This weekend, urban enthusiasts around the world will be leading free walking tours of their neighbourhoods as part of Jane’s Walk. Started in Toronto, this annual festival was created to help people explore their cities through the eyes of local residents. The global event was inspired by urban activist Jane Jacobs, who championed community-based city building.

Executive Director of Jane’s Walk, Denise Pinto, graduated from the Daniels Faculty’s Master of Landscape Architecture program. She will be leading one of the 135 walks in Toronto this year. Here is a preview of her walk and others led by Daniels Faculty alumni and friends.

Samba Launch Party Procession!
Led by Denise Pinto (MLA 2011) and Zahra Ebrahim
May 2 | 6:00pm

Join Jane's Walk Director, Denise Pinto, and Founder/Principal of archiTEXT, Zahra Ebrahim, as they lead a walk procession right into the Official 2014 Jane's Walk Launch Party at 918 Bathurst. Denise and Zahra will be telling stories about Jane's Walks close to home and far away, using examples from the streetscape to tease out themes from the 2014 Jane's Walk event. Between stories, we'll dance. Samba Elégua (http://www.sambaelegua.com/) will accompany the crowd to drum, shake, swing and swarm as we travel along Bathurst corridor.

The launch party will be held at 918 Bathurst, starting at 7pm. Ken Greenberg, author of Walking Home, will be hosting the event, and Chief City Planner, Jennifer Keesmaat, will be giving a keynote talk on the importance of walking.

King and Spadina: One of the Two Kings
Led by Paul Bedford and Margie Zeidler (BArch 1987)
May 3 | 10:00am

This walk will, in part, explore one of Jacobs’ precepts in Death and Life of Great American Cities – that “new ideas must use old buildings”. Inside the historic buildings of this neighbourhood (and others like it), the new ideas that will fuel our city’s economy long into the future are percolating. These types of spaces (“a good lot of plain, ordinary, low-value old buildings, including some rundown old buildings”)* are essential and precious to any vibrant urban economy.

*Death and Life of Great American Cities - Jane Jacobs; Random House; 1961. Chapter 10: The need for aged buildings.

Summerhill Summerdale
Led by John van Nostrand (BArch 1972)
May 3 | 2:00pm

Leaving from the former North Toronto Station (now Summerhill LCBO), this tour will visit Woodlawn, the oldest continuously occupied house in Toronto, designed by John Howard in 1834; travel through Summerhill Neighbourhood and Summerhill Gardens, developed in the 1920s as an English Garden Suburb; explore the Rosehill developments that grew up following the completion of the Yonge Subway; visit Rosehill Reservoir, the City's first reservoir; birdwatch through David Balfour Ravine; and return to the North Toronto Station through Chestnut Park, one of Rosedale's oldest and swankiest neighbourhoods.

Walk the Unwalkable: Six Points Interchange
Led by Julie Bogdanowicz (Daniels Faculty Instructor)
May 3 | 4:00pm

The overpass intersection of Bloor/Dundas/Kipling represents an outdated planning regime that prioritized car movement above all else. Pedestrian movement though this intersection is limited and in some cases impossible. This 1950's ramping overpass infrastructure (a cousin of the Gardiner Expressway and the lower section of the Don Valley Parkway) is at the end of its lifespan and will be demolished (work is scheduled to begin in the Fall). The new road network will provide for all modes of mobility and a generous public realm. Come and walk this unwalkable interchange before it is torn down.