The Bentway public space – Toronto
“The example of quality I chose is The Bentway public space. I believe that quality public space is open to all, and with the Bentway I use this space in the summer to take my family and meet friends, and in the winter our family uses the Skate Trail. The Bentway is a public park under the Gardner highway in Toronto and it is not very green, or very quiet. It is an unlikely favorite for me since a key area of my research is about biophilic design and connecting people to nature. What people sometimes forget is that biophilic design is about connecting people to other people, as well, to other forms of life. I think the Bentway offers a really interesting informal public space that demonstrates quality because people now inhabit this space under the highway in a positive way.” (Booklet Positive Lived Experiences of Quality in the Built Environment 2023, p.208).
Photos of The Bentway, on the left in the evening in January 2023 while using the Skate Trail, and on the right in the morning in April 2023 visiting with a group of students for a course about sound in the built environment. Photos taken by Terri Peters):