This past summer, the Bentway (in collaboration with the City of Toronto, the Waterfront BIA, and the Toronto Downtown West BIA) issued a call for expressions of interest to re-imagine two key intersections under downtown Toronto's elevated Gardiner Expressway. The York Street intersection and the Simcoe Street intersection.

That process has run its course and the following six teams have now been shortlisted:

York Street

• Sans Façon + Zeidler (Calgary/Toronto)

• LeuWebb Projects + DIALOG + Mulvey & Banani Lighting (Toronto)

• 5468796 Architecture Inc. (Winnipeg)

Simcoe Street

• O2 Planning & Design Inc. + Mulvey & Banani Lighting + ENTUITIVE (Calgary/Toronto)

• Daily Tous Les Jours + SvN Architects + Planners + Latéral (Montreal/Toronto)

• SOCA + Tiffany Shaw-Collinge + SHEEEP (Toronto/Edmonton)

The next step in this process is a nine-week design exercise where the above teams will go away and prepare their design concepts. We work with a number of the companies on this shortlist and I am sure that there will be some fantastic ideas that are put forward. After selecting the two winners, the plan is to then start construction in 2022.

The Bentway is doing some fantastic work in reimagining the underside of our downtown highway. This is yet another example of that. For more information about the competition, click here.

Photo by Brian Jones on Unsplash