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Islington Subway Station

From: http://communities.canada.com/natio...c-to-reveal-new-west-end-subway-stations.aspx
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The TTC will tomorrow night unveil a $60-million overhaul of two key west-end subway stations.
The Kipling Station and Islington Station Improvements project will switch the terminus for Mississauga Transit and GO Transit bus services from Islington to Kipling, and free up land to be sold to SNC-Lavalin.
Those SNC-Lavalin funds will help pay for the remake of the stations. The engineering giant will build an office at Islington, bringing 1,400 jobs to Toronto, said TTC chair Adam Giambrone.
“SNC-Lavalin is moving its headquarters for the GTA and some elements from across Canada,†said Mr. Giambrone. “That will be a major commercial development with 1,400 jobs coming into the City of Toronto.â€
Stephanie Rice, urban planner and manager of the project for the City of Toronto, said the project puts the TTC buildings on a hydro corridor instead of prime city real estate, and will add about 100 parking spaces between both stations, bringing the total number of spaces to 2,870.
“This project really got jump-started when last year the city was approached by the developer for the Islington lands, that’s SNC-Lavalin,†said Ms. Rice.
“They’re developing on a portion at Islington station. There are lands that are occupied by our existing bus terminal, and there’s an adjacent property, the former Legion building that’s owned by the city of Toronto. The Legion building lands are going to be developed by SNC-Lavalin.â€
The transit commission will hold an open house on the designs tomorrow at 6 p.m. at Islington United Church, 25 Burnhamthorpe Rd.
Construction will begin next year.
The TTC says the project will make it easier for pedestrians and private cars to get to the stations, improve the flow of passengers through the stations, and make bus operations at both hubs more efficient. Both stations will remain open while the construction work is under way.
Currently Mississauga Transit terminates at Islington station, an unnecessary four-kilometre round trip into Toronto for the suburban buses.
The project will move the terminus for Mississauga and GO bus services to Kipling at the Bloor subway’s western limit.
The Kipling redesign will also add new car entrances and two passenger pick-up and drop-off areas for the public, and replace the existing commuter parking lots with lots on Kipling Avenue and Aukland Road. The projected tab for Kipling: $37.6 million.
A new Islington TTC bus terminal will be built north of the existing subway station, on land that is also a hydro corridor. It will include a larger passenger kiss-and-ride facility, and new elevators to provide barrier-free access to all levels of the station. The projected tab for Islington: $22.44 million.
“On a whole, it’s great that the city and the TTC are going to invest in the stations, specifically because they’re the end stations,†said Matthew Blackett, publisher of the Toronto urban design magazine Spacing.
But Blackett urges the TTC to preserve the Islington station interior as part of the city’s architectural heritage.
“The Bloor-Danforth line is actually an amazing time capsule of a certain time -- of Modernist, clean, aesthetic design,†Blackett said. “Don’t mess with the tile design. Clean it up, touch it up.€
— Story by Will Tremain, National Post
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Blackett made an important point at the end about preserving the tiles of the Bloor Danforth line because a lot of people don't get that these tiles weren't merely the cheapest and blandest stuff the TTC could get their hands on.
 
If you keep Islington, keep Warden too--they're pendants, as far as tile pattern goes...
 
That's true. The stations are at fundamentally similar with the the fact that they're both former termini, the centre platform, tiles, and covered bus areas, but the differences are noticeable and memorable like Warden's natural light, wider platform and use of glass on the platform. If you get used to seeing one everyday and then the other once after a few years it's striking.
 
Thanks Alvin. I should have gone last night because the new PPDO at Islington looks to be entirely inadequate. Will that road running west off of Islington be TTC only or will the public have access to it as well? Does that road connect to the PPDO circle? Or will cars have to go down to bloor and then west to the PPDO entrance?
 
SeanTrans said:
The road running west off of Islington is only a driveway for buses into the terminal. PPDO will be accessed only off of Bloor, but at a signalized intersection.
Click to expand...

Thanks Sean. I don't like this plan. The original plan had that driveway as a public road going all the way to Bloor. And what's with the PPDO? Where are people going to wait to be picked up? In the parking lot? I predict that southbound cars on Islington dropping off passengers will stop on Islington rather than going to the PPDO entrance, causing traffic to back up.
 
Notyouagain, I believe the idea for the Islington PPDO is that there will be a shelter beside a small dedicated parking lot, and that passengers will access the subway via the West Entrance. You can see those structures in the renderings in the link above. A future phase of development will see the West Entrance incorporated into whatever building they erect on the existing Islington bus terminal site.

Also to clarify regarding SNC Lavalin: their building will rise on the site of the former Legion Hall and its parking lot.

The City, meanwhile, is considering building a new Etobicoke Civic Centre for the site of the existing Islington bus terminal. That will depend no doubt on their ability to sell the land at the current site at Burnhamthorpe and 427 for enough cash to build this new centre 'without cost to the taxpayer' or some such. It will be interesting to see what all they come up with for that corner in that regard - Bloor and Islington could use a grand public gesture, and could be completely transformed by it.

If the City can sell Burnhamthorpe & 427 for a whack of dough, I'd want to see a public 'visioning' charette to determine what we fair denizens would like to see built at the corner, and then an architectural design competition to get the best building within the budget. Anything less than that would be slap in the face to city building.

cc Peter Milczyn

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ShonTrons asked about the Islington tiles at the PIC last night, and was told that the TTC would be bringing the current tile design back to as new.

Excellent.

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Interchange, I'm not sure that I understand. Will the new west entrance be the PPDO shelter or will there be another structure. The picture seems to show a small structure underneath the hydro tower but it looks too small.
 
Notyouagain, I believe the structure under the hydro tower is supposed to be just big enough for people to wait in away from inclement weather. To access the subway, one will have to walk to the west entrance.

That west entrance is both temporary and conceptual in nature currently, pending SNC's development proposal, and/or what the City decides to build where the bus terminal is now.

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notyouagain said:
Thanks Sean. I don't like this plan. The original plan had that driveway as a public road going all the way to Bloor.
Click to expand...

Let me just clear up some of the confusion in here over this road. Last week I attended the city's West District Design Initiative public meeting, which discussed the city's vision of how to develop the Bloor-Islington land, the Westwood land, and the current Civic Centre land. At that meeting, the question was raised as to the nature of this road. The city wants the road in question to be a publicly accessible, L-shaped through road that would connect Aberboyle (from the east side of Islington) to Green Lanes (from the south side of Bloor). The city representative did however mention that their plan was at odds with what the TTC wants, which is access exclusive to buses only (on the eastern half towards Islington), and a dead end PPDO on the other half (south towards Bloor). Basically, the final decision is still up in the air. Naturally, at the meeting last night the TTC made no mention of the fact that the city envisions an entirely different use of this road, which I found to be a little dishonest to the huge crowd that was there.

I was pretty thrilled though that they actually had a sign on display showing their ideal layout for the Dundas LRT alignment and platform location at Kipling!
 
The City, meanwhile, is considering building a new Etobicoke Civic Centre for the site of the existing Islington bus terminal.
Click to expand...

Apart from the potential subway link there's absolutely no reason to do this. Believe it or not Hwy 427/Burnhamthrope is a great location and likely due to the civic centre presence there's now an impressive number of office towers (Lavalife, TD Meloche, etc.), high rises and hotels in the adjacent area. Remove it and what becomes of that neighbourhood? It's fascinating the city would dismantle a perfectly functioning terminus, relocate it to hydro corridor sprawl and waste millions more on an useless new civic centre when Etobicoke's been amalgamated for a decade now. Priorities eh :rolleyes:!
 
"Apart from the potential subway link..."

That alone is good enough reason for me. I don't want to drive each time i need to access services provided by my local gov't. By the way, if you think Islington and Bloor is sprawl, then what the heck is 427 and Burnhamthorpe?
 
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