Brandon Donnelly
Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly.
Brandon Donnelly
Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly.
NXT City and Pavilion Project are hosting an event on March 23, 2017 here in Toronto (at the Drake Hotel) called Short Term, Lasting Impact.
It’s all about how “temporary, low-cost and scalable [urban] interventions” can bring about lasting / meaningful change within our cities.
Here’s some info on the panelists / topics:
Matt Rubinoff, Tusk Global // STACKT
This temporary shipping container market proposes a visionary complex with everything from retail and restaurants to studio spaces and a brewery. What are some of the challenges of bringing an unconventional project to life?
Rui Pimenta & Layne Hinton, Art Spin // IN/FUTURE ART FESTIVAL
This art experience reclaimed a beloved Toronto space, transforming it briefly through a multidisciplinary art and music festival. What opportunities can site-specific events bring to celebrate underused spaces?
Michael McLelland, ERA Architects // PORTLANDS PROJECT
There are many long-term and competing visions for Toronto’s Portlands. How do we make best use of this prime city site today? How can short-term planning inform a future agenda and create critical cultural space in the near-term?
I know the folks behind both of these non-profits (NXT City and Pavilion Project), and so I am happy to support this event. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased here.
Laneway housing is back in the news here in Toronto. Last week the University of Toronto reported that they would like to build 50 laneway houses within the Huron-Sussex neighborhood and that they are aiming to start a 2 house pilot project some time in 2018.
Here is a drawing from their Planning Study:
The MIT Senseable City Lab recently looked at which cities are the most “shareable” when it comes to ride sharing services such as UberPOOL. Their goal was determine what fraction of individual trips (inefficient) could be shared or pooled (more efficient). To do this, they developed a single “shareability curve.” Full research paper, here.
Not surprisingly, New York City does very well in this analysis. Its shareability is well above 95% for a delta of 5 minutes. That’s because the city has a large population, a small geographic area, enormous density, and lots of taxi traffic. (They used taxi data in their research.)
But New York City also does very well when it comes to transit ridership. Highest in North America. So it strikes me that the characteristics that make a city “shareable” also apply to transit – which is effectively another form of ride sharing. Might we see the distinction between these 2 forms of mobility blur in the future? I think so.
NXT City and Pavilion Project are hosting an event on March 23, 2017 here in Toronto (at the Drake Hotel) called Short Term, Lasting Impact.
It’s all about how “temporary, low-cost and scalable [urban] interventions” can bring about lasting / meaningful change within our cities.
Here’s some info on the panelists / topics:
Matt Rubinoff, Tusk Global // STACKT
This temporary shipping container market proposes a visionary complex with everything from retail and restaurants to studio spaces and a brewery. What are some of the challenges of bringing an unconventional project to life?
Rui Pimenta & Layne Hinton, Art Spin // IN/FUTURE ART FESTIVAL
This art experience reclaimed a beloved Toronto space, transforming it briefly through a multidisciplinary art and music festival. What opportunities can site-specific events bring to celebrate underused spaces?
Michael McLelland, ERA Architects // PORTLANDS PROJECT
There are many long-term and competing visions for Toronto’s Portlands. How do we make best use of this prime city site today? How can short-term planning inform a future agenda and create critical cultural space in the near-term?
I know the folks behind both of these non-profits (NXT City and Pavilion Project), and so I am happy to support this event. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased here.
Laneway housing is back in the news here in Toronto. Last week the University of Toronto reported that they would like to build 50 laneway houses within the Huron-Sussex neighborhood and that they are aiming to start a 2 house pilot project some time in 2018.
Here is a drawing from their Planning Study:
The MIT Senseable City Lab recently looked at which cities are the most “shareable” when it comes to ride sharing services such as UberPOOL. Their goal was determine what fraction of individual trips (inefficient) could be shared or pooled (more efficient). To do this, they developed a single “shareability curve.” Full research paper, here.
Not surprisingly, New York City does very well in this analysis. Its shareability is well above 95% for a delta of 5 minutes. That’s because the city has a large population, a small geographic area, enormous density, and lots of taxi traffic. (They used taxi data in their research.)
But New York City also does very well when it comes to transit ridership. Highest in North America. So it strikes me that the characteristics that make a city “shareable” also apply to transit – which is effectively another form of ride sharing. Might we see the distinction between these 2 forms of mobility blur in the future? I think so.
What you see is mid-rise infill (orange) along the main streets and low-rise infill (purple) along the secondary streets and laneways. There’s also a “living lane” that runs north-south through the neighborhood.
I know we’ve talked a lot about laneway housing and neighborhood intensification on this blog, but I hadn’t seen the above plan before. And I wonder if we aren’t going to look back at this neighborhood plan as a prototype for low-rise intensification.
What you see is mid-rise infill (orange) along the main streets and low-rise infill (purple) along the secondary streets and laneways. There’s also a “living lane” that runs north-south through the neighborhood.
I know we’ve talked a lot about laneway housing and neighborhood intensification on this blog, but I hadn’t seen the above plan before. And I wonder if we aren’t going to look back at this neighborhood plan as a prototype for low-rise intensification.
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