The City of Toronto’s Official Plan defines the different precincts within the ABC boundaries as Areas of Special Identity. All these areas make an important contribution to the City’s rich legacy of neighbourhoods. ABCRA is committed to preserving and enhancing the rich heritage and character of the community.
More information about the City of Toronto’s heritage preservation services and a list of designated and listed properties in the area can be found on the City’s website.
A row of homes dating back almost 125 years could be transformed by an impressive 11-storey tower, if a new development application is approved by the city. Not surprisingly, local residents have questions about the growing intensity in a quiet section of one of the city’s oldest neighbourhoods where a number of proposals to increase density are piling up.
Canadian architects and urbanists were at the helm of five projects that were among the winners of the the 2023 Heritage Toronto Awards. The Heritage Toronto Awards bring together leaders, innovators and emerging professionals from across cultural, development, and policy-making sectors to celebrate achievements in Toronto’s heritage. The event is also Heritage Toronto’s major fundraiser of the year and raises monies in support of its public programming.
In review of the development application, the applicant is proposing to remove existing buildings along Avenue Road to increase the width of pedestrian sidewalks, provide for a signature plaza at the intersection, increase on-site public space and widen an existing laneway for both vehicular and pedestrian use. These public realm enhancements are desirable for both pedestrian and vehicular safety and support the creation of a community node at a key intersection in the City of Toronto.
The Bloor Viaduct is one of Toronto’s most iconic structures. Built between 1914 and 1918, it was officially named the Prince Edward Viaduct after the Prince of Wales, a fact which Torontonians tend to gloss over by stubbornly referring to it by its street-related colloquial name.
Despite its significant status, there’s plenty of mostly unknown information about the bridge, not the least of which is that it’s actually not one bridge at all!
The history of Toronto in photos is not an authoritative history of this city (far from from it), but the 90 some odd posts linked to below provide a thematically organized visual overview of Toronto that I hope will be worth a return visit or two for those interested in the city of yesteryear.
The vast majority of the photographs featured below derive from the Toronto Archives, which means that should you see something that you really like, it’s probably available for purchase from the source.
The proposed change to “Basil Johnston Terrace” would acknowledge and honour the First Nation presence and positive contribution within our community and our city. Basil Johnston Terrace would commemorate the significant contribution of a brilliant Ojibway author and educator, recognized in his 2015 Globe & Mail Obituary as the “foremost scholar of Anishinaabe life. Andin the Canadian Encyclopedia as “one of the foremost indigenous authors in Canada.”