City Building : Featured Stories

After emigrating from Hungary to Toronto with nothing at the age of 19 in 2000, Christian Szabo is now the founder of two companies that help builders and developers protect birds from their buildings, and buildings from the birds.

Reporter Andrew Seale paddles down the Don River in a canoe to better understand how Toronto's various rivers and channels have impacted our city's infrastructure over the years. 

By bridging Toronto and the Kitchener-Waterloo area, both through collaborative networks and the facilitation of a high-speed rail system, regional organizations aim to create a powerhouse of Canadian talent. 

Our roundup of some of the architecturally, historically, and culturally coolest places to see at this year's Doors Open TO celebrating "Secrets & Spirits."

A series of 25 murals celebrate Islington Village's past, while looking to its future. Igor Bonifacic reflects on how the street art represents his own experiences growing up in the area as a new Canadian, and what it means to the neighbourhood now.

Lessons from Mephis: The City of Memphis is on the rise thanks to a growing startup community, investments in bike lanes, a burgeoning arts district and people moving back to the city. Through it all, the city has listened to its residents and embraced 'lean urbanism.' 

Toronto has already ensured the PanAm/ParaPan Games will leave the city with a healthy legacy, more than a year before they kick off. We look at some of the changes coming to the city's infrastructure and what it means for housing, communities, and transit.

Pottery may be one of the oldest art forms, but ceramics artist George Cho is breathing new life into the practice, infusing it with contemporary notions of deconstruction while embracing tradition and craftsmanship. 

If you could have coffee with anyone in the world, who would it be? A new youth-driven movement connects the leaders of today with the leaders of tomorrow, bridging the gap between ideas and opportunity, all over a cup of coffee. 

As the LRT construction chews its way along Eglinton, local businesses are teaming up with the Business Improvement Area to counter the construction chaos with creative placemaking. 

West Queen West is a neighbourhood in deep transition. We talk to Rob Sysak, executive director at the WQW BIA, about how the neighbourhood has changed and what's in store for the stretch of Queen Street that runs from Bathurst to Gladstone. 

Open data is revolutionizing public access to complex government information. It's allowing entrepreneurs to build new apps based on regional data--from bus times to safe beach databases--all while making the City and its citizens more informed and involved.

Nearly a thousand businesses in the Pearson Eco-Business Zone encompassing the airport and surrounding area have teamed up under the banner of Partners in Project Green to lessen their carbon footprint. Here's how they plan to do it.

By collaborating with universities in India and across the world, and building a mini accelerator program that's set to open in the Bombay Stock Exchange in May, Ryerson looks to help cement Toronto's position as an international innovation capital. 

A new program called Garden Connections uses design technology to imagine and demonstrate what gardens could look like on condominiums, all before lifting a shovel. The technology beautifies floorplans and could have huge sway on how buyers purchase condos.