A Place in Mind

By Avi Friedman

A Place in Mind: Designing Cities for the 21st Century is the result of Avi Friedman's worldwide quest for successful environments where people congregate and feel comfortable. Whether he writes of the conviviality of a teahouse in Istanbul; the serenity of Assisi; the squatter ... Read more

A View from the Porch

By Avi Friedman

A View from the Porch is an illuminating collection of 22 essays about the points where design touches life and the big and small things that make us appreciate, or become disconnected from, our homes and neighbourhoods. Drawing on his experiences as an architect, planner, world ... Read more

Concrete Toronto

By Michael McClelland & Graeme Stewart
Edited by Michael McClelland

Toronto is a concrete city. From international landmarks to civic buildings to cultural institutions to metropolitan infrastructure and the single-family home, reminders of the era of 'brutalist' architecture surround Torontonians. But for how long? As architectural fashion ... Read more

East/West

Edited by Nancy Byrtus, Mark Fram, and Michael McClelland

Let's say you want to know which famous Canadian poet lived in the Waverley Hotel for seven years, constantly changing rooms in fear of RCMP bugs. Or you live at 44 Walmer and want to know what on earth they were thinking with those balconies. Or you want to know what's behind ... Read more

House Divided

Edited by Alex Bozikovic, Cheryll Case, John Lorinc, and Annabel Vaughan

A citizen's guide to making the big city a place where we can afford to live. Housing is increasingly unattainable in successful global cities, and Toronto is no exception - in part because of zoning that protects "stable" residential neighborhoods with high property values. ... Read more

Neighbourhood

By Avi Friedman

In Neighbourhood: Designing a Liveable Community renowned architect, professor and urban planner Avi Friedman describes the planning of a neighborhood in Middlesex Centre, a rural municipality in southern Ontario. Friedman explores the points where design--both good and bad--effects ... Read more

No Place To Go

By Lezlie Lowe
Read by Amanda Wood

This book is Number One in addressing the politics of where we're allowed to "go" in public.

Adults don’t talk about the business of doing our business. We work on one assumption: the world of public bathrooms is problem- and politics-free. No Place To Go: How Public Toilets ... Read more

Stroll

By Shawn Micallef
Illustrated by Marlena Zuber

What is the 'Toronto look'? Glass skyscrapers rise beside Victorian homes, and Brutalist apartment buildings often mark the edge of leafy ravines, creating a city of contrasts whose architectural look can only be defined by telling the story of how it came together and how it ... Read more

Toronto Reborn

By Ken Greenberg
Foreword by David Crombie
Afterword by Zahra Ebrahim

An incisive view of Toronto’s development over the last fifty years.

In Toronto Reborn, Ken Greenberg describes the emerging contours of a new Toronto. Focusing on the period from 1970 to the present, Greenberg looks at how the work and decisions of citizens, NGOs, businesses, ... Read more