High-rise living, public space and COVID-19 in the Greater Toronto Area

Project Investigator: Ute Lehrer Funding: SSHRC Insight Grant Term: 2022-2025 High-rise buildings have long been a significant form in urban development. But this form of living comes with its own challenges and the COVID-19 pandemic of the last two years has magnified some of the problems for life in close proximity. While a large body

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Ontario must commit to affordable housing for all, not attainable housing

by Murat Ucoglu and Ute Lehrer During his provincial election victory speech on June 2, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he aimed to build more housing to make the housing market more “attainable” for everyone. Although most people probably didn’t pay close attention to the specific choice of words Ford used during his speech, it’s alarming

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Ute A Lehrer

Professor Credentials PhD Urban Planning, University of California, Los AngelesLic.phil.; History of Arts & Architecture; Sociology; Economic & Social History, University of Zurich Research Keywords Global Suburbanism; Cities & Globalization; Image Production in Cities; Economic Restructuring & Urban Form; Political Economy of the Built Environment; Theory & History of Planning, Urban Design & Architecture; Built Environment, Ethnicity & Immigration to Urban

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Conversation to action: Urban planning resource to address anti-Black racism in cities

Spurred by the death of George Floyd, York University alumna, award-winning placemaker and author Jay Pitter brings her work in urban planning policy and anti-Black racism to the University to create a new resource – Engaging Black People and Power. This powerful resource, developed in a Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change (EUC) graduate-level urban planning course of

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Canada's condo amenity wars

Competition for affluent condo buyers has developers piling on frills—car fleets, meditation walls and even perks that assuage the social conscience By Aaron HutchinsFebruary 23, 2021 The marketing material for Vancouver House listed 20 reasons to buy a home inside the residential skyscraper overlooking False Creek. Among them: use of a fleet of BMWs; access to

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Re-imagining public spaces and designing liveable communities in a COVID-19 world

How do we reimagine public spaces – such as parks, streets, beaches, schools, libraries, and other areas of communities – in a way that they will be liveable for people in a COVID-19 world? What are the issues around equal access and rights to public and social spaces as we begin to live in this

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