Toronto The Bentway (was Under Gardiner) | ?m | ?s | Waterfront Toronto

What should be the permanent name for the park under the Gardiner?

  • The Artery

    Votes: 12 6.5%

  • The Bentway

    Votes: 79 42.5%

  • Under Gardiner

    Votes: 52 28.0%

  • None of the above

    Votes: 43 23.1%
  • Total voters
    186
We will construct an NFL stadium on stilts which will sit atop a massive mall in the middle of High Park, and then sell the remaining green space to a private developer after no public consultation on the promise it will be turned into a NASCAR track and the stands will be engineered from the streetcar tracks that have been ripped up.
 
Project Under Gardiner tweeted today that their team is "still hard at work on the naming vote review. Announcements coming soon."
 
Alex Bozikovic Tweeted/Instagrammed a rendering of the proposed pedestrian bridge this morning and suggested that the "bridge is happening." Recall there were four options considered: 1. "Do nothing"; 2. Install an at-grade pedestrian crosswalk; 3. Build a tunnel; 4. Build a pedestrian bridge.

I sure do hope Alex is right and that the pedestrian bridge is indeed a done deal. I'll be interested to see more detailed renderings, both for aesthetic purposes, and to see the proposed design solution to integrating cycle and pedestrian traffic.

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That looks pretty awkward to me, in that the material and the curvilinear aesthetic seems at odds with the context. Then again, it may be that any bridge under a bridge would look weird to me.
 
ADRM said:
Alex Bozikovic Tweeted/Instagrammed a rendering of the proposed pedestrian bridge this morning and suggested that the "bridge is happening." Recall there were four options considered: 1. "Do nothing"; 2. Install an at-grade pedestrian crosswalk; 3. Build a tunnel; 4. Build a pedestrian bridge.

I sure do hope Alex is right and that the pedestrian bridge is indeed a done deal. I'll be interested to see more detailed renderings, both for aesthetic purposes, and to see the proposed design solution to integrating cycle and pedestrian traffic.
Click to expand...
It's my understanding that a bridge over Fort York Blvd is a done deal, or as done as it can be without having actually awarded the contract. What I'd like to see is a bridge over Bathurst as well, but that's been rejected for the moment, possibly owing to easements held by the neighbouring condos on the west side and Choice Properties' ownership of the Under Gardiner space on the east side of Bathurst. I just don't think that the on-street crossing here is going to cut it once pedestrian and cyclist traffic grows down here in the future, and we will eventually be looking for a grade-separated solution.

42
 
I guess an alternative cycling route would be to stay on the path on the north side of Fort York Blvd, which goes underneath Bathurst to Mouth of the Creek Park, then... what? Stay at Northern Linear Park under Spadina to get downtown, or down Dan Leckie to get to the MGT.
 
ADRM said:
Alex Bozikovic Tweeted/Instagrammed a rendering of the proposed pedestrian bridge this morning and suggested that the "bridge is happening." Recall there were four options considered: 1. "Do nothing"; 2. Install an at-grade pedestrian crosswalk; 3. Build a tunnel; 4. Build a pedestrian bridge.

I sure do hope Alex is right and that the pedestrian bridge is indeed a done deal. I'll be interested to see more detailed renderings, both for aesthetic purposes, and to see the proposed design solution to integrating cycle and pedestrian traffic.
Click to expand...

There are some more detailed renderings of the bridge on pages 124-129 of this (huge) PDF document courtesy of Waterfront Toronto.
 
They are very aware of the underwhelming support that their choices have received.

42
 
Well, they're clearly intent on keeping one of the names. Otherwise they wouldn't waste so much time recounting unreliable online votes. If they were going to scrap the contest, I think that they would have done it already.

Hopefully council puts a kibosh on the whole thing and asks Waterfront Toronto to either come up with a name or use a marketing agency to create the branding.
 
Why is everyone so worked up about the name. It's just a distraction and gives a false sense of involvement. What we should be voting on is how we are going to create and use publicly owned space. While everyone is busy thinking about a name, the project team has decided that they need to spend 4-6 million dollars on a bridge that is not really needed. This area has been under development for well over a decade, the city would have considered a bridge here if it was really necessary. There are 2 signalized crossings very close to where this supposed bridge is going to be built. This was sold as a great public space project and yet for some reason a significant amount of the budget will be spent on a bridge. I think we should get to vote on how the money is spent. I really fail to see how a bridge provides any sort of needed amenity for local residents and tourists.
Another thing that gets me is that this is public land that is very valuable and we just gave it away to private interests and all we get to decide on is a name.
 
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