Welcome to 2019.
I am currently in transit and catching up on some internet reading and email on my way back to Toronto.
At this time of year it is, of course, common to reminisce (or lament) about what happened over the last year, as well prognosticate what may come.
Over the last few years, I have done a bit of that on the blog. But I clearly didn’t do that this year while in Brazil (and away from any semblance of a workspace).
So here’s what others have been writing and thinking about over the holidays:
- 2018’s tech trends and tribulations in 14 charts. Recode. Link
- 2018 was the year of the YIMBY. CityLab. Link
- A cool girl’s guide to Toronto. Vogue. Link
- Amazon’s annual Christmas press release. Link
- Best travel posts of 2018. Design Milk. Link
- Here’s (Almost) Everything Wall Street Expects in 2019. Bloomberg. Link
- Here’s what to expect in cybersecurity in 2019. TechCrunch. Link
- Naive to hope Toronto can change in 2019? That means we have work to do. Shawn Micallef. Link
- The 10 largest US venture rounds of 2019. TechCrunch. Link
- What is going to happen in 2019. Fred Wilson. Link
- Will a recession hit in 2019? Alan Murray. Link
- Year in search 2018. Google. Link
At the time of writing this post, it’s still 2015 – at least here in Toronto. But by the time you (subscribers) get this post in your inbox, it will be 2016. So happy new year! I am thrilled about getting this year started and I hope you feel the same way.
To kick things off, I thought I would share a great interactive post from Guardian Cities called, A history of cities in 50 buildings. It’s a look at our urban history through 50 important and pivotal buildings. Buildings such as Southdale Center, which was the first fully enclosed, climate-controlled shopping mall, and Chicago’s Home Insurance Building, which was a building that really set the stage for the modern skyscraper that we know today.
Not all of these buildings have left a positive legacy on our cities. I am sure that some of you would argue that the creation of the suburban shopping mall, with its corresponding “sea of parking”, was not a step forward for cities, but a step backwards. The architect behind Southdale Center, Victor Gruen, has even gone on record saying that he refuses “to pay alimony for those bastard developments.” He hated the shopping mall.
But like them or not, these buildings are part of our urban history, and I think it’s not only interesting but important to understand their impacts. If you want to see which important buildings were missed, at least according to Guardian readers, click here. I have to say that I was happy to see both Montréal and Toronto represented in the original list, as well as a few other buildings that I’ve written about here.
On that note, happy new year to you all, again, and many thanks for reading Architect This City. If you have any suggestions for content you would like to see on this blog in 2016, please leave it in the comment section below. This may be my personal blog, but my goal is to make it valuable for all of you. Hopefully I achieve that sometimes.