A walk through Toronto’s Canary District reveals that architecture with charm is still possible

THE ARCHITOURIST A walk through Toronto’s Canary District reveals that architecture with charm is still possible DAVE LEBLANC TORONTO SPECIAL TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL PUBLISHED 20 MINUTES AGO Open this photo in gallery: Architects Naama Blonder, right, and Misha Bereznyak at the Canary District in Toronto, on Sept. 18. EDUARDO LIMA/THE GLOBE AND MAIL COMMENTS SHARE SAVE FOR LATER Listen to this article Learn more about audio Log in or create a free account to listen to this article. “It’s a by-the-book, best practice neighbourhood,” says Smart Density co-founder Naama Blonder as she walks across Front Street East toward the Canadian National Railway Police Building (1923, James, Proctor and Redfern). Bicycle lanes, exactly two automobile lanes and a streetcar right-of-way are all noted as we reach the wider-than-average sidewalk and continue east past the Cooper Koo Family Cherry Street YMCA and pause beside the colourful, slanted legs of the Lucie and Thornton Blackburn Conference Centre (a George Brown College building named for former slaves who came to Toronto via the Underground Railroad in 1834). Here, and across Cooperage Street, the sidewalks are so wide they’ve been interrupted by street furniture, multiple planters and bicycle ring-and-post lockups. “It’s everything City of Toronto planners ever wanted,” she continues, “and it’s beautiful.” While Ms. Blonder and husband/co-founder Misha Bereznyak were not yet in the country in 2007, Google Streetview can show them what patrons of the old Canary Restaurant (which gave the new district its name) looked like before the planning party – and the accelerated development of the 2015 Pan Am Games – transformed this forgotten corner: narrow sidewalks, zero public transit infrastructure and a few lonely trees providing shade to squirrels rather than people. The Architourist: A gentle paddle through Toronto’s new Don River mouth Today, there are mid-rise residential buildings lining cobblestoned Front Street, from Cherry House at Canary Landing, with its rippling white façade with red brick below, to the interesting buff-and-beige brick ‘zipper’ patterning on Canary House (behind the old Canary Restaurant), retail such as coffee shops and greengrocers, and non-residential buildings to help animate the district, such as the new Indigenous Hub (the silver and red building with the ‘skirt’) with its dynamic sculpture, Equilibrium by Wendat First Nation sculptor Ludovic Boney. But while Ms. Blonder,…