Light in Motion: The Luminous Veil at the Prince Edward Viaduct

The city has to be beautiful. Every building and every piece of landscaping should add to the city, like this one.
— Dereck Revington

INTRODUCTION

Prince Edward Viaduct (PEV), widely known as the Bloor Viaduct, has been part of Toronto’s urban fabric since 1918, spanning the Don Valley to connect Bloor Street with Danforth Avenue. At 494 metres, the PEV is the longest conventional bridge in Toronto.

In 2003, the Luminous Veil, a suicide prevention barrier woven from more than 9,000 stainless steel rods running the length of both vehicle spans, is completed. The barrier was designed by artist Dereck Revington, with a vision that extended beyond its protective purpose, by transforming the steel rods into a canvas for light.

GVA began work on the project in 2013, collaborating with the project team to develop a solution that would bring the lighting vision to life. The system was installed and officially commissioned in July 2015, transforming the Don Valley at night, with its colors and patterns responding to wind and season in a continuous, ever-changing display.

For the 2026 FIFA™ Tournament, Toronto was selected to host matches. Therefore, the City committed resources to restore the system, with GVA team playing a key role in optimizing the lighting system to ideal operational conditions.

ARCHITECTURE & LIGHTING DESIGN

The Luminous Veil extends along both sides of the vehicular deck, its thousands of closely spaced vertical steel rods forming a fine, see-through screen that gives the barrier its distinctive character. The lighting design utilizes downward facing wall washing linear luminaires to create seamless washing effects on the steel rods. Lighting programmes are inspired by the surroundings: Wind speed, wind direction, and season determine the movement and effects of the light across the Veil in real time, creating a display that is both dynamic and site-specific.

GVA’S ENGINEERING HERITAGE

GVA supplied over 500 custom STR9® Color Changing luminaires to illuminate the steel rods of the Luminous Veil across the full span. The luminaire was specified in a custom, narrow 66mm body profile to suit the fine geometry of the steel rods, with a custom 38mm high louver variant and custom clip mount bracket kit used where the installation required additional glare control and secure attachment.

The entire system is powered by an early version of GVA’s INFINITY® technology with 16 INFINITY® power supplies. Operating at 380 V DC, INFINITY® centralizes power distribution away from the luminaires themselves, eliminating the need for power supplies and electrolytic capacitors inside each luminaire. The result is a simpler, more resilient infrastructure across a bridge environment where access for maintenance is limited, and the system must perform without interruption.

Each STR9® Series luminaire is built on UNIBODY™ construction, machined from a single block of aluminium extrusion with no end caps and no mechanical seams, individually seal-tested to IP66. The hermetically sealed enclosure, filled with dry air, protects against the full range of Toronto’s outdoor conditions, from ice and road salt in winter to high humidity in summer, with minimum risk of internal condensation over the life of the installation.

THE TECHNOLOGICAL FOUNDATION

More than a decade after its initial activation, the Luminous Veil at the Prince Edward Viaduct returned to full operation for the FIFA tournament in the summer of 2026. One of the earliest large-scale deployments of GVA’s INFINITY® and UNIBODY™ technologies, the project has endured more than ten Toronto winters as a real-world proof point for the durability that now underpins the entire GVA product line. For the City of Toronto and visitors arriving for the tournament, the Viaduct continues to mark the Don Valley each night with a display shaped by wind and season, as it has since 2015.

PRODUCTS SPECIFIED

  • 500+ Custom STR9® Color Changing with Custom Narrow Body and Brackets
  • 16x INFINITY® Power Supply

Media Coverage:
CTV News – Bloor Viaduct’s ‘Luminous Veil’ to light up night sky
Toronto Star – Historic Bloor viaduct gets the grand reveal July 4
CP 24 – ‘Luminous Veil’ lights up Bloor Viaduct ahead of Pan Am Games
CBC – Bloor Viaduct ‘Luminous Veil’ to light up Saturday night
blogTO – Bloor Viaduct finally lights up the night
Toronto SUN – Luminous unveiling planned for Saturday at the Bloor viaduct
The SOUTH BAYVIEW BULLDOG – “Luminous Veil” transforms Bloor Viaduct into light show

Client: City of Toronto

Artists: Dereck Revington, Geoffrey Thün, Kathy Velikov, Abel Gill, Studio F Minus

Structural: Morden Yolles, Kari Valli (Yolles Partnership)

Specifications: Brian Ballantyne

Lighting Design (2015): Mulvey & Banani Lighting

Restoration Project Lead (2026): We Light

Electrical installation: Guild Electric

Controls: Westbury National

In addition to the local new outlets, LD+A, the magazine of the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America also published a comprehensive article about the project in its March 2016 issue called “A Sonata of Light“.

PRODUCTS USED

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