Picture a long, transparent worm with tentacles filled with cars, and you begin to get a sense of what architectural designer Peter Michno has in mind for the Gardiner Expressway.

He envisions a vented, glass-covered tube that would run seven kilometers, end to end, of the elevated section, from Dufferin St. east to the Don Valley Parkway. Tolls would fund the construction costs, and beneath the roadway would be new green space and pedestrian walkways.

Sound far-fetched? Maybe, maybe not.

Michno’s idea has the support of a prominent principal architect in the city, and the president of the Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas (TABIA).

Exactly what to do with the Gardiner has been a hot topic for years. Officially called the Frederick G. Gardiner Expressway, it was completed in 1965 with much fanfare. But today it’s caught between visions of the past and future.

Supporters say it’s a key component for Toronto’s downtown, feeding 200,000 cars per day into the downtown core from the west, and 120,000 cars per day east of Lower Jarvis St.

Critics argue it’s an eyesore that divides the city from the waterfront, and that annual maintenance costs of about $3 million to $4 million could be better spent elsewhere.

Toronto Mayor David Miller and Waterfront Toronto officials support a plan to tear down a section of the Gardiner just east of Jarvis for about $300 million. An environmental assessment is currently underway, with no decision expected before early next year.

But Michno takes issue with teardown schemes. He argues that demolition is shortsighted because the city and region depend so heavily on the roadway.

So, he and those who support his proposal want to ensure it’s on the table when the city ponders the next steps. Waterfront Toronto spokesperson Michelle Noble said alternatives will be explored as part of the environmental assessment next year, and it’s not too late for new ideas.

But why a giant tube?

First, it would reduce the Gardiner’s ugliness and noise, argues Michno, whose resume includes work as principal design architect on projects in Dubai, including a 50-storey tower for Dubai University.

A glass tunnel would improve the expressway’s aesthetics and significantly reduce vehicle sound, he argues. Think of it as a giant artwork.

“There are more and more people living near (the Gardiner). They have to look at this not-so-great looking structure,’’ Michno says.

Second, the covered design would keep snow and rain from accumulating on the roadway, leading to huge savings in maintenance.

Third, says Stan Downey, a Toronto architect who also likes Michno’s idea, it would improve the road’s underbelly.

“A good deal of the ugliness is the underside,’’ says Downey, pointing to Michno’s design renderings depicting vibrant, tree-lined pedestrian areas underneath.

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“You brighten that up, and you improve the aesthetics,’’ says Downey, whose firm Stanford Downey Architects won an award for the iconic 1 King St. West building.

The tube would have rounded panels on the bottom that sit on “graceful,’’ colourful supports, says Michael Comstock, president of the Toronto Association of BIAs and another Michno backer.

It’s not the first bright idea brought forward to remake the Gardiner. During the municipal election campaign, mayoral candidate Giorgio Mammoliti proposed converting it into a corridor for commuter trains on one side, with lanes for cyclists, pedestrians and skaters down the other.

It was an idea borrowed in part from New York’s High Line Park. That elevated rail line converted to a high-level linear park for cyclists and pedestrians has been a big hit in Manhattan, and also inspired the “Green Ribbon’’ concept for the Gardiner brought forward last year by Toronto architect Les Klein.

Michno, who believes it would take about three to four years to build his tube, can’t nail down an exact dollar figure, but says road tolls would be a logical option to finance the project.

“The toll road is a great payout over a long period of time,’’ says Comstock.

Wouldn’t tolls simply cause motorists to flee the Gardiner and further clog the parallel Lake Shore Blvd.?

Michno doesn’t think so. Because his plan calls for fewer ramps, the Lake Shore route would become less of a “service road’’ than it is now, he argues. “That should improve the flow of traffic,’’ he says.

As for the ability of emergency services to respond to fires or accidents, Michno argues that European cities with longer tunnels have figured out ways to deal with that, so Toronto would, too.

Michno says he wants to “provoke a wider discussion’’ about the future of the expressway.

“Maybe somebody will like (my proposal),’’ he says.

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