The Under-Gardiner project

an ongoing anthropological study from the outside

Their website

Naming contest

From Alex Bozikovic: "$25-million project reimagines area under Gardiner with paths, cultural spaces."

The Globe and Mail, Nov.16 2015

Video

For decades, the Gardiner Expressway has been a barrier between downtown Toronto and Lake Ontario. That promises to change in 2017, as a 10-acre space under the highway becomes a network of pathways and gathering places that binds a fast-growing part of the city together.

This is the promise of a bold new public-space project, which will be formally announced on Tuesday morning. Supported by a $25-million private donation, the initiative will remake an area under the Gardiner – stretching over 1.75 kilometres – into a place unlike any other in the city.

Called Project: Under Gardiner, it would combine a walking and cycling trail with covered public spaces that can be used for markets, meetings and performances. “It’s not just a park, and it’s not just a trail,” Adam Nicklin, a partner at the landscape architecture firm PUBLIC WORK and one of the lead designers, told me last week. “It is a series of spaces that can be a showcase for all that is exciting about Toronto." The first phase of the project is scheduled to start the planning process shortly and to be completed, quickly, by July, 2017.

.....The construction and the operation of Under Gardiner reflects an unusual partnership. Built by the public agency Waterfront Toronto and owned by the city, the project will be funded with $25-million from local philanthropists Judy and Wil Matthews. They, and the city, are studying whether the space could be run by a park conservancy, a not-for-profit institution that would work in tandem with the city.....Mayor John Tory said Under Gardiner might set an example for other collaborations between the city and private donors, including some kind of park conservancy model.

Alex Bozikovic "Under Gardiner: Private funding for parks can be a boon for Toronto."

The Globe and Mail, Nov.20 2015

...parks staff aren’t connected to local neighbourhoods. In the old City of Toronto, parks had dedicated local staff who could figure out how to bend policy to make things happen. Today, friends of parks groups in Toronto hit metaphorical walls when it comes to shaping the physical and social character of their local parks. “It is a system,” says a friend of mine with experience in this area, “that grinds down the spirit of even the most persistent volunteer parks animators.”

So what is the alternative? The “parks conservancy” model, where a private group has an active role in running the park. This conversation is being inspired by a city rich in both capital and green space: New York. Judy Matthews has had meetings with leaders of the Central Park Conservancy, the private non-profit that runs the bulk of the operations for the park. When we spoke last week, Ms. Matthews said her interest is in ensuring that great new public spaces are built – and then maintained. “The danger,” she said, “is that you [build] a fabulous thing and then it falls apart very quickly. That’s not what we want to happen here.” Indeed.

Dec.16, 2015: Ken Greenberg and Judy Matthews come to Dufferin Rink

They came to talk about how Dufferin Grove works.