Past and Future Urban Planning with Eric Sehr

(In English/inglise keeles)

Listen here or on your favourtie podcast platform

Eric Sehr, Project Manager for the City of Toronto’s waterfront renewal projects, displays equal enthusiasm for the past as he does for the future. It’s a refreshing balance no matter where you stand on the issue of preserving the heritage of a city versus making way for new structures. And on that note, he’s written a great deal about the history of Toronto’s buildings and neighbourhoods. 

(If you like what you hear, Sehr will be delivering an online historical lecture on August 8th, 2023, look below to sign up.)

In this episode, hear about:

🏘️how Toronto has changed over the decades and how it will change in the years to come

🏘️Eric’s favourite buildings in Toronto

🏘the concept of layering a city

🏘️and much more!

Organizations, places, and content mentioned in this episode include:

-Information about the City of Toronto’s waterfront revitalization projects: https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/planning-development/waterfront/ 

-Eric Sehr’s Toronto Shaped blog: https://torontoshaped.wordpress.com/

-Eric’s Amalgamated blog: https://ericvery.wordpress.com/ 

-Eric Sehr’s Master’s research, “Reurbanizing Suburban Arterial Streets: Lessons from Sheppard Avenue West, Toronto”: https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/concern/papers/9k41zd67q 

-About the Harbord Street Bridge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B880JI_-9sk&ab_channel=OldTorontoSeries 

-Background on Scarborough’s Bluffer’s Park being used as a garbage dump in the past: https://www.blogto.com/city/2021/06/time-when-scarborugh-bluffs-collapsed/ 

-Union Station, one of Eric’s favourite historic buildings in Toronto: https://www.toronto.ca/services-payments/venues-facilities-bookings/booking-city-facilities/union-station/ 

-Old City Hall, another one of Eric’s favourite historic buildings in Toronto: https://www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx?id=4255 

-The history of the Prince Edward Viaduct: https://www.toronto.ca/explore-enjoy/history-art-culture/online-exhibits/web-exhibits/web-exhibits-architecture-infrastructure/bridging-the-don-the-prince-edward-viaduct/bridging-the-don-the-viaduct-opens/#:~:text=The%20Prince%20was%20immensely%20popular,to%20the%20Prince%20Edward%20Viaduct. 

-Details about Eric Sehr’s August 8th, 2023 lecture titled “The Tragic Fate of Huron Elliott: A Forgotten Indigenous Worker on Toronto’s Water Tunnel Project”: https://torontofamilyhistory.org/learn/toronto-history-lecture/