Downtown Providence

A New City

When I move, I can’t wait to continue exploring the rest of Providence. As someone who grew up in a midsize city, I find the place totally fascinating. About 40,000 fewer people live in Providence proper than in Kitchener, Ontario (my hometown), but Providence is also about 3 times denser.

Construction at the New Courthouse

Old Courthouse / New Courthouse

The New Courthouse Construction of Waterloo Region’s new Mega Courthouse is well underway on the block bordered by Duke, Frederick, Weber and Scott Streets. It will add yet another monumental single-use block to the downtown, which does have a certain urban sexiness to it, especially in those sleek computerized renderings, and I do believe that […]

Downtown Kitchener

Downtown Kitchener: Success and More Work Ahead

Kitchener’s recent downtown renewal seems to have genuinely turned around the atmosphere there. The new wider sidewalks with sloped curbs not only make the sidewalks more pedestrian friendly, they also make the roadways less daunting as well. J-walking has become much easier because of the reduced distance between sidewalks and the slower speed of cars […]

Kitchener's Cedar Hill Water Tower

The Beast on the Hill

It’s strange to think that the rust bucket on the horizon of the photo above will no longer loom over Kitchener’s downtown. The Cedar Hill Water Tower is in the last stages of being torn down, and I can’t help but feel like this was a missed opportunity. It was one of the most distinctive […]

Peterborough Square

The last mall on our trip was Peterborough Square – yet another red brick fortress. The inside, however, looks like it’s been renovated pretty recently. It has this sort of re-modernist aesthetic, but with warm materials and colours. There’s wood and marble almost everywhere, cut and arranged in beautiful rounded geometric forms. And yet, amongst […]

Hamilton City Centre

Jackson Square / Hamilton City Centre

The same day we visited Brantford Market Square we also visited Hamilton. There are two malls in downtown Hamilton on the same block, Jackson Square and Hamilton City Centre (formerly Hamilton Eaton Centre). I have yet to find out why they were built in the same block nearly 20 years apart, but presumably the Hamilton […]