This bridge connects a new hotel tower to an existing pedestrian skywalk in Toronto’s financial center. It presented us with an opportunity to bring a new spatial experience to Toronto’s PATH network, which is mostly underground, that is not so disconnected from the city above ground. This design seeks to frame an interface between these parallel urban spaces. Could this bridge be both a path and a place?

We saw a second opportunity in the bridge’s form. Due to site circumstances, the bridge takes a 120 degree turn and has a 5 % pitch from its eastern end to its west end. Its spans are achieved with a truss. These geometries were mandated in the project brief and we saw potential in their non-orthogonality.

A band of dark aluminum panels wraps the bridge, binding it together and frames views in an out of the space. The geometry of the exterior cladding and interior is structured by the bridge’s exposed steel trusses. Inside, between truss members, a dazzle pattern mural plays with the non-orthogonality of the space, reorienting its occupants by distorting their perceptions.