Proposal for a one-mile long tunnel of fiber-optic-lit artist's studios, galleries, and a walkabout between ravines in Toronto for tourists, artists, and locals. 

The Mile Studio is a proposal for a one-mile underground artist studio and public corridor built within a 12-foot inner-diameter tunnel.

It repurposes unused subsurface urban space into affordable creative infrastructure and a climate-controlled public promenade, demonstrating how small-diameter tunnels can deliver high civic value without surface disruption.

Inside the tunnel:

– Affordable, sound-dampened studio bays for artists
– Exhibition niches and curated display alcoves
– A wheelchair-accessible pedestrian corridor
– Separate lighting systems for studios and public areas

The studios are designed for serious work. They use neutral, high-CRI lighting suitable for visual art, writing, and digital production. The public corridor uses a programmable fiber-optic lighting system for ambient illumination, wayfinding, and exhibition lighting, without interfering with studio work conditions.

The design avoids transparent studio walls. Artists are not placed on display. Privacy is preserved through solid partitions and acoustic separation. Public engagement happens through exhibition niches and optional rotating display panels built into selected studio bays. These panels allow finished work to be presented to the public corridor while keeping the private workspace fully enclosed.

This approach gives artists control over visibility and presentation without turning studios into glass enclosures.

The Mile Studio addresses three urban problems at once:

1. The loss of affordable artist workspace

2. Vast volumes of unused underground urban space

3. The lack of climate-resilient public gathering places

A one-mile underground studio corridor creates permanent creative workspace, adds a new all-weather public space, and demonstrates a serious, non-transport use for small-diameter tunnels.

The project avoids road removal, freight or traffic modeling, and expropriation. It requires limited surface access points and minimal political or regulatory risk compared to transport tunnels.

It is intended as a flagship demonstration project for The Boring Company’s Tunnel Vision Challenge, showing how 12-foot tunnels can unlock cultural infrastructure, public space, and economic value beneath dense cities.

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Proposed by Daniel Goorevitch
Submitted to The Boring Company Tunnel Vision Challenge