Today we stand with Indigenous communities and mourn the tragic loss of all the children buried at the sites of residential schools. At SDG we acknowledge this moment of national mourning and pledge not to celebrate Canada Day but instead to observe it, to educate ourselves and each other and to demand action. We promise to be better and do better and practice solidarity with Indigenous people of the land. We have also donated to the Indian Residential School Society to show our support and we encourage others to do so as well by visiting the site here https://www.irsss.ca/donate
The project featured in this video is The Cayuga Grand Vista Trail bridge which spans the Grand River, a 280km heritage river and home to many Indigenous nations such as the Haudenosaunee (Ho-de-no-sau-nee-ga), Anishinabewaki, Attiwonderonk (Neutral), Mississaugas of the Credit First Nations and Mississauga
Throughout our entire design process and implementation, we respected the indigenous culture of the area and landscape by ensuring no impacts to the river, water body, watershed, or significant existing vegetation. Our team’s main design rationale was adaptive reuse of the bridge structure by reusing existing railway ties, structural supports, and steel and using sustainable recycled composite decking for new surface materials.