Glacier Walkway connects visitors to the Canadian Rockies

The Glacier Walkway is a 450 - meter-long walkway carved into the mountainous landscape of Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies. The cantilevered Corten steel and glass structure overlooks the Sunwapta Valley and the Athabasca Glacier. , situated on an ice field straddling the Continental Divide, where the watersheds of North America diverge into the Pacific, Atlantic, and Arctic Oceans. According to ArchDaily , the walkway is based on the concept of cutting through the landscape, creating an experience of a natural extension of the land. "We wanted to give people the opportunity to get out of their cars and experience this incredible landscape in a way that would provide a connection cerebral to our natural environment,” explains Jeremy Sturgess who runs Sturgess Architecture.

The cantilevered parabola, with a tempered and reinforced glass floor, reveals an unobstructed view of the landscape below. The support arm is the result of an engineering technique that takes advantage of a balance formed by opposing tension and compression members, eliminating the need for a more traditional superstructure of poles and cables. "The apparent eccentricity of supporting the walkway on only one side is resolved by the opposing actions of a tensile cable support and a compression tube mounted underneath; both working in conjunction with the curvature of the walkway," says Simon Brown, associate from structural engineering firm Read Jones Christoffersen Consulting Engineers. Corten steel was selected for its weathering properties and its relationship to the mountain face it represents. The materiality of the outcropping steel will age. The size of the Athabasca Glacier will change.