The Globe and Mail

For sending us into paroxysms of joy and dark shadings of the mind, the architecture of 2006 was another roller coaster ride of highs and lows. The country gained an opera house, and lost a remarkable champion of urbanity, Jane Jacobs. And though tract housing and big boxes continue to bust out across the nation, architecture located in the places in between was noticed most of all by the prestigious Governor-General's Medals in Architecture. Afraid of heights? Apparently, not at all. The post-9/11 fear of the skyscraper seems to be a distant, uncomfortable memory. In Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto, tall towers of commerce and condominium luxury rising up to 70 storeys broke ground or gained approvals. Building a tall forest in the downtown is an attempt to thwart the spreading sea of sameness out in the 'burbs. Forget the dumb shape of the slab tower. With razor-thin profiles and trunks of glass that kick and twist, architecture is being used to lure people to the downtown.