# An example of city building doublethink

By [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com) · 2018-06-10

2-tecumseth, architecture, catch-22, cities, design, development, doublethink, high-rise, housing, kpmb-architects, mazyar-mortazavi, mid-rise, quality-meat-packers, shane-dingman, slaughterhouse, tas, tas-designbuild, the-globe-and-mail, uncategorized, urbanism

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![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/f1b6b414962f14fecf060cb684f989e9.png)

Earlier this month, [Shane Dingman wrote a piece](https://www.theglobeandmail.com/real-estate/article-mixed-use-condo-developer-on-the-hook-for-plans-at-former-hogtown/) in the Globe and Mail talking about [TAS’](http://www.tasdesignbuild.com/) proposed development for 2 Tecumseth Avenue here in Toronto – the former home of Quality Meat Packers, a slaughterhouse. In the article there’s a quote from Mazyar Mortazavi, which I posted to [my Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/donnelly_b/) (as a story), but that I have been meaning to also post to the blog. So here it is: 

> _“It’s not a conversation about towers good, towers bad: Mid-rise is the most expensive construction typology and it delivers effectively luxury housing, so it doesn’t respond to the needs of affordability,” he said. “We didn’t buy Tecumseth to build a bunch of condos and move on. We bought it because we wanted to pursue a vision around city building. You need density … the question is how do we actually deliver density that’s relevant today and relevant 50 years from now?”_

He’s of course right about mid-rise construction costs. There are diseconomies of scale and other construction inefficiencies that we have talked about many times before on this blog. The result is one of the Catch-22s of city building. Mid-rise and small scale infill is often seen as desirable, but we also say that we need more affordable housing.

It’s [doublethink](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doublethink).

_Image: 2 Tecumseth by_ [_KPMB Architects for TAS_](http://urbantoronto.ca/database/projects/2-tecumseth)

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*Originally published on [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com/an-example-of-city-building-doublethink)*