More Than Just a Bridge

[rdaner]

Any comments on this concept which would be unique to Toronto, I believe. From Readingtoronto.com


More Than Just a Bridge - Reprised
"It's a city of ravines. Remnants of wilderness have been left behind. Through these great sunken gardens you can traverse the city beneath the streets, look up to the floating neighbourhoods, houses built in the treetops. It's a city of valleys spanned by bridges."
(Anne Michaels - Fugitive Pieces, writing about Toronto)

Arterial roads intersect with Toronto's natural system of ravines. Our proposal for "Living Bridges" is designed to celebrate these intersections, in conjunction with intensified redevelopment along Toronto's main streets. At these points, inhabited bridges over the natural valley topography provide intense nodal connections - horizontal continuity and vertical access.

 

[GeekyBoyTO]

rdaner:

As neat as that could have looked, I wonder what sort of ecological effects it would pose to the ravines, particularly with regards to microclimate and wildlife corridors.

The concept could work in a more human scale, with low scaled buildings lining the sides of the bridge itself at grade level. Not sure if the economics would justify that, however.

GB

 

[EnviroTO]

I think it is a good idea at locations where bridges would be built anyways as long as the width of the bridge remains a normal width, the bottom of the bridge remains above the flood level, and construction is done with environmental sensitivity in mind. Environmentally they would need to consider how the development affects the water and run-off during and after construction, noise levels, and the impacts to birds, animals, and plants since there would be a possibly huge shadow during the day and light during the night. It could be workable as long as the bridge remains high enough that it doesn't create a large impact at ground level. With the Don Valley expressway already there the environmental impacts would probably be minimal.

 

[GeekyBoyTO]

Enviro:

Actually, I was thinking of doing it another way - the support columns for new viaducts could also serve as the cores for actual buildings - with "skybridges" between them.

GB

 

[Junglab2002]

Now THAT would be cool - floors cantilevering from support columns - we could finally live like the Ewoks!