Brandon Donnelly — Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly. — Page 532

We have all seen these headlines before, so it's not so under the radar for us. But the New York Times just published this article about Toronto calling it a "quietly booming tech town." Depending on how you want to measure things, Toronto is now the third largest tech hub in North America after Silicon Valley and New York City (or at least that's what the NY Times is telling me). The article touches on some of the ingredients for this success, but let me be a bit more explicit in this post because I think it is particularly relevant right now.

Canada is a "Western" country. What does that mean? It means that we're a democracy, we have the rule of law, we respect individuals (including private property), and we allow for pluralism of opinion, along with many other freedoms. These are all wonderful and magical things that are sometimes taken for granted. But I couldn't imagine living in a place that doesn't allow for such freedoms, nor would I want to.

On top of this foundation, we have two other important ingredients: extraordinary universities, like the ones mentioned in the article (University of Toronto and University of Waterloo), and some of the most liberal immigration policies in the world. Our borders are open for the smartest and most ambitious. With just these handful of things -- freedom, rules, education, and talent -- we can screw up a lot of other stuff and still accomplish some pretty great things. I may be oversimplifying, but probably not by much.

Humans are wonderfully talented. Let people be and they'll show you. Because history has shown us time and time again that the above recipe works remarkably well. (Related post: Do the best cities have a lot of immigrants? )

I stumbled upon this multi-unit housing project in Vienna because I thought it looked beautiful and I started thinking about the solid wall-to-window ratio on its facades. But it turns out that this project is far more than just a pretty face.

It's actually a social housing project on the outskirts of Vienna, where the city transitions into the countryside. And it incorporates a number of interesting design features:

• The complex is heated using groundwater heat pumps (geothermal) and domestic hot water is provided with the help of rooftop solar panels.

• The structural system consists of concrete slabs and columns ( no shear walls ) and was all poured in place. But the envelope consists of "prefabricated thermo-brick walls" which were craned into place (see below image). The curving balconies also look to be prefabricated elements.

• The suites have been designed with a saw tooth pattern and the circulation mirrors this through a zig zagging pattern. The result is units that are akin to what you will find at King Toronto (Bjarke Ingels), though on average the suites here look to be bigger than what we typically design in Toronto.

• The zig zagging corridors also incorporate skylights that let light down into the middle of the building. I think these run through multiple floors as well, and not just through the top floor of the building.

This certainly looks like a nice place to live.

Sources: Architecture by trans_city (Christian Aulinger, Mark Gilbert). Photography by Daniel Hawelka and David Schreyer. Both via ArchDaily .

Back when Toronto was debating the future of the eastern portion of the elevated Gardiner Expressway, I was an annoying and vocal supporter of tearing it down and replacing it with an at-grade boulevard. I was blogging about it ad nauseam. I participated in Jane's Walks where I spoke about the merits of removal. And I even created a petition that went to City Council the day the decision was being made.

But throughout all of this, I felt like I was in the minority. Most people said I was crazy (though former mayor John Sewell agreed with me). How will people and services get to downtown Toronto? This is critical infrastructure, they said. And indeed, Toronto voted not to remove it.

Whatever you feel was the right decision at the time, that ship has sailed. We tore down a leg of the Gardiner east of the Don River, at that was positive; but the rest of it is either staying intact or being relocated. In both cases, it will be elevated.

But I believe in looking forward, not backwards. And so with that, I think we should be doing everything we can urbanistically to make the Gardiner as nice as it can be. It is for this reason that I think The Bentway is an extraordinarily important project. And it is for this reason that I wish we would light the underside of the Gardiner so that when you're driving on Lake Shore it makes you feel happy.

https://twitter.com/donnelly_b/status/1505154810898747393?s=20&t=usv80T-GppjpvEfCVgQUTQ

A good example of this in action is the Yan'an Elevated Highway in Shanghai (greenery, of course, also helps):

https://www.instagram.com/p/BpfATPKA_js/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

https://www.instagram.com/p/BzvTmo3nN2J/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Relevant scene from Skyfall (James Bond):

https://youtu.be/Uh-5BS7ecgs?t=32

But let me be clear before my inbox lights on fire: I am not suggesting that this is an approach to urbanism that is in any way desirable or worth emulating. I am not advocating for elevated highways running through the middle of dense downtowns and walkable city centers. All I am saying is that if we are stuck with something as dreary and as utilitarian as the Gardiner Expressway, the least we can do is make it kind of cool. And lighting can be a relatively cost effective way of doing that.