# What does Toronto want to be?

By [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com) · 2022-12-17

a-a, architects-alliance, architecture, azure, azure-magazine, city-building, development, housing, interview, peter-clewes, planning, toronto-condo-market, toronto-condos, urbanism, victorian-city

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![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/f5f4e50beb47a5d37dce82e712f14577.jpg)

> _"On some level, we’re \[Toronto\] still trying to be a Victorian city." --_[_Peter Clewes_](https://www.azuremagazine.com/article/peter-clewes-interview-toronto-condo-architecture/)

It is not an exaggeration to say that Peter Clewes, of [architects-Alliance](https://www.architectsalliance.com), is one of the most important architects working in Toronto today. Over the last two decades, Toronto has built a lot of new condominiums and Peter's firm has been behind many of them.

I mean, I currently live in a building designed by architects-Alliance. My mom lives in a building designed by architects-Alliance. And the first condominium I ever lived in around 2005 or so, was naturally also designed by architects-Alliance.

Peter's work is everywhere. And it has been instrumental in helping to define this new Toronto. But what is this _new_ Toronto? It's hard to say really.

Toronto may have built a lot of new things and added a lot of new people over the last two decades, but it has done so almost begrudgingly and without the confidence to say, "we are building this way because _this_ is the kind of global city we want to become."

I think Peter gets a lot right in [this excellent interview with Azure](https://www.azuremagazine.com/article/peter-clewes-interview-toronto-condo-architecture/) about Toronto, condominiums, and city building. Despite everything that has changed, on some level, we _are_ still trying to be a Victorian city.

Of course, we are no longer that city. It's long gone. Time to think much bigger.

_Photo by_ [_Dillon Kydd_](https://unsplash.com/@kyddvisuals?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText) _on_ [_Unsplash_](https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText)

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*Originally published on [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com/what-does-toronto-want-to-be)*