The City of Toronto and Toronto and Region Conservation Authority selected PLANT to prepare a concept design for the revitalization of the Governor’s Bridge Lookout at Don Valley Brick Works Park. This project aims to resolve issues with the existing lookout that include vandalism and bonfires, insufficient accessibility, vegetation damage, and visitors’ creation of informal paths and shortcuts. Our proposed lookout can be reached via an accessible main path or by stairs traversing a steeper and more direct route up the slope. A series of inclined, interconnected platforms leads to the lookout’s main platform, which provides views out over the city and down into the former quarry that now contains a network of parkland trails.
Elevated and prominently visible from below, the lookout invites visitors to climb to its summit. A palette of galvanized steel, metal grating and precast concrete complements the Brick Works’ industrial architecture and addresses the need for durable, low-maintenance infrastructure that minimizes disruption to the site’s ecology. Recognizing the neighbourhoods that border the Don Valley, water jet-cut interpretive signage directs visitors’ gaze to these residential edges, providing the name and founding date for each.