The BMX Supercross Track is difficult to categorise. It is an object in a landscape and a landscape in its own right. It is a structure within a park that accommodates the park’s storage needs, two permanent start ramps for BMX Supercross events, one at 10 metres high and the other at 5m, a permanent, concrete and steel screened structure and a 517m ephemeral dirt track. It has a board-formed retaining wall over 27m long and ranging from 0.5 to 6m high. The track has been certified by Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) certification board and as such the only track in Canada, at the time, to be recognised.
The site of the track (determined prior to the design team being engaged) in Toronto’s Centennial Park was quickly found to be at a low point of the park and its drainage catchment area was enormous. More fun for the team! Building a dirt track in essentially a catchment area required an extensive underground drainage system, influencing structural and civil engineering interventions. These flows had to be managed to allow the track to be dry within 30 minutes of a rainfall, one of the criteria for BMX competitions, and the water quality had to satisfy the requirements of the Toronto Region Conservation Authority as a designated wetland area lies immediately to the south of the site.
all images: Scott Norsworthy
Start gates, at 5m and 10m.
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on site review 44 : play
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