Daniel Rotsztain is a graduate of the Masters of Landscape Architecture program at the University of Guelph. His interest in social infrastructure and cultural heritage guided his thesis research, leading to the establishment of plazaPOPS, a community-lead approach to creating low-cost, high-impact and accessible gathering spaces within the privately-owned parking lots of strip mall parking lots in Toronto\u2019s inner suburbs. As an economic and community development project, plazaPOPS explores economic approaches to preserving cultural heritage landscapes. After the success of its award-winning 2019 pilot, plazaPOPS has become an initiative of the Centre for Urban Growth and Renewal and is continuing its partnership with the City of Toronto and University of Guelph to scale out the initiative toward a fully funded citywide program. Before joining ERA, Daniel worked as a consultant with Process, an urban planning firm dedicated to facilitating thorough and authentic community consultation.<\/p>\n
Daniel\u2019s interest in cultural heritage defines his art practice. Known as \u201cthe Urban Geographer\u201d, Daniel is an artist, writer, and cartographer whose projects explore and support the city\u2019s public life, ecological identity, and the responsibilities of settlers as treaty people on Turtle Island. As co-lead of\u00a0Lake Effect Projects<\/i>, his piece exploring the redevelopment of \u201cthe Coffin Factory,\u201d an artist live\/work space in downtown Toronto was featured in the 2019 edition of Nuit Blanche. Daniel is the author\u00a0All the Libraries Toronto,\u00a0<\/i>a colouring book published by Dundurn Press featuring all 100 branches of Toronto\u2019s public library system, and\u00a0A Colourful History Toronto,\u00a0<\/i>highlighting the network of City of Toronto owned historic sites as a form of accessible social infrastructure. Daniel was a contributing author to\u00a0House Divided: How the Missing Middle Will Solve Toronto’s Affordability Crisis,\u00a0<\/i>published by Coach House Books in 2019. As a community arts facilitator, Daniel collaborated with Art Starts and Lindsey Lickers to create the sesquicentennial project,\u00a0Cartography 17<\/i>, which featured Indigenous epistemologies overlayed on community-generated maps of Toronto.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Daniel Rotsztain is a graduate of the Masters of Landscape Architecture program at the University of Guelph. His interest in social infrastructure and cultural heritage guided his thesis research, leading to the establishment of plazaPOPS, a community-lead approach to creating low-cost, high-impact and accessible gathering spaces within the privately-owned parking lots of strip mall parking…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":16960,"menu_order":23,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n