2019-09-01 DESIGNLINES

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urban update

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BY STEFAN NOVAKOVIC

Right on Track

Feeling the squeeze? After decades of non-stop

construction, Toronto’s skyline is a sea of towers and

very little green space. Our dearth of parkland is felt

most acutely at street level – particularly downtown.

The solution? A surprising new generation of public

projects springing up in the margins of the urban grid.

Six projects carving out green space in

unexpected locations

At The Bentway, park life thrives under an expressway. So why not

above, on a railway corridor? Enter Rail Deck Park, a City of Toronto

plan for an 8.5-hectare oasis on the tracks between Bathurst and

Blue Jays Way. A marquee civic priority, the project is undergoing a

lengthy planning and financing process. In the meantime, Hines’s

CIBC Square tests the concept on a smaller scale, with a commons –

designed by Public Work – already under construction above the rails

separating CIBC’s future office towers at Front and Bay. North of the

Rogers Centre, Oxford Properties’ recently announced Union Park

(shown) also pairs skyscrapers with a tracks-topping green space

designed by Houston-based OJB Landscape Architecture. All in, we

can look forward to almost 10 hectares of new green space in the

core. TORONTO.CA; PUBLICWORK.CA; OJB.COM