Too often, our city’s architecture is taken for granted as fixed infrastructure. Our surroundings always there. Rarely do we question the history of our neighbourhoods and the circumstances that made them to be the beloved places they are. 

This analysis studies the development history of Don Mills/York Mills neighbourhood, a suburbia block built in the 1960s as part of the Don Mills Development master plan, bordered to the west by a thriving commercial district. 

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The residential district has seen increasing development and densitification since its initial creation. Natural woodlands have been parsed and given to new condo and rowhouse development.

In contrast, the industrial district has experienced little radical new development. Rather, periodic interventions have taken place to densify and transform factories and warehouses into storefronts and offices.