# Why Toronto needs more unfussy fabric buildings

By [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com) · 2026-06-22

toronto, college-street, urbanism, street-wall, main-street, architecture, urban-design, planning, zoning

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![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/0c79ae008a424e9f391cf77b4ac38b6f3143494cffe2653c5ee726768e19a945.png)

This is a stretch of College Street (here in Toronto) that I find particularly nice. It's the stretch running west of Bathurst Street to Manning Avenue. What makes it relatively unique is that it's a bit wider than our typical downtown Toronto main street (it's 30m versus the typical 20m) and the [buildings](https://brandondonnelly.com/what-a-beautiful-corner) are of a scale and height that go beyond the typical 2-3 storey mixed-use structures you'll find all across the city. The extra street width also allows for a nice dedicated cycle track. The result is an urban grandeur that I notice every single time I pass through it.

Now, some of the buildings (and retained facades) are older stock, and some of the buildings are more recent builds. So one could argue, "Hey, this is a built form that Toronto has been building successfully for centuries." But the fact that it stands out to me suggests that it still isn't pervasive enough. Wouldn't it be nice if Toronto had more streets like this? Perhaps there are some lessons if we look to the past.

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/6669028a4d0207ca67005f039dce423f2bdf9fe81f896a9d00823295cdb5a65d.png)

At the southwest corner of College and Markham sits an old brick-and-beam office building that was (according to [this source](https://www.postcard-past.com/masonic-hall-and-college-street-toronto/)) designed by Frank R. Cowan and built between 1913 and 1914 to house clothing workshops and space for the Pedlar People Company, a decorative sheet metal manufacturer. For some further history, in 1929 the building was sold for $140,000 (about C$2.5 million in today's dollars) and, at some point in its history, a 6th floor was added on top of the building.

But more important for this discussion is that it is another example of a building built before Toronto had modern zoning. This was a utility building. It was built lot line to lot line, with no setbacks or stepbacks. What Toronto cared about most at that time was whether the building would catch fire and set the block ablaze, not whether it met urban design guidelines. And yet, here we are over a century later and we have urban nerds like me talking about the nice street wall it creates.

The important question for today is how we might best unleash a similar market response along Toronto's major avenues. They may not be for clothing workshops and sheet metal manufacturers, but we have other needs, such as housing, that could be satisfied with similarly unfussy fabric buildings. Ironically, we have policies that now support 6-storey buildings that are roughly of this ilk, but we are not yet seeing a market response at scale.

History tells us that the solution is less complexity and greater simplicity.

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_Aerial and street view image from Google Maps_

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*Originally published on [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com/why-toronto-needs-more-unfussy-fabric-buildings)*