There is a project under construction at Ossington and Argyle (for the uninitiated: one of the hipsterest hoods in Toronto) where the architect has turned the construction fence into a free for all graffiti wall, inviting people to tag, deface and beautify the fence in any way they see fit.
I've observed the fence going from pure white to being covered in graffiti over the course of the last few weeks, some of which isn't very inspired, but that's not the point. Turning a piece of the neighborhood into a playground for artists to express themselves is brilliant. The fence says "You have permission to tag this". It's the legal equivalent of this guy who for years, has been painting stencils of famous Bills wherever construction fences say "post no bills". Hilarious.
This is the kind of fresh idea that make our city better. It engages the community around an upcoming project, creating hype around it (the fence indicates the name of the architect and the contractor, but makes no mention of what the project is going to be) and quite possibly reducing the pushback from the local NIMBYs by showing that the project's initiators care about the community.
And it's much more interesting than reading about this guy's application to build taller fences to protect himself from busybodies. I think he should take a page from the other guys’ book and allow artists to tag his brand new castle of a home.
Who's this guy named Aubrey Drake Graham anyway?
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