Spring 2021 marked the 100^th anniversary of the Building Industry and Land Development Association of the Greater Toronto Area, commonly referred to as BILD. It is a membership-based industry association of about 1,300 companies, which build more than 80% of the homes and commercial spaces in this region of 7 million people.

In 2020, the association started to investigate how it could acknowledge and share this important milestone with residents of the region. The idea for Building by Decades came forward through a collaboration between the association and the Toronto Star.

Our objective was to share with the public the story of how the residential and commercial building and development industries of the region collectively built the cities and towns of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and helped shape Canada’s preeminent city and region.

Our guiding premise was that most people in the GTA don’t know much about their urban environment, how it came into being, how it evolved, and how it interacts. We felt that by presenting the history of the region’s building and growth — and sharing our industry’s part in that history but not overfocusing on it — we could entertain, impart knowledge to younger readers, evoke nostalgia in older readers, and in general raise awareness of the importance of city building.

Creating a blueprint

 A work team comprising association staff and Toronto Star staff worked for months, first determining how content could be presented to the audience in a dynamic and engaging manner.

Research and planning for the project represented a significant undertaking as the GTA is comprised of dozens of cities and towns. The work team then moved on to writing, audio recording, layout, and execution. Supporting the programme was a digital and social media campaign via the Toronto Star, BILD channels, and outside media.

From the start of work on the project to the printing of the 11^th special insert, and the conclusion of the electronic assets on July 31, the entire effort spanned seven months.

Our departure point, in the first special insert, was the founding of the association in 1921. We included an acknowledgment that the Greater Toronto Area is built on the hereditary lands of the Indigenous peoples of the region.

We then traced the region’s growth and building — and, at times, the lack of building — through depressions, world wars, booms, busts, and the successive waves of immigration that transformed it from a colonial city of 750,000 to the tremendously diverse and multicultural region of over 7 million that it is today.

Over the course of the project, it became clear that ending by simply covering the decade of the 2010s would not be enough and that readers and residents deserved a look at what the future might look like. So an 11^th special insert was added, focusing on a vision of where the region is going.

Community connections

What started as a communication exercise became a labor of love and team meetings a sharing of knowledge and discovery. The Star’s engagement metrics paint a clear picture of how the region’s residents connected with the content.

However, with BILD we used a different measure of success.

Our president and CEO received a constant stream of e-mails and letters from members of the public thanking the association for putting the content together, requests to make the content into a book (which we honoured by turning it into a commemorative magazine), and even the thanks and congratulations of a local historical society.  

I have worked in public affairs and communications for close to 25 years, and I know I will look back at this project and consider myself fortunate to have been a part of it. The Star team was an incredible partner.

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