PUBLIC WORK joined a team led by Brook McIlroy and Planning Alliance, working with the City of Toronto to explore options to develop an active public realm and streetscape complimentary to Metrolinx’s approximately $6 billion investment in the design and construction of the Eglinton–Scarborough Crosstown light-rail transit (LRT) line. The new line will define a 26km corridor connecting Etobicoke to Scarborough through midtown Toronto.

The approach to the public realm design includes questions about how the street will function, how it will look and feel, and what features it will need to ensure the quality of public experience reaches the ambition of this enormous investment in civic infrastructure.

The vision for the new public realm exploits the direct link between the Crosstown Initiative and Toronto’s natural ravine system, with Eglinton Avenue representing the promise of a green connection that delivers city dwellers to the City’s iconic east and west river valleys. The presence of the ravine landscape can be harnessed as a sensation that begins within the City and continues to unfold along the 26km route, increasing its presence through the design of the public realm as it moves eastward and westward from Yonge Street along a landscaped artery between Black Creek and the Don River and beyond to an entire system of parks and open spaces. The streetscape design will create a transformed linear public realm for Eglinton. The point of contact between the streetscape and the ravine system itself can be articulated as the climax experience of the line. With PUBLIC WORK’s initiative and advocacy for landscape, the project will successfully bring Toronto’s first green transit track on the at-grade portion of the LRT line.