The West Toronto Railpath is a 2.1 kilometer multi-use trail and open linear park located within Toronto’s Junction neighbourhood along the alignment of a former rail corridor. The project combines the restoration of historical rail bridges with the installation of new public art, and is situated within a palette of indigenous planting. Sensitive plant communities and habitat, including a functioning wetland, were preserved and enhanced through a rigorous process of inventory, seed collection and replanting.
The once impassable corridor that physically divided neighbourhoods has become a space that connects. New entrance points at Dupont Street and Bloor Street allow pedestrians to access the trail from street level and utilize the restored rail bridges that cross over busy streets at these intersections. An accessible ramp connecting the trail to Dundas Street ensures everyone can use and enjoy the park. The Railpath has created a frontage where new residential units can be located to open up former industrial lands.
Unifying rhythms of concrete plazas are located along the entire trail at points where existing neighbourhood streets intersect the trail. These plazas provide new neighbourhood connections and places for gathering within the surrounding community. The fusion of public space has successfully addressed the two natures of the city - the wildness of the rail lines that have been largely undiscovered by the general population and the normalcy of the Toronto neighbourhood - and brought them together in a mutually symbiotic composition of landscape, movement and the city.
