The future of architecture and building with Kelly Alvarez Doran
August 15, 2023
In this conversation with Kelly Alvarez Doran, he speaks about how he came to focus on sustainability in architecture, the design work he did in Africa, the challenges to sustainability in North America posed by construction-industry habits, and how we can begin lowering the embodied carbon in our cities. The Bentwayâs Beyond Concrete summer season […]
“Groundcover”: Transforming Archival Gardiner Photos
August 8, 2023
Brooklyn-based artist Genesis BĂĄez gives us a closer look at Groundcover, her contribution to Beyond Concrete, and the process of its creation. The installation features archival images of the Gardiner Expressway that BaĂ©z re-photographed and buried in the soil beneath the highway. This summer, we’re publishing a series of essays, interviews, and other stories that explore the […]
Filling In: Anjulie Rao on “vacant” urban lands
July 27, 2023
Anjulie Rao explores the cultural and historical value, agency, and stewardship of Chicago’s vacant land in this personal essay. The Bentwayâs Beyond Concrete summer season explores the urban ecosystem beneath the Gardiner Expressway, where human-made infrastructure intertwines with flora and fauna. The relationship between concrete and nature is complex and interconnected. In this story series, […]
The Ecology of Concrete: An Interview with Matthew Gandy
July 18, 2023
Beyond Concrete guest editor Brian Sholis talks with Matthew Gandy, author of Natura Urbana, about the ecology of concrete, engineered versus spontaneous landscapes, and the politics of design language. The Bentwayâs Beyond Concrete summer season explores the urban ecosystem beneath the Gardiner Expressway, where human-made infrastructure intertwines with flora and fauna. The relationship between concrete and […]
Cheonggyecheon: Rip It Up and Start Again
June 28, 2023
After a massive public-works project in the 2000s, a stream once again flows through Seoul. In this personal essay, Andrew Russeth admires Cheonggyecheon, a 10.9km long stream and modern public recreation space in downtown Seoul, South Korea.
Exploring public space in SÄo Paulo
June 15, 2023
Felipe Morozini, president of the Parque MinhocĂŁo community association, shares the challenges of creating vibrant public spaces in SÄo Paulo. This summer, we’re publishing a series of essays, interviews, and other stories that explore the themes in our Beyond Concrete season, highlighting local and global projects that centre interconnectedness. This story is inspired by Clarice Limaâs project Woods, […]
The Benchway: Salvaged Materials in Public Space
June 12, 2023
2023 Bentway Public Space Fellow Ella Hough considers the role public space could play in promoting deconstruction and material reuse. By tracing the history of the salvaged lumber used to make one public bench, The Benchway: Salvaged Materials in Public Space tells the story of ancestral forests, Toronto’s 20th century development, the changes that led […]
Dive Deeper into Beyond Concrete: Editor’s Letter
June 6, 2023
Brian Sholis, guest editor, introduces our new Beyond Concrete story series, and frames this series of essays and interviews that will roll out all summer long. Listen to this story ClichĂ© has it that the city is a âconcrete jungle.â But in the popular imagination, concrete prevails. Downtown is a place of stone and glass; full […]
In Conversation with Leeroy New
June 6, 2023
Beyond Concrete artist Leeroy New and Montreal-based artist Kelly Jazvac connect about the practice, poetry, and production of public art. Listen to this story Brian Sholis: The Bentway has invited me to guest edit an online publication related to âBeyond Concrete,â its summer 2023 programming season, and Iâm pleased to be introducing an interview between Leeroy […]
Waterfront ReConnect: Other Finalists in the 2022 Design CompetitionÂ
June 1, 2023
Waterfront ReConnect challenged proponents to explore and expose the layered histories of the Gardiner, to address safety, reinforce a sense of arrival and transition, and transform an obstacle into an opportunity for enhanced connectivity. Drawing on The Bentwayâs spirit of adaptation and innovation, six design teams from across the country were selected to participate in […]
Waterfront ReConnect: Jury for the 2022 Design CompetitionÂ
May 31, 2023
To select the winning Waterfront ReConnect proposals, we convened a dedicated group of key local stakeholders, design experts, public space animators, and Bentway staff. Jury: York Street Claire Breukel ProjectArt A graduate from the University of Cape Town and Hunter College New York (MA Hon), South African-born Claire Breukel was introduced to the USA through […]
2023 Artist Residency: Dance in Public Space
May 11, 2023
Co-presented with Toronto Dance Theatre, our 2023 Artist Residency invites 3 artists with a focus on dance, movement, and/or embodied practice to participate in an open-ended project that furthers their practice and in turn, contributes to the evolution of The Bentwayâs work to re-imagine the opportunities of urban spaces.
2023 Public Space Fellowship
May 8, 2023
The Bentway is proud to welcome our 2023 Public Space Fellows, Celeste Meledath and Ella Hough. Working with The Bentway over five months, the Fellows are exploring the intersection of sustainability and public space design, focusing on how to apply more ecological approaches to The Bentwayâs work.
Submit Your First Winter Memories!
December 5, 2022
The Bentway and Toronto artist, Shellie Zhang, invite newcomer communities to reflect on and share your First Winter memories. Every newcomer remembers their first Toronto winter – watching streetcars make their way through snow-lined streets, finding their local neighborhood skating rink, or discovering local winter pastimes that help us embrace this cold season. As Toronto […]
“First Winter” Programming at The Bentway
December 5, 2022
This year, The Bentwayâs winter season celebrates the diverse communities that make up Toronto and explores what it is to experience winter in our city for the first time. Every newcomer remembers their first Toronto winter – watching streetcars make their way through snow-lined streets, finding their local neighborhood skating rink, or discovering local winter […]
2022 Public Space Fellowship
September 29, 2022
Jess Misak and Faizaan Khan completed a five-month Public Space Fellowship and played a pivotal role in leading our 2022 Street Summit, an âun-symposiumâ that explored how cities everywhere can re-imagine their streets. With guidance from The Bentway team, the Fellows also advanced their own independent research.
The Confluences of Confluence by Shawn Micallef
September 29, 2022
The ground we walk on in Toronto is untrustworthy. Was it left here by the glaciers as they retreated or altered by the thousands of years of human activity that have taken place here?
Picnic Table on the River by Matthew Hickey
September 29, 2022
The picnic table has provided a place for all of these things to most anyone who grew up in what we now call Canada.
Reserve tickets for Confluence
September 15, 2022
Confluence invites visitors to flow through an engrossing convergence of natural and human-made forces. The picnic table, a familiar fixture in parks across the city, contorts into a dynamic sculptural installation; twirling, cascading, and cresting to evoke Torontoâs buried, lost rivers.
Waterfront ReConnect
January 5, 2022
The Gardiner Expressway is, and will remain, a major artery in and out of Toronto. The elevated portion of the Expressway stretches some 6.5km through the heart of the City, across the entire length of the downtown. From a regional perspective, the Gardiner represents an essential connection between the sprawling communities of the Greater Golden […]
The Field Guide to Digital and/as Public Space
November 19, 2021
The Field Guide to Digital and/as Public Space is a living document, designed to be rearranged, remixed, and expanded.
Measuring the personal impact of public art with HeART Lab
November 15, 2021
With CAMHâs HeARTLab, we surveyed those who attended Pulse Topology to learn more about their perspectives on public art, mental health and wellbeing, community, and the impacts of the pandemic. From our friends at HeARTLab: âAt HeART Lab, we honour the strengths and knowledge of people and communities through co-design across the research cycle. Our […]
O Espaço (The Space) with Art Spin
October 1, 2021
Choreographed and performed by Pulga Muchochoma, O Espaço (The Space)examines a complex range of movement, starting with the very beating of the human heart and the spaces in which not just those myriad movements but existence itself is illuminated for us and others to witness. Co-presented with Art Spin. “How much information do we need […]
Pulse Topology
September 14, 2021
Pulse Topology uses 3,000 lights to create a landscape that reacts in real-time to the pulse of visitorsâ heartbeats in the interior of the space of the under-Gardiner area of Exhibition Place.