A bike ring designed for the Riverside neighbourhood in Toronto. Installed in 2026, the design is based on the sweeping curves of the Don River that were straightened in 1886.
The Riverside Bike Ring was commissioned by the City of Toronto and the Riverside District BIA, which asked first-year OCAD Industrial Design students to design bike rings for the Riverside neighbourhood in ¾" Corten steel. The rings were installed in 2026, and the design draws on the curves of the Don River before it was straightened in 1886.
While exploring the neighbourhood, I was struck by Eldon Garnet’s words on the Riverside bridge: “This river I step in is not the river I stand in.” That idea of change and constancy shaped my concept. It’s echoed in Corten steel, which weathers but endures, and in the Don itself, which once meandered freely before it was channelled.
Through sketching and laser-cut prototypes, I developed six rings, each framed in a sideways location-pin shape and tracing a different bend of the river’s original course. Each ring is engraved with “River Don Pre-1886,” a quiet clue that today’s river isn’t the one that used to run here.
