Toronto Spadina Subway Extension Emergency Exits | ?m | 1s | TTC | IBI Group

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Faregates are being installed at York University station:
from https://twitter.com/jmsker/status/834861889125363712

Despite some loss from value engineering and how it was executed, it is definitely one of the most aesthetically pleasing station in the system so far.

AoD

 

[steveintoronto]

it is definitely one of the most aesthetically pleasing station in the system so far.

Agreed! I was just scrolling through this forum, and noticed Megaton's pic two posts back, and thought "whoaa!". Now that is an interesting ceiling, it says something, it *shows* something, and that's structure, not blank, monotonous fifties style fibreboard ceiling tiles (with the prerequisite toxic flame retardant added) although that looks like what they've blanked off the ceiling grid with above the superstructure. That's worth digging on to see what the engineering story behind that structure is. They might have stoned two birds with one kill doing it that way.

Short Google doesn't show much save for the architect being Fosters + Partners, British, of much note, and it shows why.

Here's three drawings that come from the TTC:

http://www.ttc.ca/About_the_TTC/Com...ber_24_2009/Reports/Toronto_York_Spadina2.pdf

It appears that there is no undue need for load bearing above that structure, roof dish besides, other than perhaps soil. I may be wrong, will look for more articulated drawings, so the superstructure is overemphasized for drama, and perhaps service conduits and raceways. That station alone is reason to visit the extension when it opens.

Ironically, it looks like a Sixties approach with the flown roof 'boomerang/dish', but from at least the pic posted by Megaton, very interesting and timeless. As to how that looks outside could be another matter. Finding it difficult to locate drawings and pics on this, other than the standard PR ones. Will keep trying, I'm intrigued as to what the story is that those V columns and apparently flown trusses tell. Is it a cantilevered roof shell, or supported at the periphery?

 

[TransitBart]

Wow!

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Agreed! I was just scrolling through this forum, and noticed Megaton's pic two posts back, and thought "whoaa!". Now that is an interesting ceiling, it says something, it *shows* something, and that's structure, not blank, monotonous fifties style fibreboard ceiling tiles (with the prerequisite toxic flame retardant added) although that looks like what they've blanked off the ceiling grid with above the superstructure. That's worth digging on to see what the engineering story behind that structure is. They might have stoned two birds with one kill doing it that way.

Short Google doesn't show much save for the architect being Fosters + Partners, British, of much note, and it shows why.

Here's three drawings that come from the TTC:
View attachment 100068

View attachment 100069

View attachment 100071

http://www.ttc.ca/About_the_TTC/Com...ber_24_2009/Reports/Toronto_York_Spadina2.pdf

It appears that there is no undue need for load bearing above that structure, roof dish besides, other than perhaps soil. I may be wrong, will look for more articulated drawings, so the superstructure is overemphasized for drama, and perhaps service conduits and raceways. That station alone is reason to visit the extension when it opens.

Ironically, it looks like a Sixties approach with the flown roof 'boomerang/dish', but from at least the pic posted by Megaton, very interesting and timeless. As to how that looks outside could be another matter. Finding it difficult to locate drawings and pics on this, other than the standard PR ones. Will keep trying, I'm intrigued as to what the story is that those V columns and apparently flown trusses tell. Is it a cantilevered roof shell, or supported at the periphery?

The version you've posted is conceptual - the final saw the area of the roof reduced by approx. 10%, no skylights along the length of the station, etc - this is the more final version (still not 100% as built - e.g. the fixtures at the concourse level are different) - the full document is no longer available online:

AoD

 

[steveintoronto]

The version you've posted is conceptual - the final saw the area of the roof reduced by approx. 10%, no skylights along the length of the station, etc:

AoD

I wondered about that! Until I can see a series of angles of the same thing, it's also very hard to get a feel of the perspective and balance. From those drawings I posted, my heart kind of sank thinking "OMG, it's going to look like Madge's Glasses from the Sixties (Dame Edna type) from the outside, but I'm willing to wait to see, since the 'inside job' is so interesting. Still Googling, ended up at Youtube, and now I'm completely distracted, watching a great vid on equal tempered tuning...lol. I admit to being a nerd....I'm a tuning Nazi bass player, and most guitar players have no idea how out of tune some strings are. "Well the tuning meter says it's right on..."

I'll get back to digging for more recent pics of that station. If anyone knows of a lode somewhere, please post and/or link.

OK, here's a 'drive-by' (probably in a GO bus) of the station upper shell. As suspected, the static drawings give absolutely no idea of the shape and proportion of this, and I'm still undecided on it: (Since the shape is so complex, it might have to be seen in person to fully realize it)

 

[steveintoronto]

That's a very drastic difference in ceiling finish and light density and direction. It still turned out well, as you see from Bart and my reactions being the same, but behold the concept drawing, and the lesson to be had from such drawings. You kind of need the Awe of God (or very effective drugs) to extrapolate reality to the concept drawing. They always flood their renderings with light that that's just unattainable in the physical manifestation of the concept.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

That's a very drastic difference in ceiling finish and light density and direction. It still turned out well, as you see from Bart and my reactions being the same, but behold the concept drawing, and the lesson to be had from such drawings. You kind of need the Awe of God (or very effective drugs) to extrapolate reality to the concept drawing. They always flood their renderings with light that that's just unattainable in the physical manifestation of the concept.

View attachment 100084

Like I have said, they have changed the design further down the road, and there were renderings reflecting that change:

Ditto the ceiling treatment at the platform level:

(both from http://www.ttc.ca/Spadina/Stations/York_University_Station/index.jsp)

AoD

 

[Hopkins123]

Looks like there's been a missed opportunity to incorporate a secondary exit directly into York Lanes.

 

[steveintoronto]

The bar structure in the original (or early concept) ceiling almost looks like it was the intended rebar for the final roof pour. The platform level concept rendering Alvin posts looks incredible! Like a Crossrail station. And then reality intervened, and it was back to prison. The later renderings, which ostensibly are more accurate to the actual product, are still swimming in make-believe light and fairy-dust.

Does a huge dose of Soma come built into the software?

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

The bar structure in the original (or early concept) ceiling almost looks like it was the intended rebar for the final roof pour. The platform level concept rendering Alvin posts looks incredible! Like a Crossrail station. And then reality intervened, and it was back to prison. The later renderings, which ostensibly are more accurate to the actual product, are still swimming in make-believe light and fairy-dust.

Does a huge dose of Soma come built into the software?

There are reasons to believe the platform level will be reasonably similar to the rendering.

See this post from J Kervin
https://twitter.com/jmsker/status/790751922642784257

The structural expression of the skirts are still there, if you play close attention.

AoD

 

[Johnny Au]

The interior of the station is very Brutalist in a good way. It fits very well with the interior of the Scott Library (and Robarts Library to some extent).

It can be used to double for a futuristic transit station in sci-fi media.

 

[TransitBart]

It is fascinating. And a hell of a lot better than say - Jane - or Donlands - of which there is nothing redeeming.

 

[steveintoronto]

Take a close look at the amount of light and the concrete colour in the rendering below:

Now take a close look at this:

In the former, the concrete is *white concrete*! In the latter, it's standard concrete, meant for structural, not visual use. Concrete can be beautiful, or it can be "brutal". This is brutal.

Getting back to the light factor:

Why white concrete for turnpikes, at twice the cost of standard gray construction grade?

[...]

http://www.lehighwhitecement.com/products/Documents/White_Concrete_Reflects_Highway_Safety.pdf

So whose decision was it to use gray concrete for the interior of this station? It was a brilliant design, (at least inside, I'm non-plussed about the exterior, in fact I find it gaudy as implemented) and doubtless, there were significant costs associated with doing this design....and then they skimped on the concrete and the amount of light that enters.

Brilliant. Not. It's like commissioning a great painter to do a piece for your living room in a mansion, but "to save costs, we're using the cheapest paints we can find, we have some left-over enamel house paint, that will have to do".

The interior of the station is very Brutalist in a good way. It fits very well with the interior of the Scott Library (and Robarts Library to some extent).

It can be used to double for a futuristic transit station in sci-fi media.

Yeah...brutal is the word alright:

Concrete home in Moore Park is poured poetry

John Bentley Mays

Special to The Globe and Mail

Published Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016 8:00AM EDT

Most concrete that the multitudes are likely to see in the course of a Toronto day is dull, massive, hard-hat stuff. It’s found heaped high in the monumental, functional piers underneath the Gardiner Expressway and spread out to make the vast traffic decks of the 401. Of course, the concrete form of the University of Toronto’s brutalist Robarts Library is more arty than the Gardiner’s pylons – yet the architects did little to mute the tough-guy, dump-truck aesthetics of poured cement.

But is crude the only thing concrete can be? Several prominent post-war designers argued otherwise, and made concrete buildings that sing. In a conversation with me last week, Toronto architect Angela Tsementzis named Oscar Niemeyer, Carlo Scarpa and Zaha Hadid as creators who successfully used the material to embody subtle and often dramatic visual ideas. She could have added Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier and Eero Saarinen to the list – but Ms. Tsementzis’s line-up, as it stands, makes the point.

The concrete house in Moore Park by Angela Tsementzis. (Bob Gundu)
[...]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/real...-moore-park-is-poured-poetry/article31340515/

Anna Winston | 28 November 2015 1 comment
White concrete is popular with architects thanks to its pure, uniform appearance, offering a less brutal alternative to board-marked and raw concrete. It is created by combining materials with lower iron, chromium and manganese levels.

Recent examples of projects with white concrete include Daniel Libeskind's proposal for an art museum in Lithuania, a tiny chapel in rural Austria and three additions to a pair of 18th century French mansions (pictured). See more architecture using white concrete »

https://www.dezeen.com/2015/11/28/today-we-like-white-concrete-architecture/

[...] A unified architectural design inside the ticket halls is driven by the desire to maximise height in these constrained spaces. A shallow, folded ceiling plane formed by ribbed pre-cast concrete panels breaks the perception of the low flat ceilings to create a greater sense of space, scale and movement. The grooved, angled ceilings could be seen to resemble the pinstripes, often seen in the suits of City workers. A subtle sparkle of mica in the fibre-reinforced white concrete will glow with indirect lighting. [...]

http://www.crossrail.co.uk/route/stations/liverpool-street/

Someone at the TTC didn't get the memo...

 

[M II A II R II K]

I guess there's no real connection to that other York University train station.

 

[Megaton327]

I guess there's no real connection to that other York University train station.

Why, and how, would there be? It's about 1.4km east of the subway station, and is planned to be closed once the TYSSE opens and Downsview Park GO opens as its replacement. Downsview Park GO is located within/on top of Downsview Park TTC and will be a seamless transfer with conditional fare integration, and elevator/escalator/stair access between subway and GO.