Yes, it’s true, as Canadians we are rather polite people…but in Toronto we’re also quite vocal! One of the many things I love about living in the City is how involved the people are in voicing their opinions, especially when it’s about the look of our high-rises!

Like any industry, the real estate one has a bunch of awards and competitions set up to reward builders for a job well done…problem is, none of these gives out trophies for the bad or the ugly. Thankfully we also have the Pug Awards!

Founded in 2004 (by Anna Simone, principal of design firm Cecconi Simone, and Gary Berman, president of real estate financier Tricon Capital Group)  the goal of the Pugs is to give every day citizens a voice amongst the City planners and developers on what works and what doesn’t.

In total 41 projects (completed in 2009) are up for nomination. This year they’ve expanded the awards to also include projects outside of the downtown core. Pure Spirit at the Distillery, Toy Factory Lofts, the Arc and 60 Richmond East Housing Co-Operative are just a few of the 34 residential projects up for an award!

Past Pug winners include: the Art Gallery of Ontario, One St. Thomas Residences and Argyle Authentic Lofts…and for the losers we have: Hampton Plaza, Marriott Residence Inn, and Wellington Square to name a few. The Pugs will wrap up on June 16,2010 at the Art Gallery of Ontario with an award ceremony and round table discussion by several of the mayoral candidates.  The candidates will be sharing their thoughts on how tomorrows Toronto should look like!

I’ve submitted my votes and now it’s your turn to either ”Love”, “Like” or “Hate” the newest additions to the Toronto skyline!

Click here to view the embedded video.

2010 is finallllly here! (Not that I had a bad 2009 by any means) The New Year always inspires me to work harder, smarter and better. I’ve been slacking on the post updates over the holidays but I’m back at the screen and am working on a ton of fresh new content for both SavelBlogs.com and BloorCondos.com!

On SavelBlogs, I’ll be focusing on a few new projects launching on 2010 as well spending more time discussing issues in the resale market! Although most of my energy is spent working with buyers, I plan on introducing some new and innovative ways to help Condo owners sell their places in a much more tech savvy way…and with all the preconstruction closings happening in 2010, the timing should be great! If you’d like to see more (or less) of a particular topic send me and email, I’d love to hear from ya!

And for those unsure what the Burj Dubai is…it’s the world’s tallest building (828m (2,716ft) high) and home to a few records including: highest occupied floor, the tallest service lift, and the world’s highest observation deck – on the 124th floor, the world’s highest mosque (158th floor) and swimming pool (76th floor). The Burj was officially opened today; check out the video above to see its opening ceremonies.

Happy buying and selling in 2010!!!