THE BENTWAY

Leading the way under the expressway

Underneath Toronto’s Gardiner Expressway is a unique and innovative public space called The Bentway. It’s 1.75km long, and it has quickly become a new gathering place for the city’s growing population.

Having worked on the branding of The Bentway, Field Trip & Co were hired to design the wayfinding strategy and design for the popular space. While immersing ourselves in the location, we quickly discovered a site full of wonderful wayfinding opportunities, including its massive scale, an intuitive numbering system, easy access from any direction, and plenty of surfaces to play with. We also loved how looking through the Bentway is like looking through a viewfinder.

These unique site conditions became the foundation upon which the many different typologies of signage were developed. Visitors are now greeted with oversized, almost sculptural golden numerals, to more intimate moments where typography becomes didactic in nature (such as the mysterious gap in the numbering system: “where did the bents 62-79 go?”) Subtle path numbers that lead the way throughout the site are also used to great effect. With the space fully launched and in use, we are currently designing a system for donor signage.

Agency partner: Sabrina Richard
Photography and video: Kristina Ruddick