Underutilized lands beneath the Gardiner Expressway in Toronto are being transformed into the Bentway Islands, a unique public realm.<\/p>\n
The project is being led by Bentway Conservancy<\/a>, in partnership with the City of Toronto. It consists of three large-scale traffic islands that span 11,500 square metres between Dan Leckie Way and Spadina Avenue.<\/p>\n The islands consist of a series of transportation medians that are leftover intermediate spaces north and south and in between the lanes of Lake Shore Boulevard, said Robert McKaye, senior manager of planning and design with The Bentway.<\/p>\n \u201cThe spirit of the project stems from the same spirit as Bentway\u2019s phase one: this notion that the city has changed immensely since the Gardiner was built,\u201d said McKaye. \u201cIn the \u201850s, the Gardiner was implemented and it was lauded as this cutting edge, future-thinking, celebrated piece of infrastructure. For a range of reasons, it\u2019s largely been unchanged in the 70 years that have followed.\u201d<\/p>\n In that time, the waterfront has been transformed from an industrial site to a site of all kinds of different uses, he added.<\/p>\n These areas, often thought of as \u201cnon-spaces,\u201d can be rethought and reimagined.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is such a potential for us to bring new amenities, public realms, gathering places, recreation places, connective tissue that operates really as a shared backyard space for all of these downtown residents,\u201d said McKaye. \u201cWe have vertical communities, we have children growing up in towers and it\u2019s really important that as we densify and provide more housing and are inviting more people to live in the downtown, that we\u2019re complementing that with adequate public realm.\u201d<\/p>\n Field Operations<\/a> of New York and Brook McIlroy<\/a> of Toronto have been appointed as the design team following a competitive international call for proposals.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Bentway Islands will act as a \u201csister site\u201d to The Bentway\u2019s existing phase one location, said McKaye.<\/p>\n \u201cThis represents a second phase of the Bentway\u2019s growth inside the Under Gardiner,\u201d he explained. \u201cIt\u2019s not an immediate expansion as they\u2019re in different neighbourhoods\u2026Both sites will be operated by The Bentway and they will act in companion with one another.\u201d<\/p>\nIslands will provide new programs, amenities and offerings<\/span><\/h3>\n