Jason Thorne

It looks like the massive road reconstruction project going on right now in Downtown Guelph is going to include new iceberg bins for garbage collection.

The city’s proclamation notes that architecture, urban design, landscape architecture, and other design disciplines influence the buildings, streets, parks and public spaces residents use daily.

Spacing magazine's Aiden Fung talked to documentary filmmaker @idfactoryfilms.bsky.social about his new movie, "Railfans," which profiles autistic children who love subways. Watch the short interview and find out about the movie's upcoming premiere! spacing.ca/toronto/2026...

⏰ Only 3 days to go until Canada’s Urban Design Forum arrives in Ottawa! Three days of inspiration, learning, and meaningful dialogue await! 📍 The Warehouse | 28 Booth Street, Ottawa 📅 October 22–24, 2026 🔗 Explore the event program: www.canu.ca/forum2026/pr...

A hidden gem in Toronto. Austin Floyd’s 1972 terraced rooftop garden in the atrium of the Sheraton hotel.

“First Sun” by artist Monira Al Qadiri. New installation on the Lassonde Art Trail in the new Biidaasige Park (Toronto).

The architectural associations in Atlantic Canada have announced the recipients of the 2026 Atlantic Architectural Design Excellence Awards (AADEA).

The monthly Art Crawl in downtown Hamilton. The event that’s not really an event because no-one organizes it but everyone just kind of knows and shows up.

Five visions have been unveiled in the design competition for the transformation of the parking lot in Liberty Village into a new city park. View the designs by CCxA / gh3, Daoust Lestage, Hapa Collaborative / MJMA, Nippaysage and Saucier + Perrotte, and PMA / Henning Larsen at tinyurl.com/2zuvcbwe

Continuing the tradition of ULI’s annual “Chief Planner Tour de Toronto” … this year’s ride was from Weston to Midtown.

Toronto Buildings has expanded its Pre-Approved Building Plans Program with two new fourplex & two new sixplex designs prepared by the local firm LGA Architectural Partners. You can download renderings, presentation drawings & permitting sets for free from the City’s website at tinyurl.com/3xeenbjy

Join the HBSA on a walking tour with architectural enthusiast and drag queen extraordinaire, Irma Girdle. Tours come with comedy, candid commentary and fun facts, but also a pub stop. Post-Modernism in Hamilton, amongst other topics, will be covered during the tour. Find out more:

Thanks to everyone who took the time to meet up with me during my wander through Poland and the Baltics … Igor and Gillian (Warsaw), Artis (Riga), Andrė and Sabina (Vilnius), Kristi, Andro, Mathias, Pasi, Eugen, Aleksi and others (Tallinn) and TJ, Ethan and others (Wroclaw).

Not something I have seen before. Instead of building the new on top of the old … putting the old on top of the new. Traditional wood frame home that was previously on the site, reconstructed at the top of a new low-rise building (in Riga, Latvia).

Are we going to start seeing more Canada-Europe exchange and collaboration on urban issues? Toronto sharing the stage with Vilnius, Kiev, Rotterdam and The Hague at Placemaking Week Europe 2026 (Wrocław, Poland).

The neighborhood pub. Sometimes raucous, sometimes contemplative, sometimes both. From debates to trivia nights, it can be a true third place, just like cafés, offering community beyond home and work. I’ve witnessed this in numerous pubs in the UK. A vital piece of urban life.

The second longest building in Europe. The 860 metre Falowiec building on the outskirts of Gdansk.

New favorite form of multimodal transport.

A brief moment of zen for your timeline … the boat train on the Elbląg Canal in Poland.

One thing we can never do enough is celebrate our heroes while they’re still with us. Today’s the 90th birthday of the great urbanist Jan Gehl, who started as a hero to me and became a mentor & friend. I’m proud to have been asked to contribute to his celebration messages today. Happy birthday, Jan.

A post that is pretty much just for @tomflood.bsky.social. Walking the streets of Elbląg, Poland today, and the streets are lined with dozens of these amazing banners on all the light poles.

Tony Soprano statue by artist Donatas Jankauskas in Vilnius, Lithuania (no … I don’t know why).

A very persuasive metric of a healthy society.

Dzintari Forest Park in Jūrmala, Latvia … with an 11-storey observation tower designed by architect ARHIS.

If your city is going to have a big building boom during one architectural period, the Art Nouveau period is a good choice. This is Riga.

🚶‍♀️🚴 New research from Ireland's National Transport Authority confirms how active travel infrastructure is an investment that pays for itself many times over, benefiting people, the environment and the economy. read more about it here: buff.ly/tRlpIc0

For a bit different kind of weekend inspiration, please share a picture of what you consider to be the best piece of ARCHITECTURE in your city, however you choose to define architecture. Bonus points for less-then-obvious choices, and for explaining your answer.

A rare glimpse inside the now-abandoned Tallinna Linnahall in Tallinn, Estonia (for the architecture biennale).

“The mark of a great city is in how it treats its ordinary spaces, not its special ones” (Aaron Renn). Under a bridge and along a highway embankment in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Laisvės Avenue in Kaunas, Lithuania … a pedestrian street lined with an amazing collection of inter-war era modernist buildings.

The lingering importance of public spaces #parks ##publicspace flip.it/Kybo83

Postmodernism isn’t usually my favourite architectural style, but when it’s built like this … wow! This is the University of Warsaw Library by architect Marek Budzyński.

Extension of the West Toronto Railpath south of Dundas is finally taking shape. This ramp will connect to a bridge to Sorauren Park across the tracks.

“Where Walls Meet Sky" contemporary art exhibition inside the fire-damaged ruins of St. Anne's Anglican Church. Curated by Art Spin.

When most people think of “heritage” buildings they think of buildings from the 19th or early 20th centuries. But Canadian cities have some amazing modern buildings, too. The 1955 St. Peter's Estonian church and 1963 Nielsen building are two of Toronto’s most recently-designated heritage buildings.

The National Capital Commission’s newest park at Kìwekì Point, designed by Janet Rosenberg & Studio and Patkau Architects.