News   May 17, 2024
 1.5K     2 
News   May 17, 2024
 939     2 
News   May 17, 2024
 7.7K     9 

Post: $2M from Province to Subway Station Revitalization

I hope the Museum station doesn't end up looking garish. And Casa Loma station? How far is it between Dupont and St. Clair West?
 
What about Islington station? Wasn't there a plan to rebuild it due to having been built underneath an underground river which has caused serious water damage? And let's not forget those horrifically ugly surface level bus bays that are taking up prime real estate at the very heart of ECC. I get angry every time I see them!
 
Towered:

Any major change to Islington station would probably have to wait until Kipling is converted into a inter-system terminal for Mississauga Transit, by which time the entire site would likely be redeveloped.

AoD
 
BB, pw20, I42 - I can't agree more. I think that Barber's recent column on the Puglies can just as readily be applied to the "civic-minded ladies and gentlemen" running this little urbanizing extravaganza - which reeks of marketing more than good design. The whole sarcophogi-collonade thingy reminds me, unpleasantly, of the ROMs recently-quashed foray into children's entertainment.
 
Extensive water damage and crumbling ceilings aside, how about a fundraising campaign to "revitalize" Queen Station with its horrible lettering? You know things are bad when the renovations scream for renovations.

I wholeheartedly agree that standardizing on the TTC font alone would be a vast improvement, but the TTC can't even use remotely matching tiles when they install new elevators. It's enough to make anyone with even the faintest sliver of artistic sense cry.
 
There are a few stations that need updating desperately, but Dupont or Museum arn't any of them. Osgoode station is discusting

Let me gets this straight. Museum and Dupont (with its horrid orange) are fine, but Osgoode is ugly? That's odd. Osgoode at least has interesting tiles.
 
^ No, I think this is exactly right. Dupont is one of the best stations on the line, offering a cohesive, humane experience, and maybe a bit of rebirthing therapy with every ride. Casa Loma kistch would break my heart.

Even St. Patrick, while not nearly as interesting, offers a real sense of place, one that speaks to what it is, what it's meant for, and the time and mentality that built it.

Osgoode, on the other hand, looks like it got caught in a threshing machine. It's a non-place. If you asked someone to describe Osgoode, my guess is that they'd come up empty. I would, at least, and I was there last night.
 
The Osgoode we know is not the original Osgoode. I had a photo of it in the archives thread. When first built, it had vitrolite tiles and was not unlike Museum, or even Eglinton, in appearance. It appears the current version is yet another misguided 1970s-1980s reno along the lines of Dundas, Davisville, etc.
 
Even if Osgoode is "ugly," it's not offensively ugly and spending a dime on it making it less ugly is not justified.
 
Osgoode is a beauty considering the state of disrepair so many other stations are in (St. George, Islington, Union), nevermind the really ugly ones (Wilson, Queen, Dundas).
 
Osgoode + St. Andrew were the "last of the Vitrolites", just as Museum/St. George/Lower Bay were the "first of the glazed concrete blocks". And I guess because standards of Vitrolite manufacture + installation were subpar by the early 60s (or something), the last of the Vitrolites turned out to be the first to be de-Vitrolited, and the first to ditch the TTC font as well.

Given what might be claims to infamy according to a TTC aesthetic purist, the UPC-bar-code tile-patterned Osgoode + St. Andrew renos are still IMO more tasteful than the post-1970 TTC norm (cf. the Yonge line renos and northward extensions). It's like those TTC design staff squares were already allowing their hair to grow out a little, but hadn't yet given in totally to curly-perm/leisure-suit That 70s Neurosis...
 
Even St. Patrick, while not nearly as interesting, offers a real sense of place, one that speaks to what it is, what it's meant for, and the time and mentality that built it.
Totally agree SNF. I consider it a "pure" station if that makes sense.
 
It's only because it and Queen's Park are the only "tube" stations. Not that there's anything wrong w/fixating upon them for that reason--but, face it. That's the reason, pure and simple...
 

Back
Top