Our May 2015 issue was an ode to Toronto, the home base of Azure magazine for the past 30 years. To celebrate our own landmark, we decided to chart the city’s rise on the global scene through its unprecedented growth over the past few years.

Our goal was to focus on the most exciting urban changes, including a look at the new Canary District neighbourhood, built up just in time for the 2015 Pan Am Games to accommodate athletes from around the world. In our story Instant City, writer Elizabeth Pagliacolo describes how the city and developers came together by staggering the building schedule, allowing new buildings to be used as an athlete’s village before welcoming its first condo residents a year later. As the shining jewel in the ongoing waterfront revitalization, its success has been a boon to development along the water’s edge – the largest of its kind in the world.

The issue also named the top five local design and architecture firms to watch: Mason Studio, Uufie, MSDS, Benjamin Dillenburger and Partisans (which is behind the bold new interior of Union Station, another stunning Toronto project we featured). We also touched down on the new Fort York Centre, by Patkau Architects and Kearns Mancini; and we talked with city planner Jennifer Keesmaat about the importance of “complete streets,” which make room for cars, pedestrians, cyclists and transit riders.

Finally, as part of Azure’s 30th anniversary celebration, we created a special online journal Design Icons: 1985 to Now, a look back at the world’s most seminal design moments and movements since 1985.

The winners of the 39th annual National Magazine Awards will be announced at the NMA gala at the Arcadian Court in Toronto on June 10.