In a town that wants to tear it down, could the Gardiner Expressway instead become the green mile?

The environmental assessment on the section from Jarvis St. to the Don Valley is in its early stages, but already it includes a surprising alternative to removing the highway — an idea to keep it and cover it with a green roof.

The proposal, formally called the Green Ribbon , was first floated by architect Les Klein last June at the ideaCity innovation conference in Toronto. Klein’s vision to keep the expressway and beautify it “went viral”: He did 18 interviews with media outlets in 24 hours. But the notion didn’t just run its course and disappear.

“I expected it to be just another idea,” says Klein, who founded Quadrangle Architects in Toronto, “but it resonated in people in quite a positive way.”

Last fall, council voted to include the Green Ribbon in a handful of proposals to be considered as the environmental assessment and integrated urban design study by Waterfront Toronto goes forward. Other options: remove the highway, improve it or keep the status quo.

Council’s decision was “interesting,” said Klein. “It gave us some official standing.”

The pitch calls for a green roof over the road from Dufferin St. to the Don Valley. Stairs, ramps and elevators would transport users up 10 metres to a steel and concrete platform filled with lush plantings and paths. Below it, Gardiner traffic would rush on, protected by a roof that would catch snow and eliminate the need to salt the highway. Highrise buildings already lining the Gardiner could link to it.

Klein says the canopy would cost $700 million, less than half the price of tearing down the Gardiner and replacing it with a road at grade.

There’s a precedent of sorts. In New York, the High Line, an abandoned elevated rail line built in the 1930s to separate dangerous train traffic from pedestrians, has been turned into an urban garden. The initial section, running north about 10 blocks from the Meatpacking District on the west side, drew two million visitors in its first 10 months.

Klein believes Toronto’s transit isn’t adequate to fully replace the Gardiner for commuters. And environmentally, it’s better to adapt and reuse a building than destroy it. From a “green perspective,” Klein says, “the last thing you want to do is throw stuff away if you’re trying to improve something.”

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