This is a portrait of a street, Walmer Road in Toronto. Bloor is at the bottom, Casa Loma at the top. The tracks cut across the upper sector.

My client grew up on this street. This window, which is not now in Toronto, is a form of memory.

This was the map where I figured out my colour ideas, which had been sketchier before. This time, I thought of it as a land-use map. Yellow and orange for commerce, red for transit, blue for institutions, clear for houses.

B. The client’s former house, at the centre, is represented by a tiny piece of mirror, so that it looks back at you.

Map windows are great for unusual shapes. This kind of tall rectangle would be a hard fit for many designs, but it’s perfect for mapping a street.