Another Sort of Municipal Archive

The Phin Park Apartments from above in 1960. Image: adapted from City of Toronto Archives, Series 12, Image 60.

If the built environment is not an archive, then it’s a darn good book. At least that’s how it has always felt to me. Not only are all aspects of the urban fabric laden with the uses and values that informed their construction and assembly, but the life story of each building is too.1I’m referring, of course, to Stewart Brand’s How Buildings Learn. The whole vista will tell you stories (or serve as a sort of record) and whenever I’m out and about – whether in Ottawa, Toronto, or elsewhere – my eyes are peeled.

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Notes

Notes
1 I’m referring, of course, to Stewart Brand’s How Buildings Learn.