What Will the New Queens Quay Look Like?
Queens Quay was once ranked among the world’s worst streets. One magazine declared that it was “perhaps the ugliest urban waterfront boulevard of any major city.” Thankfully, those days are nearly gone...
It's not always easy to imagine what the future will look like. It can be particularly difficult in the case of a large urban construction project like the revitalization of Queens Quay West. It can be hard to look past three years of construction – the dust, the noise, the traffic disruptions – and keep your eye on the prize at the end. Nevertheless, helping you do just that has been an important goal for us. We know that once it’s all done, most will agree that the new Queens Quay has been worth the wait.
How have we tried to help people stay focused on the end result? We’ve shared artists’ renderings of the new street, like the one at the top of this post. We’ve showed off streets from around the world that inspired the redesign of Queens Quay. We even made an animated short describing just how complicated this project is and how much work was happening both above and below ground.
In a little more than two months – mark your calendars for June 19, 2015 – Queens Quay will officially reopen. Soon we’ll be strolling along the revitalized Queens Quay’s generous pedestrian promenade and riding our bikes down the new Martin Goodman Trail. If you've been by the construction site in recent weeks, you’ve already seen the new street taking shape. The streetcars are running. The granite promenades on the north side are almost complete and those on the south side are well underway. The Martin Goodman Trail is also nearing completion and soon we’ll just be applying the finishing touches.
So, you may be asking, what will the street look like when it’s done? Well, we made this little video to show you:
What will the new Queens Quay look and feel like? This animated fly-through gives you an idea.
Our memories can be short. Our bet is that in a couple of years, when you’re strolling along this bustling stretch of gorgeous waterfront boulevard, you’ll barely remember what Queens Quay used to look like. When that day comes, perhaps this spectacularly bleak photograph will serve as a reminder of just how far we've come:
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