As part of its 'Thought Exchange' lecture series, The Toronto Reference Library will be hosting historian Richard White, who will discuss his recently published book Planning Postwar Toronto: the Planners, the Plans, Their Legacies, 1940-1980. White, a history professor at the University of Toronto's Mississauga campus, has compiled a thorough study of the planning policies that shaped Toronto during the city's formative mid-century decades.
White's comprehensive overview of plans and documents—and a wealth of interviews and secondary sources—is combined with a critical analysis of planning policy and its impacts. The book has been hailed as a nuanced and intelligent analysis of Toronto's planning history, with an in-depth exploration of the relationship between evolving post-war planning and Toronto's emergence as a metropolitan centre.
The cover of Planning Toronto, image courtesy of UBC Press
The lecture and discussion will be held at the Reference Library's Hinton Learning Theatre on Thursday, April 14th, with copies of the book available for sale. The Toronto Reference Library is located at 789 Yonge Street, and the event is free.