Renderings of future components of the Ontario Line’s eastern portion
Metrolinx has launched a design competition to encourage teams to submit innovative urban design and landscape architecture solutions for the Ontario Line infrastructure that will be built around the existing rail corridor extending from Eastern Avenue to Gerrard Street in Toronto. Submissions to the first stage of the two-stage process, including team compositions and a sample of past projects, are due July 7. From the responses that are received, up to four teams will be selected to participate in the design competition.
The competition is a unique, first-of-its-kind collaboration between the communities surrounding the corridor and Metrolinx, combining the vision and goals from community groups and local BIAs with Metrolinx’s objectives for the rail expansion. The objective of the competition is to solicit creative design solutions, responding to the challenge of integrating new transit infrastructure into established neighbourhoods. The site of the competition runs along both sides of a two-kilometer stretch of rail corridor which will accommodate both the new Ontario Line and the expansion of GO Transit (a regional express rail system). These boundary conditions could be a point of friction between the transit infrastructure and the adjacent urban context. Metrolinx is soliciting proposals that use design excellence principles to transform these interfaces into a unique urban environment ...