The evolution of Midtown Toronto’s urban landscape reflects the city’s increasing density and the area’s planned intensification as a key growth hub. As the skyline expands, the demands on the quality and connectivity of the spaces below—the public realm—become more and more urgent.

Until now, the neighbourhood has not been able to translate its inherent assets into a high-quality public realm befitting its prominent position at the centre of the city. Midtown isn’t downtown; it isn’t uptown. Yet it somehow combines the qualities and attributes of each. Conceptually and practically, this mix of seemingly opposing qualities—dense, urban with open, green—can become the foundation for an ideal form of neighbourhood with a distinct public realm.

PUBLIC WORK collaborated with the City of Toronto and the local community to develop a vision and guiding document for Midtown that celebrates and builds upon the area’s particular mix of urban vitality and lush green spatial character while transforming its public realm, parks, and open space system. Midtown in Focus charts the short and long term vision for the rebirth of Midtown Toronto with a renewed emphasis on the ground—the design of the public realm.

The resulting Midtown in Focus document provides the guiding vision for Midtown’s evolving public realm over the next 20–30 years. It identifies a series of specific design directions and guidelines on the most salient elements for Midtown’s public realm transformation and formalizes a set of strategies and key actions to make it happen. The document serves as both a conceptual blueprint to guide the evolution and development of the public realm in Midtown and as a practical manual for all parties engaged in development projects that interface with the public realm in the Yonge-Eglinton area. It is intended to create a safe, inspiring, and meaningful public realm framework that will contribute to the identity and quality of life, which makes Midtown one of the most desirable communities in the city.