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Weekend Newsstand: May 2, 2015
Happy Saturday! In the news: another royal baby, cultural landscaping, and re-using surplus schools for something other than pre-condo demolition material.
It’s finally happened: Prince William and Kate’s new child has been born. She’s a girl, and she’s now fourth in line for the crown after Prince Charles, her grandfather; her father; and her older bother, toddler George. It’s the first time a girl has been born so high in the line of succession for half a century (Queen Elizabeth’s second daughter Anne was the last, born in 1950). For any English royalty fans, this is a big day.
Apparently, Toronto is at the forefront of a battle for the recognition of landscape architecture: the work that goes into landscaping, which can be as culturally and historically important as any building’s design. That’s why Charles Birnbaum and the Cultural Landscape Foundation are trying to drum up public interest in and awareness of landscapes as cultural touchstones. Birnbaum wants people as invested in the history of the University Avenue boulevard islands or Trinity Bellwoods as they are in important buildings that shape our city. A conference being held in town on May 22, Leading with Landscape, also hopes to address these issues.
Schools at the corner of Dufferin and Bloor are the subject of a conversation about repurposing surplus school buildings for community. Bloor Collegiate Institute and Kent Senior Public School were declared surplus a year ago, but now the Toronto District School Board is holding meetings and trying to figure out a way to use the space for the community rather than handing it off wholesale to the highest bidder. Community members have said they’re okay with selling part of the three hectares of land, especially if the development is rental housing and money from the sale goes back to the community centre they hope to create.