Toronto’s elevated Gardiner Expressway is a topic that pops up periodically on this blog. We have talked about taking down a portion, realigning a portion, adding a congestion charge, lighting it like they have done in Shanghai, and of course we have talked about the good work that The Bentway team is doing.

Their most recent project is something called Standing Grounds. It’s a collaboration with New York-based Tei Carpenter (Agency–Agency, NYC) and Toronto-based architect Reza Nik (SHEEEP, Toronto), and I think it’s really clever.

If you look closely at the underside of the Gardiner Expressway, you’ll see that there are existing downspouts in place that take rainwater, snowmelt, and whatever else from the highway above, down to the ground. What Standing Grounds is going to do (by next month) is take this existing infrastructure and add natural filtration chambers that can remediate this excess water.

I learned today that plants like milkweed, agastache, and yarrow are actually able to absorb road salts and heavy metals like lead, cadmium, and hydrocarbons. So instead of this dirty water flowing from the highway and into the ground, it will soon be filtered by a seemingly simple garden system that looks like this:

This is an obviously positive thing for the city and I love that it is leveraging infrastructure that already exists. As I said: really clever.

Renderings: SHEEEP