Their unsolicited plan is, in a word, lovely. Like what they created at Dundas Square downtown, the duo suggests an underground link to the TTC station, with an entrance placed directly on Main Square under a canopy or, in their words, a “covered loggia.” The canopy would then extend south down Main Street, past a Brown + Storey Architects-designed building (more on that in a second) to create connections to the rec centre and the GO station.

Initially, Yonge-Dundas was reluctantly embraced by Toronto as a true public space. Run by a board with a mandate to generate revenue and coupled with being patrolled by private security, its very “publicness” was, and is, often in question.

Kim Storey and James Brown, whose Brown + Storey Architects earned national and city awards a few years back for their redesign of the actual station – a green roof, new bus terminal and a thoughtful approach to light and entranceways – have studied the whole area and see an innovation incubator with offices and creative light industry (like 401 Richmond downtown) as possible puzzle pieces.

'We think that railway operations should be as responsive to the needs of the city as the city is asked to be accommodating of the railway operations, and that this philosophy (rather than avoidance and exclusion) should be driving our zoning and design decisions,' says Storey. And we at dandyhorse tend to agree.

A 38-storey proposal in Mississauga's Cooksville neighbourhood may signal the start of a revitalization trend linked to pending transit investment.

Enter Brown and Storey. The firm has a plan for no more money that will generate more public space and green the neighbourhood while helping to reduce noise and boost safety.

One of the most thoughtful, pause-worthy and inviting of Toronto's public spaces.

Indeed, they are at complete odds with the basic purpose of transit. They don't connect; they divide... To degrade huge swaths of the city in the name of making it a better place doesn't add up.

It might be the most hopeful sign in a while that something right occasionally happens on the Toronto transit scene. The TTC — much maligned for its function-over-form style of business — has won one of five Toronto Urban Design Awards for public buildings for the modernized Victoria Park bus terminal ... a lighter, airier public realm [is] among its winning features.

Unhappy at the prospect of what [Kevin] Putnam calls a “huge canvas for graffiti” along the tracks, members of the Junction Triangle Rail Committee and Wabash Building Society hired award-winning architects James Brown and Kim Storey to draft an alternative plan.

It works because it doesn’t get in the way by trying to be the big attraction itself—at least not usually. It’s a showcase, not just for the ads and its neighbours, but for the citizens of the city who fill the big empty space with their bodies and their laughter and their energy. Everything else is just a complement to the one feature that truly defines the square’s success as a civic space. One decade later, it turns out to be a monument to people. To us. To Toronto.

When [Dundas Square] officially opened 10 years ago this week, it was widely criticized for not being a park. Well, no, it’s not a park, and was never meant to be. It is a square, a form with which Torontonians have had little experience. And although programmed within an inch of its life, this is the best place in the city to sit and watch the passing parade.

Chatham’s Kingston Park Revitalization Project, designed by Brown and Storey Architects Inc. has won the 2012 Ontario Wood WORKS award for the Institutional and Commercial Wood Design <$10M category ... The jury noted that this park revitalization used trees destroyed by the emerald ash borer to produce a facility that the jury called ‘an extraordinary example in this typology of building.’

"Life for the TTC commuter at Victoria Park Station has forever changed for the better."

“Having this park revitalization recognized as the winner out of 25 in Ontario confirms what a great community asset we have,” said Communities in Bloom Co-ordinator Monica Moore. “Since its July opening, it has already become an exciting new family destination, drawing residents in from across the region.”

"For 13 months, residents of north Chatham lost the use of their biggest park, but that vanished in a double take or two Saturday when Kingston Park reopened.

"Hundreds of kids and their parents descended on the park for the grand opening. The giddy screams of delight from the kids and the smiles on their parents' faces said it all."

This wasn't a landscape intended for anything more than industrial purposes. And yet, it has an undeniable appeal ... At a time when people feel increasingly cynical and alienated, the path reminds us that cities are also communities, not just places where people live and work, but places they inhabit. Any project that enables and encourages residents to take possession of the city should be enabled and encouraged.

The square (on the southeast corner of Yonge and Dundas Sts.) is one of the most powerful signs that Toronto has come of age. This is the city at its most European, its most urban and sophisticated. This is one of those rare occasions where Toronto gets to celebrate Toronto, where form and function merge into one seamless urban whole.

"We have great stores and a horrible street," said Bob Saunderson, a commercial real estate broker who has spent eight years putting together a plan to fix up the strip. "It will become somewhere you can be proud of, to take friends or visitors."

"The chief quality of that space is that it is a space," says Storey. "Yonge and Dundas Square has asserted itself already as the centre of the city. It is a popular centre to the city, as opposed to the institutional centre."

"It may take three, four or even five centuries before the first historian sits down to write the story of Dundas Square - or whatever that now-new space, Toronto's most generous gift to itself at the turn of the 21st century, might be called by that time. But there's no question it will happen. The apparent barrenness that so many observers now deplore will quickly disappear as the lifeblood of the city floods the new square's beautiful granite paving stones."

The intention was to halt the desperate downward slide of the neighbourhood. Even before the square is complete, that regeneration has begun; nearby buildings have been refurbish, new ones planned and even the Eaton Centre will shortly get a major facelift. More important, though, Yonge-Dundas will change what it means to live in Toronto, and to some extent, what it means to be a Torontonian. It will give us new ways to inhabit the city, to enjoy it and make it our own.

Dundas Square opened quietly last November but it really become part of the city yesterday, when tens of thousands showed up to protest the looming war on Iraq... Sitting on the southeast corner of Yonge and Dundas, the relatively confined space of Dundas Square seemed to expand to accommodate the growing crowd... By contrast, Metro Square, where the peace march ended, failed in its role as a civic venue... Location may lie at the heart of [Dundas Square's] vitality, but there's more to it than that. What yesterday revealed was just how well the space is integrated into the urban fabric.

James Brown: "We wanted to avoid an overly determined approach and create only the elements needed to make it work. Some people have perceived this as a lack of embellishment, but an architect isn't a makeup artist for the city."

Even surrounded by wooden hoardings, the square represents a huge improvement. When they finally come down this summer, the corner of Dundas and Yonge will be well along the road to recovery.

"We picked Brown and Storey's design because of its restraint and serenity," says Soskolne, who organized the international competition that attracted dozens of high-calibre contenders. "Its modernity is a brilliant foil to the pop culture that surrounds it." ... People from all walks of life will connect as they pass through the square, coming off the subway, on their way to work, to the theatre, to shop, to enjoy the city. What's most interesting about the square, Brown adds, is "what it allows people to do... here, time and occasion have priority over space."

The architects worked on the proposal for only a dollar because they wanted to help the community, which they live in as well, Brown told the Gleaner... Beautifying this area and expanding the sidewalk "could create new industry and growth possibilities for residents and businesses."

The winning design for Dundas Square... offers a calm eye at the centre of the razzle-dazzle storm heading for Dundas and Yonge.

"The project is the most significant of its kind since Nathan Phillips Square was opened in 1961."