from the Excalibur online edition....forgive me if this was posted earlier - I haven't been following this too closely, didn't know that Norman Foster was involved....
York subway plans unveiled
Written by By Andrew Fletcher, Transit Reporter
Wednesday, 30 September 2009
Courtesy Of Toronto Transit Commission
As the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) prepares for the Spadina subway extension from
Downsview station to the York Region, designs for the York University station were recently unveiled.
The plan for the new York University station involves high-end architecture and will be designed by British-based company Foster + Partners.
York University station will be more advanced than other stations on the subway line because of Toronto’s push for green initiatives.
According to the plans, the station will feature a green roof that will allow for natural light to shine into the concourse of the station, where the ticket booth will be located, although
no natural light will reach track level.
Bud Purves, president of the York University Development Corporation (YUDC), the main body representing the university in the development and construction of the new station, talked about the importance of having green initiatives like natural light in the station.
The principle of what they are doing there is raising the station, and it will come out of the ground with a large windowed area that will bring light into the station,” said Purves.
He added that people generally respond better to natural, rather than artificial, lighting.
There will be two entrances to the station: one in the Harry W. Arthurs Common near the York Research Tower/Archives of Onatrio Building, and the other across the street from Accolade East.
The construction for York University station is expected to start by 2011 and is scheduled to be completed by 2015.
The station will be built using a cut and cover technique, and the subway platform will extend from under Schulich on a diagonal to the Archives of Ontario Building. The cut and cover technique involves cutting into the ground and then covering the top, and eliminates the need to tunnel underground.
One of the biggest concerns is that the construction of the station will limit the access of buses into the commons area.
“We are looking at ways to keep the bus loop open or [ . . . ] at other places to put the buses,” said Purves.
“What is important is to have access to the buses that is [as undisruptive] to the subway as possible.”
Some of the other elements of the station include public artwork, bicycle parking on the north end and a relatively column-free design to allow the interior space to be easy to move through.
Once the system is up and running, there are plans to remove all of the buses coming into the commons area to provide the campus with a cleaner, quieter space.
“What is interesting to me is that the design plan is to get rid of all of the buses, not just the TTC. All the buses are getting out of that area which is good for the commons, but everybody who is coming by bus is going to have to get off at a different subway station,” said Ed Drass, transit reporter with the Metro Toronto news.
The municipal, provincial and federal governments have equipped the TTC with an $86-million budget, but the current estimated cost of constructing the station is $115 million.
One of the main factors in the first approved budget is the need to follow the Toronto Green Development Standard (TGS). The TGS was approved late in ’08, and the standards
target construction projects that apply to the City of Toronto and create a need for green incentives.
Drass talked about the need for the TTC to stay under the original budget.
"Maybe getting a subway is enough without getting all of the fancy extras,” he said.
Once the extension is completed, the station is expected to be used by about 40,000 people on an average day.
- With files from the Toronto Star
It seems particularly odd to whinge about how the station faces the challenges of being "constrained" between existing facilities without in turn pointing out the opportunities to integrate cleanly with them.
