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Unpublished Newswire
Vancouver city councillor Sean Orr introduced a motion to council recently that he admits is “a little personal.”
“My mom absolutely hates these (head)lights,” he said in council chambers late January, “and from what I’ve been hearing, a lot of people do as well.”
Advancements in North American headlight technology over the last decade or so have undoubtedly made the roads safer for drivers. The trade-off, unfortunately, is that many drivers on the receiving end of increasingly bright low-beam lamps have never felt less safe.
That’s “100 per cent” how Orr feels when he encounters...
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