Jason Thorne
@jasonthorne.bsky.social
Canadian Urbanist and Chief Planner for the City of Toronto 🇨🇦
Celebrating World Architecture Day by kicking off our first “Urban Design and Architecture Week” for City staff … bringing together staff working in design roles and design professions across multiple City Divisions to talk about the importance of design in public buildings and spaces.
Continuing the tradition of ULI’s annual “Chief Planner Tour de Toronto” … this year’s ride was from Weston to Midtown.
Toronto Buildings has expanded its Pre-Approved Building Plans Program with two new fourplex & two new sixplex designs prepared by the local firm LGA Architectural Partners. You can download renderings, presentation drawings & permitting sets for free from the City’s website at tinyurl.com/3xeenbjy
Join the HBSA on a walking tour with architectural enthusiast and drag queen extraordinaire, Irma Girdle. Tours come with comedy, candid commentary and fun facts, but also a pub stop. Post-Modernism in Hamilton, amongst other topics, will be covered during the tour. Find out more:
MOD HAMILTON Walking Tour with Irma Girdle!
hbsarchitects.ca
Thanks to everyone who took the time to meet up with me during my wander through Poland and the Baltics … Igor and Gillian (Warsaw), Artis (Riga), Andrė and Sabina (Vilnius), Kristi, Andro, Mathias, Pasi, Eugen, Aleksi and others (Tallinn) and TJ, Ethan and others (Wroclaw).
Not something I have seen before. Instead of building the new on top of the old … putting the old on top of the new. Traditional wood frame home that was previously on the site, reconstructed at the top of a new low-rise building (in Riga, Latvia).
Are we going to start seeing more Canada-Europe exchange and collaboration on urban issues? Toronto sharing the stage with Vilnius, Kiev, Rotterdam and The Hague at Placemaking Week Europe 2026 (Wrocław, Poland).
The neighborhood pub. Sometimes raucous, sometimes contemplative, sometimes both. From debates to trivia nights, it can be a true third place, just like cafés, offering community beyond home and work. I’ve witnessed this in numerous pubs in the UK. A vital piece of urban life.
The second longest building in Europe. The 860 metre Falowiec building on the outskirts of Gdansk.
New favorite form of multimodal transport.
Jason Thorne@jasonthorne.bsky.social · 3w agoA brief moment of zen for your timeline … the boat train on the Elbląg Canal in Poland.
A brief moment of zen for your timeline … the boat train on the Elbląg Canal in Poland.
One thing we can never do enough is celebrate our heroes while they’re still with us. Today’s the 90th birthday of the great urbanist Jan Gehl, who started as a hero to me and became a mentor & friend. I’m proud to have been asked to contribute to his celebration messages today. Happy birthday, Jan.
A fascinating streetscape. This is Elbląg (Poland) where post-war reconstruction of its Old Town didn’t really begin until the late 1970s. It was inspired by the historical architecture, and built on the original street grid and building footprints, but with a very distinctive post-modernist style.
A post that is pretty much just for @tomflood.bsky.social. Walking the streets of Elbląg, Poland today, and the streets are lined with dozens of these amazing banners on all the light poles.
Tony Soprano statue by artist Donatas Jankauskas in Vilnius, Lithuania (no … I don’t know why).
Dzintari Forest Park in Jūrmala, Latvia … with an 11-storey observation tower designed by architect ARHIS.
If your city is going to have a big building boom during one architectural period, the Art Nouveau period is a good choice. This is Riga.
🚶♀️🚴 New research from Ireland's National Transport Authority confirms how active travel infrastructure is an investment that pays for itself many times over, benefiting people, the environment and the economy. read more about it here: buff.ly/tRlpIc0
For a bit different kind of weekend inspiration, please share a picture of what you consider to be the best piece of ARCHITECTURE in your city, however you choose to define architecture. Bonus points for less-then-obvious choices, and for explaining your answer.
A small town with some impressive cycling infrastructure … biking around Tartu, Estonia.
A rare glimpse inside the now-abandoned Tallinna Linnahall in Tallinn, Estonia (for the architecture biennale).
“The mark of a great city is in how it treats its ordinary spaces, not its special ones” (Aaron Renn). Under a bridge and along a highway embankment in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Laisvės Avenue in Kaunas, Lithuania … a pedestrian street lined with an amazing collection of inter-war era modernist buildings.
“The Wise Old Man" by Žygimantas Amelynas and Tadas Šimkus (Kaunas, Lithuania).
Postmodernism isn’t usually my favourite architectural style, but when it’s built like this … wow! This is the University of Warsaw Library by architect Marek Budzyński.
Before and after. The newly completed transformation of Zgoda Street in Warsaw (designed by Architektura Krajobrazu).
Extension of the West Toronto Railpath south of Dundas is finally taking shape. This ramp will connect to a bridge to Sorauren Park across the tracks.
