Toronto Star

With the exception of New Yorkers, North Americans have a lot to learn about city life. Though millions upon millions of them live in cities, they haven't figured out yet how to inhabit them. Torontonians are no exception. Though the condo boom has brought tens of thousands of people back downtown — most of them young and upwardly mobile — countless Middle Canadians (and now immigrants) live lives that are largely internalized, lives that could be lived anywhere. Nowhere is this phenomenon better seen than in the recent suburban ideal of the entirely self-contained house. This is the three-storey monster home that aims to satisfy its occupants' every need — kitchen nooks for breakfast, family rooms for socializing, entertainment centres for watching movies, exercise rooms for working out. ..