New Bentway Park in Toronto transforms highway underpass into skate trail
Repurposed urban infrastructure becomes new park (and home to pop-up curling) In the post-Highline era, new linear parks and rails-to-trail conversions symbolize big investments in public space (as well as sizable shifts in nearby housing costs). In Toronto, a park opening this weekend has been billed as both a signature new public amenity and a sign of the city?s growth.
The Bentway?named after the columns, or bents, that hold up an expressway?aims to turn infrastructure that normally divides neighborhoods into an amenity. Built underneath a stretch of the Gardiner Expressway, the new linear park will eventually encompass about a mile of trails, public space, and art installations, linking together up-and-coming areas of downtown.
The first section, a 220-meter (720-foot) long skate trail, opens this weekend with quite the reception: visitors can rent skates, listen to live music, watch freestyle ice skating, and take advantage of pop-up curling. Throughout the winter, the trail will host weekly DJ parties. Urban designer Ken Greenberg had a vision for the park back in 2011. As he watched Torontonians move in around the Fort York historic site, he saw a need for new park space, as well as an empty, covered stretch of ground below the expressway, complete with a five-story tall canopy. When the park is complete, supporters say, it?ll be within a 10-minute walk of 70,000 residents.
Bentway Conservancy
A past rendering of the finished Bentway...
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