In my roundup of shows at the Contact festival, I somehow missed the latest exhibition by Michael Awad at Nicholas Metivier. An architect and artist, Awad has been at work for years on his Entire City Project – an encyclopedic take on Toronto’s streets, public buildings and infrastructure. His show closes Saturday, May 19.

There’s another Awad event of interest on Friday: Photo + Design, a symposium at the Design Exchange that brings together Awad with three other notable photographers, Peter MacCallum, Montreal’s Marc Cramer and Vancouver’s Nic Lehoux, and the wonderful Toronto-New York architecture photographer Ben Rahn. They’ll talk about their work and share “their unique perspectives on architecture and design.”

It’s Jane’s Walk weekend. Lots to see, for sure, but here’s my favourite: Margaret Zeidler and Paul Bedford touring around King and Spadina. Zeidler owns 401 Richmond in the area. Bedford is, of course, the city’s former chief planner, and he led the Kings initiative in the old City of Toronto, opening up the King-Spadina and King-Parliament districts to looser zoning.

The CONTACT photography festival kicks off this week, and a few shows should be of interest to architecture. First there’s Lynne Cohen, whose eerie photographs reveal empty, unexceptional rooms – a firing range, a modernist office-tower lobby – into spaces pregnant with meaning. Curator Barr Gilmore does a walk-through May 8.

Another pick: work by the Building Storeys group at Steam Whistle Brewery.

Now online and in this month’s Dwell: my story about the CP Harbour House by MJ Architects. It’s a very interesting model of second-home living: a getaway for two families, the architects and their good friends, with two houses that are separate but linked. They share a deck, an overhead “shed” and some of their utilities. It’s a simple idea that depends on trust, good communication, and carefully executed design, and in this case it works very well.

The architects Melana Janzen and John McMinn - who are married – each had an interesting career before they met. They’re now launching their joint practice in earnest and I’m impressed with their work so far. Here is my Toronto Life piece about their home and office.

How do you bring a Brutalist building back to life?

I’ve written about a couple of other successful renovations, at a library at York University and another at the University of Toronto. Here’s another, very strong example. Kearns Mancini Architects have been renovating part of a former library in the South Building – an 1973 Brutalist complex that is massive in scale and presence – at University of Toronto’s Mississauga campus.

Photo by Michael Graydon.

Now online: a set of four Great Spaces interiors features that I wrote for last month’s Toronto Life magazine.

Check out this one about the loft of graphic designers/branding geniuses Sali Tabacchi – Melissa Agostino and Henry Tyminski – and their son Enzo.

Also this one, about MJ Architecture’s John McMinn and Melana Janzen. I’ve also written about one of their projects, a beautiful and innovative cottage, for Dwell’s May issue. That’s out soon.

I’ll have some other things to say here on the blog this week.

Meanwhile, enjoy..

It’s rare that a story about a vacation home provides an opportunity to explore one of the basic questions in contemporary architecture. Yet: In today’s Globe and Mail I’ve got a story on a contemporary ‘barn’  by Atelier Kastelic Buffey, and I do that, writing about the role of traditional building forms in contemporary design.

I just wrote a short piece for Architectural Record about the House in Frogs Hollow, by Williamson Chong Architects.

Coming soon, an improvement to one of Toronto’s best public spaces: Market Street.

The city has approved plans to expand the sidewalk across from the 19th-century main market building. The sidewalks will slope down to the street, eliminating a curb and creating seamless patios for new restaurants. This is all part of the redevelopment of the block on Market Street, from Front to the Esplanade, that’s now being designed by Taylor Smyth Architects.

Hello. It’s been a while. Tonight (Friday) I’ll be attending the opening of what should be hugely interesting conference. It’s in honour of George Baird, the former dean of U of T’s architecture school and one of the most influential people in Canadian architecture, ever.