Bloor Street Transformation

The Bloor Street BIA Street Transformation will revitalize the stretch of Bloor Street between Church Street and Avenue Road, to reflect its status as Canada’s pre-eminent shopping district. The project will also create a ‘red carpet’ for the cultural cornerstones of the Bloor-Yorkville neighbourhood:  the newly refurbished ROM, the restored Royal Conservatory of Music, and the expanded Gardiner Ceramics Museum.

Improvements include: widened granite sidewalks; decorative street lighting; new street furnishings; public art; and improved walkways from Bloor Street to Cumberland and Yorkville. The plan also proposed the creation of continuous planting areas with mature trees, shrubs and flowers in raised, irrigated planting beds, similar to State Street and Michigan Avenue in Chicago.

The design program has already had a positive impact on commercial property values in the area; once completed, it will attain strategic goals for the precinct regarding pedestrian safety, traffic flow and environmental issues.

The design succesfully negotiated competing needs of the B.I.A., City, tenants, residents, utilities, pedestrians, and cyclists. In addition, the innovative tree trenches and pavement detail, developed by rA with consultant input, are now being adopted into the City’s standard streetscape manual.

Construction started in the summer of 2008, and will be completed in 2010.