Source Feed: The Globe and Mail
Author: Alex Bozikovic, John Lorinc
Publication Date: January 17, 2026 - 05:00
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How ‘single exit stairway’ buildings could make cities better and safer
January 17, 2026
When it’s done, the building will barely register as new. The three-storey apartment complex will settle onto a leafy street as if it had always been there – faced in brick, its twin balconies nudging toward the sidewalk.
But inside, this project in an older Toronto neighbourhood will express radical ambition. Its design unmakes more than half a century of North American assumptions about fire safety, architecture and how to build cities. Designed by Toronto’s Office Ou, the six-unit building will only have a single staircase, not two as Canadian building codes usually require.
Unpublished Newswire
February 7, 2026 - 06:40 | Eric Andrew-Gee | The Globe and Mail
I have a decades-old memory of me swaying to music in a 1970s-style shopping mall and being sharply reprimanded by my mother, who felt that a Black person dancing in public was undignified and reinforced racist stereotypes.
I was maybe eight years old. Too young to fully understand the implications of her admonishment, I hung my head from the weight of my mother’s shame projected onto my lanky little body. All I knew was that she believed that, for Black people, especially poor Black people like us, our survival and dignity hinged on presenting well in public.
In the summer of 2020, an...
February 7, 2026 - 06:30 | Jay Pitter | Walrus
February 7, 2026 - 06:15 | Marcus Gee | The Globe and Mail
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