highway underpass transforms into a park

Out from the Shadows: Finding useful public space in an unlikely location, Toronto transforms a highway underpass into a lively park that glows at night.

Underpass Park
PFS Studio. Toronto, 2013

(by Lisa Rochon, via Architectural Record)

Dark and neglected—that's the kind of derelict space that lurks below most highways and elevated roadways. Cities in the process of densifying, however, can no longer afford to ignore such concrete underbellies. Toronto, which has been busy completing 70,000 residential units between 2008 and 2012—mostly condominium apartments—recently opened Underpass Park, a gutsy template that repairs a previously marginalized urban zone in the city's East End neighborhood.

Below two elevated overpasses and a stone's throw from the Don River, Underpass Park encompasses 2.5 acres—enough room for swings and climbing structures for children on one side of a narrow road and basketball courts and a skateboarding terrain for teenagers on the other side. The area is bounded to the north by the leafy Riverdale neighborhood, with its traditional “bay 'n' gable” brick homes, and to the east by the slightly edgier community of Leslieville, with film studios and vintage shops lining Queen Street East.