Canadian cities are leery of tall buildings blocking the sun in public spaces. As the climate heats up, does that philosophy make any sense?
The new buildings were just what Toronto needed. More than 800 new rental apartments, about a third of them permanently affordable. These new homes would rise on the site of an old provincial building. The problem: They were too tall. One tower would rise 50 storeys into the air, and so it would cast shadow on a park half a block away – covering about a quarter of its surface – for up to three hours a day.
This, according to local planning policy, was unacceptable. While Opera Place Park is half a block away from these new towers, city planning policy insists on “no net new shadow” on that park. So the complex of more than 800 units would have to get smaller.
City of Shadows – The Globe and Mail, December 5, 2023
Photo: Ken Lund from Reno, Nevada, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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