The heated pavers would be terribly wasteful. It's a bad idea.

And awnings aren't a replacement for good indoor walkways. Shitty weather is shitty weather. But they're a huge benefit on sidewalks, for the 90% of rain/snow that isn't shitty weather. I live in a build that has these along the entire block and it's a godsend.

But mass timber / cross-laminated timber is actually projected to be an ideal future building material. Even for high rises. It's not folksy. Almost every architect I've talked to would love to build a mid/high rise with it.

https://www.constructiondive.com/news/mass-timber-101-unders... https://globalnews.ca/news/4957218/canada-mass-timber-high-r...