Montreal’s Gorilla Park Repurposes Defunct Railway Track

A new park in Montreal sits atop a disused railway track and features ‘mini-forests’ planted to encourage the quick growth of native plants, reports Kelsey Rolfe in The Globe and Mail.

“The park’s design hearkens back to its previous life: after the tracks were abandoned in the 1990s, trees and vegetation grew wild on the site. It became an unofficial but beloved local park and community space for the part-industrial neighbourhood until a developer cut down the trees without permission in 2013.” Now, thanks to a decade of community advocacy, the city spent $10 million to acquire and redevelop the site.

Gorilla Park, as it’s known, hosts over 1,500 trees and shrubs and seeks to mimic the spontaneous forest that grew on the site previously. According to Rolfe, “It’s just one example of the transformation under way across Canada to make public spaces more sustainable and community focused.” In Toronto, a 1.75-kilometer linear park dubbed The Bentway nestled under the Gardiner Expressway doubles as a recreational space and stormwater infrastructure. “ It now draws hundreds of thousands of Torontonians every year for skating in the winter, free public events and art installations in the other seasons and cycling and walking on its trail network year-round.”