Toon Dreessen

The city should encourage investment in our communities, writes Architects DCA president Toon Dreessen.

What if we thought differently about our publicly-owned assets?

How can cities help create the kind of community that supports small businesses? One way is with good public amenities.

Area could be an incubator for testing how to support small businesses in a post-COVID economy, creating the walkable, sustainable community we all aspire to – but city's new vision falls short.

Ottawa, like many cities, experiences cognitive dissonance. We need to rethink what we are doing, and how, if we are serious about being the most livable mid-sized city in North America.

One of the keys to business growth is ensuring a steady supply of customers. What better way to do that than to build more housing close to them?

Our current crisis is teaching us that social spaces within our increasingly dense urban places matter, writes Architects DCA president Toon Dreessen

In Ottawa, lax bylaws fail to offer much incentive to property owners to redevelop or restore their empty and boarded-up buildings

Architect Toon Dreessen breaks down the barriers to creating four and six-storey developments that integrate into existing communities

When designing our next interprovincial crossing, we must think about how it will function and last for the next century, writes Ottawa architect Toon Dreessen