On June 26, 2013, the team at the Toronto Star's Newinhomes.com headed over to The Shops at Summer Hill to check out the 9th Annual Pug Awards.

An all-star panel at the Pug Awards

The ceremony kicked off with the famous "Pug Talks" forum. Gil Penalosa of 8-80 Cities was the moderator and led a discussion on various topics all centered around public spaces. The panel consisted of Janet Rosenberg from Janet Rosenberg and Studio, Ken Greenberg, the founding principal at Greenberg Consultants Inc., and David Leinster, who is a partner at The Planning Partnerships.

Planning and public space should take the lead

Most of the discussion points focused on the battle between planning, transit, and public space. The panelists all agree that "Toronto the Good" is an apt nickname for the city, however our current structure doesn't allow us to become "Toronto the Great." The panelists pushed Toronto and its residents to be more vocal about certain planning issues, urging those in power to make a difference. With Chief Planner Jennifer Keesmaat at the reins now, we're excited to see the kind of growth Toronto experiences in the coming years.

Overall, it was agreed that many aspects of Toronto's planning need improvement, like

ensuring that the roads are safe and making transit one of the City's top priorities.

The winners of the 2013 Pug Awards

Now, on to what you came here to find out, the winners!

The winner of the Residential Category is 500 Wellington West, a modern-contemporary building developed by Freed Developments and designed by Core Architects.

The winner of the Commercial/Institutional Category is 11 Division of the Toronto Police Services division. The project was designed by Stantec Architecture Ltd. and ERA Architects Inc., who acted as heritage consultants.

The Paul Oberman Award was also presented to 11 Division of the Toronto Police Services division, making it the big winner of the night!

We would like to congratulate all the winners of the 2013 Pug Awards, and also everyone who was involved, we look forward to attending next year!