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Alex Bozikovic Profile picture
Alex Bozikovic
@alexbozikovic
Architecture critic @GlobeandMail. Bestseller 305 Lost Buildings of Canada. Husband to @livmendelsohn. Dad. “Very young. He will mature/decay in time" - Atwood
Aug 31, 2023 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Modest proposal for Toronto: the city's real estate agency @_CreateTO should be empowered to *shape* what city agencies do with their sites. Public assets should be managed holistically with an eye to top city priorities and first-tier design. A critically important site @ExPlaceTO has been underused and degrading. Acres of underused land next to a rapid transit hub. Its use and management are of citywide concern.
May 11, 2023 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Toronto has ended exclusionary zoning. Four units minimum on every residential lot. I think it’s fair to say: Our book has had an impact on the debate. @CheryllCase @JohnLorinc @arkwelder12 @coachhousebooks
May 10, 2023 • 12 tweets • 2 min read
Watching the Toronto council debate on multiplexes. It's very calm. Seems very much as though this proposal is going to pass. Set up by Dustin Cook here theglobeandmail.com/canada/article… This political shift has been late, but it's been fast. The xenophobia and straw men so evident in Vancouver and California are relatively absent here
May 8, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
"Very few buildings have truly significant historical or cultural value, and we must differentiate between those that do and those that simply offer a nostalgic aesthetic." theguardian.com/commentisfree/… I think this is exactly right. While the Australian context is foreign, the insight carries over: heritage includes more diverse stories and people. But a 40-year bloat of dubious listings in rich-white-people neighbourhoods remains intact.
Feb 21, 2023 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
My column on the Toronto mayoral race: housing is everything. theglobeandmail.com/canada/toronto… #topoli In an uncharacteristically bold move, Tory just announced some YIMBY planning reform. This must continue.
Feb 20, 2023 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Ottawa’s mayor does not seem fully aware of the challenges ahead. theglobeandmail.com/politics/artic… Mark Sutcliffe: “Downtown could be a 15-minute neighborhood and Barrhaven could be a 15-minute neighbourhood.” One of these things is true, and the other is absolutely not. Barrhaven:
Dec 9, 2022 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
Big news in Toronto housing politics. The mayor’s actually-quite-bold 2023 Housing Action Plan: app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgen… On a high level, this represents a huge change in rhetoric and attitude. The mayor of Toronto committing to “achieve or exceed” high targets of building new housing. Image
Nov 28, 2022 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
Some @OntarioPlace Therme plans are out. With 1,000-spot parking garage paid for by the public. That will be ~$100-million, bringing the subsidy for this waterpark to $300-million. theglobeandmail.com/canada/article… #topoli #onpoli @OntarioPlace Any claim that this project is paying its own way, or "footing the bill" for parkland, is not true. The gov't wi,l pay $200m to remediate the site and $100m for parking. At least.
Mar 31, 2022 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
This thread ignores an important fact: Toronto planning is dysfunctional, so every building is a haggle. That’s entirely the city’s fault. The reality: provincial planning calls for Toronto to intensify, as it should, and Toronto city hall has spent 20 years resisting. It has refused to update its plan and zoning in a coherent and comprehensive way.
Mar 30, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
From Victoria: Double Header House by Darcy Jones Architect, an extraordinary building. Front-and-back duplex for an extended family; frugal construction and spatial complexity that recalls Gehry’s Santa Monica House. Kitchens in the front and back units, facing opposite directions.
Mar 29, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
In Victoria’s Centennial Square, site of a Lost Building of Canada: the city’s public market (1891-1962) Image The square (by Muirhead & Justice) incorporates bricks from the old market ImageImageImage
Oct 12, 2021 • 12 tweets • 5 min read
Ontario’s government is forcing cities to put density near transit. But Toronto planning is pushing back. This week they explain why density targets aren’t feasible in 11 station areas, including this one 1/ toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2… #topoli #onpoli The city calls for 85 jobs and people per hectare, 45% of the province’s target, because this area has too much green space 2/
Sep 25, 2021 • 9 tweets • 4 min read
Some damning maps of the heat island effect by @globeandmail colleagues. A clear link between wealth and safe conditions. Toronto: 1/ ImageImage Vancouver: 2/ ImageImage
Sep 25, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
The @VillageMirvish shaping up: North-south alley Image Looking east from the west edge of the site, through the future park Image
Sep 24, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
These Vancouver “character home” projects are perverse. So much effort and money to add a couple of units while pretending to retain some heritage. theglobeandmail.com/real-estate/va… The existing house has been duplexed, totally gutted, *and moved*. ImageImage
Jul 27, 2021 • 16 tweets • 4 min read
I watched a public consultation last night for this new City of Toronto project, which is half middle-income affordable. It was greeted by some really appalling NIMBYism. Nearby condo owners concerned about “crime.” 1/ And “it’s too tall,” and traffic, all the usual complaints. For a new rental complex replacing a parking lot, in a cluster of highrises, next to a multibillion-dollar new subway. 2/
Jul 25, 2021 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
This is ridiculous. Law-breaking cyclists are not the problem. Law-breaking drivers, who maim and kill people regularly, are the problem. cbc.ca/news/canada/to… Good for CBC’s @PaulaDuhatschek for pulling this data. 15 incidents in 15 years. None of them fatal. Image
Jun 11, 2021 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
Downtown Toronto now: beautiful dense housing (@GH3architects and Claude Cormier)... which requires demolishing a 24-storey apartment tower. 1/ ImageImageImage Proposal for 25 St Mary Street by the landlord/developer @TenblockTO. Beautiful. 2/ ImageImage
Jun 11, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Toronto; now one of the least affordable cities in the world, and its planning department is openly saying it doesn’t need to increase the pace of housing construction. 1/ #topoli This analysis doesn’t even try to account for what things will cost or for how all this “housing” will be allocated. Hard to summarize how misleading this is. 2/
May 31, 2021 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
This map is new to me. So much of Toronto has been shrinking or static even post-2006. H/T @EricDLombardi #topoli Tiny pockets of highrise hyper-growth, surrounded by empty nesters in houses now worth $2-million and up.
May 29, 2021 • 9 tweets • 5 min read
My obituary for the formidable Cornelia Hahn Oberlander 1/ theglobeandmail.com/world/article-… Her interest in plants began in childhood, encouraged by her mother the horticulturalist and author Beate Hahn 2/ Image