Chris Bateman
CityLab
Toronto, ON, Canada
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Past articles by Chris:
A New Era is Due for Toronto’s Treasured Space Age Amusement Park
Premier Doug Ford wants to see Ontario Place redeveloped. A preservation battle over the vital piece of Canada’s postwar architectural history is looming. → Read More
The Chicago Design Titan Who Gave a Boost to Canada's 'Second City'
How Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the final director of the Bauhaus school, sparked an architectural arms race in downtown Toronto among Canada’s major banks. → Read More
What Toronto Should Expect From Another 4 Years of John Tory
An urban planner loses her bid for mayor but the progressive vote at council, which Ontario Premier Doug Ford seemed interested in weakening, remains largely unchanged. → Read More
Doug Ford’s Mission to Blow Up Toronto’s City Council
It didn’t take long at all for the newly-elected Ontario premier to plunge Canada’s largest city into a political and constitutional crisis. → Read More
How a Political Crisis Fueled an Urban Planner’s Mayoral Campaign
After conservative Doug Ford, the newly elected Premier of Ontario, announced that Toronto will lose 18 city council seats, Jennifer Keesmaat decided to run for office. → Read More
The Photographer Who Watched Toronto Become a City
Arthur Goss found work as an office boy at the age of 11 in one of the few local government offices where a camera could be found. By his death, he had taken 35,000 photographs—vital documents of the metropolis’s formative years. → Read More
After Van Attack, Toronto Balances Grief and Resolve
A city that has long prized diversity is grappling with new security fears after Monday’s vehicle attack that killed 10 pedestrians. → Read More
Why Toronto Went Under an Expressway to Give Downtown Its Newest Public Space
The Bentway only opened last January but hasn’t had trouble drawing people to a previously overlooked spot beneath the Gardiner. → Read More
How Toronto Turned an Airport Rail Failure Into a Commuter Victory
The Union Pearson Express launched with expensive rides and low ridership. Now, with fares slashed in half and a light rail connection in the works, it’s an increasingly popular transit alternative for workers. → Read More
The Ambitious Design and Low Density of Toronto's Newest Subway Stations
Despite its shortcomings, the scope of the 5.3-mile Spadina line addition is ambitious. → Read More
Why Is Margaret Atwood Arguing About Housing On Twitter?
Tensions in Toronto always run high when it comes to housing, and Atwood was involved in several passionate online exchanges last week over the motives behind her opposition to a project and the precedent she and her neighbors were setting. → Read More
Fixing Toronto's Worst Streetcar Commute
Connecting a number of rapidly densifying neighborhoods, the 504 King will finally get priority over cars along a central portion of its journey thanks to a one-year, $1.5 million pilot study starting this fall. → Read More
The bloody story of "the mad dog of Jarvis Street"
I've held on to this picture for some time, unsure what to do with it. I'm not sure how I first came across it in the Toronto Telegram archives but it's always stuck in my mind. The picture shows a suited Mickey McDonald with his arm around his wife, Margaret,... → Read More
Santa Claus Parade Road Closures in Toronto 2015
Santa Claus Parade road closures will affect numerous streets in Toronto this Sunday, November 15. While the closures don't get underway until 8 a.m. police will be removing cars parked along the route as early as 6 a.m.... → Read More
Toronto used to have a cocktail bar in an old airplane
For just under 10 years, the Trans-Canada Air Lines aircraft registration CF-CGE flew commercially across the Americas and Europe. A Lockheed Super Constellation built in Burbank, Calif., it could hold roughly 100 passengers and had a range of about 8,200 kms--roughly the distance between Toronto to Moscow. Unfortunately, the propellor-powered... → Read More
The 5 oldest hotels in Toronto
The York Hotel at King and Berkeley was one of the first hotels in Toronto. Opened 1805, just 12 years after the founding of the Town of York, the timber-framed, two-storey building briefly housed the Upper Canada legislature meetings after the first parliament building was destroyed during the American occupation... → Read More
Reversing escalators and TTC crowd control tactics
Navigating the Toronto subway at the height of rush hour is a major headache, but the TTC has a few weapons in its arsenal designed to manage the crowds. Among them: plastic barriers, megaphones, and reversible escalators. TTC spokesman Brad Ross says many of the escalators from the Bloor-Danforth platforms... → Read More
The life and death of Googie architecture in Toronto
The Googie architectural movement didn't last long. For about two decades, starting in 1940s post-war Southern California, the distinctively whimsical building style became the go-to aesthetic for motels, drive-thrus, gas stations, and other (mostly) auto-centric structures across the U.S. and Canada. In Toronto, Yonge-Finch Plaza stands out as a classic... → Read More
Where do the coconuts at Sunnyside Beach come from?
A few years ago David Snaith was walking on the beach near Sunnyside with his young son when they came across a coconut washed up on the sand. It was intact, and showed no hint as to its origins. "I'm from Australia, and a coconut washed on the beach isn't... → Read More
What happened to Terminal 2 at Pearson Airport?
The signs along Highway 5 point the way for drivers headed to Pearson Airport. Turn left for Terminal 1, keep going straight ahead for Terminal 3. But what about Terminal 2? Why does Canada's busiest airport appear to be missing a critical structure? Toronto isn't the only airport with an... → Read More