Janes Walk: Leaside: A Garden City Revealed
Leaside was laid out in 1913 by the landscape architect Frederick Gage Todd who based his design on the Garden City principles, best exemplified by Letchworth in England. The Garden City differs from suburbs in that, along with curvilinear tree-lined streets, public green spaces, and cohesive streetscapes, it also included an industrial area to provide employment and commercial streets for convenient shopping. When people walk through Leaside today they see it as a neighbourhood of Toronto. But what is the experience when you examine Leaside through the lens of the Garden City framework as a designed landscape?