plazaPOPS: Paradise in a Parking Lot — Exhibition

The plazaPOPS: Paradise in a Parking Lot invites visitors to celebrate the significant role that strip malls play in the social, cultural, and economic life of Toronto’s inner suburbs and the public health of local communities. The exhibit also shares the work and future potential of plazaPOPS, a community-based not-for-profit public space organization that turns parking spaces into people places along Toronto’s strip mall main streets through partnership, co-creation, research, and advocacy. 

The opening event will be held Saturday, September 20th (with an Open House from 12:00-5:00 pm; and a reception from 7:00-9:30 pm) - free/no registration required. The exhibition will run until the end of December 2025, Monday to Saturday from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm at Urbanspace Gallery, 401 Richmond Street West, Toronto, Ontario.  Free Admission.

Having completed twelve pop-up installations between 2019 and 2024, the exhibit reflects on lessons learned, shares the organization’s motivations and beliefs, presents its collaborative, multi-disciplinary and cross-sector model, and reports key social, economic, and public health-related research findings. 

As Toronto’s city building community works to create a more just, democratic, resilient and reconciliatory future, how can the Privately-Owned Public Space (“POPS”) of the strip mall parking lot be further supported and enhanced, an environment that serves the daily needs of nearly 1 million Torontonians!

plazaPOPS: Paradise in a Parking Lot was funded by a research grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), held between the University of Guelph’s School of Environmental Design and Rural Development (SEDRD), and the City of Toronto, with additional funding through the City of Toronto’s Main Street Innovation Fund.

For more information, please contact Landscape Architecture Associate Professor Brendan Stewart.