Today the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation started the evaluation process for the designs of the Central Waterfront. This covers the area from roughly Bathurst in the west to Parliament street in the east between Lake Shore Boulevard and the water's edge. It is important to cyclists as part of the design will include redesigning Queen's Quay, which currently has bike lanes on sections of it, and creating a design that would allow the Martin Goodman Trail to be connected though this area of the waterfront linking the eastern and western portions of the trail. You can see information on this project at the following link Innovative Design Competition for Toronto's Central Waterfront

Monday May 15th is the launch of the public review of the five proposals that have been created by teams of architects. You can see details of the launch in the following document Waterfront Corp. unveils design submissions for continuous waterfront promenade. The Exhibition Launch and Public Forum is on May 15, 2006 from 6:30 - 9:00 p.m. at BCE Place, Allen Lambert Galleria, 181 Bay Street. The exhibitions of the five designs will be at BCE Place, Harbourfront Centre and selected shopping centres in Toronto from May 15, 2006 - May 26, 2006. Here you can view the designs and comment. There are also PDF versions of their displays at the TWRC's website:Innovative Design Competition for Toronto's Central Waterfront Click on the names of the architectural firms in the left hand side bar of the page to see information on their submissions.

I have not had a chance to look at the designs yet. It will be important to ensure that cyclists needs are taken into account and that the bike access through the waterfront on Queens Quay bike lanes and on the new Martin Goodman trail is preserved and enhanced. Another important issue is how the connections are made to the city to the north of this area via streets such as Sherbourne, Yonge, Simcoe, Fort York Boulevard that do have or will have bike lanes. This is an opportunity to enhance the Bikeway Network and the connections to the waterfront from all parts of the city. Make sure to look at the proposals and send in comments to ensure that the designers get it right.

Martin Koob
tcc-rep@tbn.ca