Harbour Street Re-Imagined

DTAH were the landscape architects and urban designers for the 2010 Municipal Class ‘C’ Environmental Assessment and detailed design for the reconfiguration of the York-Bay-Yonge ramps. These ramps provide eastbound traffic to and from the Gardiner Expressway in Downtown Toronto.

The project relocates an excessive and costly-to-maintain structure to Simcoe Street, liberates valuable park space at the foot of York Street, facilitates the implementation of Council-approved north-south promenades plans, and supports on-going redevelopment, all while maintaining acceptable—and in many instances improve—traffic operations to the downtown core and Central Waterfront.

A key component of the project was the redesign of Harbour Street, which will become a more urban downtown street rather than a high-speed vehicle thoroughfare. Key components of the design include a greatly improved pedestrian environment, extension of a multi-use path, street trees in open planters, new street lighting, safer intersections, and the extension of the Bay Street and York Street Promenades.

Enabling works began mid-2016 with street reconstruction to begin in early 2018.