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Niven's King's Free Park - In Toronto

A unique and creative new park will soon be under construction in Toronto, Ontario. The intent is to make use of sheltered space underneath a raised roadway and transform it into a park for walking, cycling and outdoor performances.


(From 1-Mile Toronto Park to Run Under Elevated Highway)

A project of urban designer Ken Greenberg as well as Marc Ryan and Adam Nicklin of Public Work, the Under Gardiner design approach treats the area as a covered streetscape, taking advantage of rain and sun shade provided by the vehicular thoroughfare above...

Existing columns and beams of the surrounding infrastructure will naturally divide the spaces into sections that act as exterior rooms while also providing ways to hang signage, wayfinding mechanisms and announcement billboards.

The project is being launched with the help of a sizable $25,000,000 donation from Toronto philanthropists Judy and Wil Matthews.

I think sf writer Larry Niven had a presentiment of this idea back in 1972, in his story Cloak of Anarchy:

The modern transportation systems cleaned the air and made traffic jams archaic and left the nation with an embarrassing problem. What to do with ten thousand miles of unsightly abandoned freeways?

King's Free Park had been part of the San Diego Freeway, the section between Sunset and the Santa Monica interchange....
(Read more about Niven's King's Free Park)

Pretty cool project - read more at WbUrbanist

Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 11/23/2015)

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