links between cultural expression, everyday life, and political practice. Dr. Thomas King,......

“That’s something you won’t find at Loblaws,” said Frank Yip, as he gestured toward the delectable-looking barbecued meats hanging behind glass at the deli. He’s right; though a staple in Chinatown, it’s a tantalizing display that might be unfamiliar to Toronto citizens used to a more typical grocery shopping experience. It’s also the perfect welcome to T&T Supermarket—the new best friend of Portlands-area foodies. Mr. Yip, construction and engineering manager for T&T, was on......

Blame Indiana Jones, but when Torontoist was younger, we wanted to be an archaeologist when we grew up. Although our math grades weren't up to snuff, the yearning to dig for ancient treasure has never gone away. So most mornings, you'll find us peering through a chain link fence at the corner of Adelelaide and Simcoe, watching real archaeologists sifting through rubble and delicately dusting off old marbles and broken plates with little brushes.......

The CBC is reporting that the provincial government announced an ambitious new project today to revamp Kipling Station and turn it into a major transit hub for Etobicoke and Mississauga. The announcement came from Transportation Minister Donna Cansfield and Environment Minister Laurel Broten early this afternoon. The new station, which will be owned and operated by GO Transit, is set to have an inter-regional bus terminal and will connect Mississauga Transit and GO buses......

We publish a lot of articles here on Torontoist, and sometimes it's hard to keep up with all of them. Populist is a weekly recap intended for the casual Torontoist reader, featuring some of the coolest, most interesting, most commented, and most recommended posts from the past week on Torontoist. Populist will appear every Sunday night. This week on Torontoist featured bleepin' boobs, Brass Rail burn-outs, coulrophobia, Guitar Girls, Giambrones, and Alsop architecture. Here are......

From mid-September through year-end, all City Community Centres will be closed on Mondays. Skating rinks won't open until January. Fewer potholes will be repaired. Snow won't be cleared unless there is at least 15 cm of it (the current minimum is 8 cm). New materials from Public Health will only be available in English. Welcome to the new Toronto, where you get what you (and the provincial and federal governments) pay for—or won't get what......

Cyclists rejoice! One of Toronto's long-lost cycling routes is resurfacing this weekend when the Lower Don path south of Queen Street will reopen after sixteen months of construction. Those attending the official ceremonies on Saturday morning should expect dignitaries, celebrities, balloons, a marching band, and...oh, wait a second. It turns out that for the reopening of a major bike and pedestrian path, all we get is some burly guy in an orange safety vest and......

In the summer heat, Toronto’s downtown can seem like a sun-baked, arid domain of asphalt and glass. Scattered throughout the concrete desert, however, are a few oases of green. The Downtown Discovery Walk links the squares, parks and parkettes that can be found in the city’s busy core. And don't worry too much about the heat; there are plenty of places to duck into for shade, refreshments, and air-conditioned comfort along this route. One......

Occasionally Torontoist gets bitten by the camping bug. Unfortunately, we don’t always have the extra vacation days or access to a vehicle required for a Kawartha Lakes getaway. Then, of course, there’s the environmental irony of loading the minivan full of camping gear and burning dozens of litres of gas in order to enjoy nature. Luckily, there’s a quick camping fix right here in town. The Glen Rouge Campground is accessible by bicycle (about......

Sunburned, gaunt and greviously underslept, the average Torontonian party-goer is in rough shape this week after the World Electronic Music Festival, or WEMF 2007 this past weekend. To nobody's surprise, WEMF isn't dead, international trance DJ Ryan "OS/2" Kruger isn't retiring and the image of thousands of ravers from the city camping in an Ontario field for three days is seemingly burned into Toronto's collective tube. It is estimated that over 5,500 people, mostly......

For those of us who grew up watching Buffalo television, the city seems like a nearby suburb or one of those neighbourhoods that you heard about but never visited. The phrase “Three alarm fire in Tonawanda” was as familiar as Bad Boy’s “Noooo-body.” Yet, cross border shopping aside, it's surprising how few Torontonians have really been to Buffalo. We went last week and we recommend the day trip. Here's a short list of things......

Don't drink more than one pop a day, or you're at greater health risk! Serious pop drinkers have a 45 percent greater chance of developing metabolic syndrome; a bunch of health factors that increases your chance of heart attack, stroke and diabetes. (It doesn't even matter if it's diet!) The health experts then looked at you pointedly and said "well, maybe you should be drinking juice or green tea or something healthy. Yes, you. The......

Operating a public transit system is a difficult job, continually plagued by budget cuts, aging infrastructure and rampant customer dissatisfaction. We've always been fans of GO Transit, however, which has generally proven to be clean and reliable despite being operated by the Government of Ontario (hence, the acronym "GO"). When the 2005-06 provincial budget was announced and included more than $300 million in funding for GO's operating and capital costs, transit enthusiasts were ecstatic.......

Toronto has an unusual problem: too many mayors' offices. After the dying years of the last century saw Metro's five cities and one borough reduced into a single bureaucratic mess, the city was left with the prickly issue of what to do with the palatial digs of Alan Tonks and six mayors left sitting barren in the far-flung civic centres and City Halls throughout the megacity (which, when pronounced with the proper cynical inflection, rhymes......

The above cryptic cooler was spotted parked in the middle of the sidewalk in a quiet North Toronto neigbourhood early one morning this week. There were no apparent construction sites within easy cooler-toting distance. The cooler raises a variety of questions such as: "How did this thing get here?", "Specimen of what?" "Under what circumstances would I be expected to call the 1-800 number provided?" "Why can't I move it and what would happen......

Torontoist reader Rajan tipped us off to this construction hoarding on Scollard Street in Yorkville, which demonstrates a little creative scaffolding. If one of our iconic post-and-ring bike stands gets in the way, why not work it? No, this isn't a ring bolted onto the structure; it's an existing bike post incorporated right into the supports. The scaffold uses an identical gauge of pipe as the bike racks, so it was a pretty easy......

Step right up, kids. Not too close though, you don't want to scare the rock people away. We know that you look at those precariously balanced piles of rocks on the beach or—in this case—in the Humber River and think to yourselves that there must be more to this than simply resting one rock on top of another. Surely there are screws, rods, glues, or props of some description used in the construction of these......

It's hardly breaking news that women are particularly under-represented in the industrial trades industry. The student thesis Pink Nail Project aims to change that, seeking to raise awareness for women entering non-traditional occupations—particularly the male-dominated skilled trades, like construction, auto mechanics and plumbing. With Toronto in a perpetual state of construction and good contractors difficult to pin-down, the market is potentially lucrative for a skilled tradesperson. In fact, mechanics are one of the top......

Welcome to Bad Buildings, Torontoist's new resident (anonymous, outspoken) architecture critic. Bad Buildings will appear every Wednesday. Hi there. So glad you could make it. Then again, you didn't really have a choice, did you? This being Toronto, bad buildings, alas, are all around you. Which is why we at Bad Buildings exist—not merely to chastise, decry, ridicule and spite (though there will be plenty of that) but, ultimately, to make our own selves obsolete.......