The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces - Film Screening

Join us for a screening of the digital restoration of William H. “Holly” Whyte’s 1980 film, The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces, courtesy of Anthology Film Archives (AFA) and in partnership with Project for Public Spaces (PPS). The screening will feature light refreshments and a lively panel discussion with architects, designers, planners, and community builders whose thoughtful reflections will activate our collective imagination about the future of Toronto’s public realm.

Based on the book with the same title, this companion film is narrated by Holly himself and summarizes his seminal 1980 Street Life Project study of New York City’s plazas, widely regarded within the realm of city planning. Whyte presents deep insights – in an unpretentious and often hilarious tone – into the ways residents interact with urban environments. Whyte’s ideas and simple observational methods remain profoundly influential in the worlds of placemaking and livable cities.

The remastered film premiered in September 2025 in a screening series at Anthology Film Archives in New York City hosted by the Municipal Art Society of New York. This event is hosted in partnership with Spacing Magazine.

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Panelists

Ilana Altman, Co-Executive Director, The Bentway and Urbanist-in-Residence, School of Cities, University of Toronto

Jen Angel, CEO, Evergreen

Fadi Masoud, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture and Urbanism, University of Toronto and Director, Centre for Landscape Research

Jason Thorne, Chief Planner and Executive Director of City Planning, City of Toronto

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Introductory Remarks

Daniel Fusca, Urbanist in Residence School of Cities and Manager, Parks and Recreation, City of Toronto

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Moderator

John Lorinc, Toronto journalist and editor

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Speaker Biographies

Fadi Masoud is an Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture and Urbanism at the University of Toronto and the Director of the Centre for Landscape Research. His research and teaching focus on the relationships between environmental systems, policy, and design. Masoud currently leads projects that use the landscape as a critical foundation for urban climate adaptation and resilience. Prior to joining the University of Toronto, Masoud held teaching and research appointments at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. Masoud is trained as a planner and landscape architect and is the recipient of several awards, including the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects (OALA) Research and Innovation Award, the Council of Landscape Architects (CELA) Teaching Excellence Award, the Jacob Weidenmann Prize, and was a Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) National Olmsted Scholar. He is the editor of Terra-Sorta-Firma: Developing the Littoral Gradient (Actar 2020), an atlas of urbanism on reclaimed land. Masoud currently sits on Waterfront Toronto’s Design Review Panel and was a member of the City of Toronto’s Urban Flooding Working Group, which helped launch the city’s first Resilience Strategy.

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Ilana Altman

Ilana Altman is a cultural planner and designer who has a background in art and architecture. In her role as Co-Executive Director she works to unlock new public space opportunities, build strong civic partnerships and implement innovative and engaging programming, resulting in new inclusive experiences across the city.

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Jason Thorne is an accomplished city builder with more than 25 years of experience in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. He is currently the Chief Planner at the City of Toronto where he leads a team of more than 350 professionals in the fields of urban planning, urban design, architecture, heritage planning, transportation planning and land economics.

Prior to joining the City of Toronto, Jason spent 10 years leading the Planning and Economic Development Department at the City of Hamilton. He has also held senior roles at the provincial government with Metrolinx and the Ontario Growth Secretariat. As a Partner at the Toronto-based planning, architecture and design firm planningAlliance, Jason worked on planning and community building projects across Canada, West Africa and South and Central America.

Jason began his career working as a community organizer and activist for a variety of not-for-profit environmental organizations.

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Jen Angel is a builder of community, momentum and places people love. As CEO of Evergreen, she works with public, private and community partners to build better public spaces. For more than 30 years, Evergreen has been bringing people together with nature and each other in cities across Canada. Prior to Evergreen, Jen helped create some of Nova Scotia’s favourite places by land and sea, leading a team to support economic development, community health and well being, and climate adaptation agendas through better public infrastructure. Her portfolio includes real estate, infrastructure and land-based program development and governance, participatory planning, and design. She is the Chair of the Canadian Infrastructure Council, tasked with delivering Canada’s first National Infrastructure Assessment. She’s served on a number of Boards, including as Chair of Discover Halifax, Chair of the Downtown Halifax Business Commission, and Chair of the Fundraising Cabinet of United Way Halifax. She’s been named among Atlantic Canada’s Top 50 CEOs and 25 Most Powerful Women, received the Allyship Award from Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre, and is currently Placemaking Fellow with the Canadian Urban Institute.

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Moderator Bio

John Lorinc is a Toronto journalist and editor. He writes about cities, climate, local history and business for various media, including The Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, Corporate Knights and Spacing. John is the author of five books, including No Jews Live Here: A Memoir (2024) and co-edited several anthologies in the Coach House Books uTOpia series, most recently Messy Cities: Why We Can't Plan Everything, with Dylan Reid, Zahra Ebrahim and Leslie Woo.

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School of Cities leverages urban data and lived experience to improve policy and decision-making, and collaborates with communities to make cities and urban regions more sustainable, prosperous, inclusive and just.

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The School of Cities is committed to making its programs accessible to persons with disabilities. If you need an accommodation to participate in this event, please write to [email protected] at least 48 hours prior to the program with information regarding the requested accommodation.

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Host or Publisher School of Cities, University of Toronto