Warming Up To Winterways

March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb. April showers bring May flowers. From June through August, summer in Toronto is marked by late sunsets and humid beach days. In September and October we have sweater weather and tall bouquets of autumn colours. And the rest is winter. Photo by Owen McCabe

Toronto is a four season city, but our public spaces are too often not designed with winter in mind.

Weather in Toronto is a hot topic. The temperature changes drastically from month to month — and even from day to day — posing unique challenges for the way we live, and for the design of our public spaces. Materials and structures must be able to survive temperatures from -40°C to +40°C. And beyond survival, our public space must strive to anticipate and meet community needs while remaining welcoming as our surroundings change from lush warmth to icy cold.

The pandemic has forced Toronto to embrace the outdoors in new ways. With many indoor areas off limits, Torontonians flocked in record numbers to public parks, nature trails, and skating rinks to try and pass the time safely — and we’ve started thinking more about how our “outdoor” city can work better for us through the long, cold winter months.

How did you, your friends, and your family use your local laneway spaces over the COVID winter? What more can your laneway do for you? Tag #winterways and @lanewayproject on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to let us know. Photo by @bluebirdkisses

“Winter gardens, indoor-outdoor spaces and winter parks trails are just some other examples of how we can encourage people to get out more in the city.”

—Coun. Brad Bradford, Ward 19, Beaches-East York

How does our city do winter well? Toronto’s recently launched Welcome T.O. Winter Parks Plan encourages the cold-weather use of outdoor playgrounds, disc-golf courses, toboggan hills, tennis courts, and even a public archery range. Most importantly, during the pandemic the city has funded improved winter maintenance to public spaces, resulting in an increase in cleared parking lots, more frequent snow removal on additional walking trails, and double the supply of winterized public washrooms. But there’s a long way to go before we have a truly winter-friendly public realm.

For project updates visit thelanewayproject.ca/winterways. Photo by Kael Rebick

Winterways: Launching May 2021

Just like our parks, Toronto’s laneways are often used by communities as much-needed shared spaces. Downtown back alleys have naturally evolved into helpful routes to avoid main street crowds; in residential laneways, kids can be left alone to climb snow banks without the worry of busy traffic.

Winterways is an urban adaptation project that will update three laneways in the St. Lawrence Market area, downtown Queen West, and Bloordale into more inviting winter spaces that foster vibrant community life throughout the cold months.

Winterways will will work in close collaboration with local residential and business communities around Leader Lane at Church and Wellington, McDougall Lane by Graffiti Alley at Queen and Spadina, and Cosmos Nature Lane at Bloor and Dufferin to identify the most important winter challenges being faced right now, and then to design and implement permanent improvements — incorporating bright colours, lights, windbreaks, and de-icing — that create people-friendly places to walk, play, enjoy culture, and connect in winter 2021-22 and beyond.

Help Toronto Warm up to Winter

Wherever you are in Toronto, we encourage you to tag #winterways and @lanewayproject on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook with your suggestions about what would make your local outdoor public spaces more appealing during the cold months. And if you live, work, or often walk through one of the Winterways project communities, be sure to fill out the “winter debrief” survey, which will be accessible at thelanewayproject.ca/winterways in May 2021. In the meantime, follow us on social media for updates.

If you or your business would like to help make Toronto communities more vibrant and resilient in the months where long dark nights and frigid windy days can bring us down, please get in touch with us at info@thelanewayproject.ca for Winterways sponsorship opportunities and more information on how you can get involved.

Winter-Friendly Public Space Inspiration

“Wind Catcher” a 2014 warming hut by Norwegian architects Tina Soli and Luca Roncoroni. Photo by Dan Harper / Smithsonian Mag

To help citizens connect with nature when winter can’t be avoided, a Warming Hut project in Winnipeg installs artistic resting shelters along one of the world’s longest ice skating trails. The huts are positioned right on top of the Red River ice from January to March, where they are used by skaters refusing to hibernate. “Wind Catcher” was a 2014 design with a wind tunnel piercing through a three-sided bright blue and orange structure.

“Aurorama” by Extra architecture & design. Montreal’s stations hivernales (winter stations) are part of an effort to encourage shoppers to buy local. Photo by Extra architecture & design.

Up the St. Lawrence, Montrealers are turning their city into a winter wonderland. In 2020 the city launched an architecture and design competition for creative uses of public space that spark “the joy of winter.” With an emphasis on light sculptures as luminotherapy in pandemic times, 25 winter stations transformed neighbourhood parks, market squares, and vacant lots into artistic places to catch a breath.

“Flat Iron Reflection” designed by Future Expansion. Image from Van Alen Institute / ArchDaily

Winner of NYC’s Flatiron Public Plaza Holiday Design Competition in 2017, “Flat Iron Reflection” is a glittering display of grouped metallic tubes that mirror the urban landscape and invite passerbys to look and engage. The oversized sculpture features sheltered nooks for exploring and reflects light and city scenes back onto the busy plaza.

“Winter FanFare” features gradating sculptures by Vancouver-based designer Thena Tak. Photo by Briony Douglas / Archdaily

Back in Toronto, the Ice Breakers interactive public space competition held by partners Ports Toronto and the Waterfront BIA was open to designers from around the world. One winning installation by Thena Tak created a winter playscape at HTO Park for urban explorers to climb, pose, rest, and socialize on. “Winter FanFare” was a bright and colourful break in the endless white of a barren winter.