Toronto Union Station Revitalization | ?m | ?s | City of Toronto | NORR

mdrejhon said:
Speaking of Union.... When are they going to finally illuminate the glass box?

It badly needs illumination from the inside to give the whole box a nice warm soft glow.

Holding off until Union revitalization completion?

Bonus if it's a hybrid (warm white for usual illumination, combined with occasional-use RGB LED lighting), running the LED lights sparingly during "special" events like Leafs Playoffs and Canada's Day. Even if as static color schemes, with lighting animations reserved only for the really special events.
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It badly needs cleaning first. It's been visibly filthy for some time. Illuminating it would only exagerate that.
 
TOareaFan said:
So sparingly is 1 time a year and 3 or 4 games every 10 years?....so 14 times a decade?
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No. I used the word "like". "Special events like" which makes the sports event inclusive, not exclusive.
St. Patricks? Perhaps.
Valentines? Sure.
Queen's visit? Heck, why not.
The grand opening of that new sushi restaurant 40 kilometers away? Nah!
I'll leave it to a good designer to decide.

I never defined how sparingly. Could be too few like 1 a year or too many like 364 times a year, I'd leave it to a good designer (hope they consult one) to come up with something optimal. Ideally, it would be nice to not run a circus show every single time -- just a nice relaxing warm soft glow (maybe run the LED in two tone mode by default -- incandescent yellow combined with orangeish-yellow 'accents' is an example -- but the lighting designers can come up with relaxing themes to calm hurried commuters a smidgen) after a stressful commuter day and keep safety high. Animations can be distracting on overcrowded platforms which is precisely why I'm not sure animations during peak are a good idea, people looking up while the colors animate wildly 24/7.

When a changed static light color theme and/or lightshows (if any) happen, it will be far more thrilling. Canada's day could be all red with white-colored "scone uplight style" (from inside) accents superimposing a mostly uniform red-box glow, as one of many possible example two-tone patterning from simple RGB spot lamps. Then leafs playoffs games could run a blue-white animation, as one possible theoretic example, by fading the various RGB spots in sequence in a blue-white fade-wave animation. Default theme would be a nice relaxing incandescent-colored warm glow (with or without a subdued second color such as orange) designed to calm commuters, and always used at peak period. Or who knows, maybe they want to do a lightshow every weekend as a tourist draw. The best LED accent lighting designers and crowd-calming lighting techniques can do a great job with this, to rollout RGB lighting without being circusy to stressed commuters mid-peak everyday.

Not everyone wants a flashing psychedelic distraction at 5:15pm ET...

Anyway, it's probably a single static color, but if they install RGB color lighting, it needs to be used artfully rather than willy-nilly circus 24/7 of flashing red-green-blue cacophony in the midst of that station. I've seen people install RGB accent lighting and "artfully light them" far more pleasingly than far-more-expensive installations, by designing and running a skilled color theme.

Just because the "tool" is there (color changeability) not everyone can paint a Monet or Rembrandt when given a paintbrush. And it's Union after all.
 
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mdrejhon said:
No. I used the word "like". "Special events like" which makes the sports event inclusive, not exclusive.
St. Patricks? Perhaps.
Valentines? Sure.
Queen's visit? Heck, why not.
The grand opening of that new sushi restaurant 40 kilometers away? Nah!
I'll leave it to a good designer to decide.

I never defined how sparingly. Could be too few like 1 a year or too many like 364 times a year, I'd leave it to a good designer (hope they consult one) to come up with something optimal. Ideally, it would be nice to not run a circus show every single time -- just a nice relaxing warm soft glow (maybe run the LED in two tone mode by default -- incandescent yellow combined with orangeish-yellow 'accents' is an example -- but the lighting designers can come up with relaxing themes to calm hurried commuters a smidgen) after a stressful commuter day and keep safety high. Animations can be distracting on overcrowded platforms which is precisely why I'm not sure animations during peak are a good idea, people looking up while the colors animate wildly 24/7.

When a changed static light color theme and/or lightshows (if any) happen, it will be far more thrilling. Canada's day could be all red with white-colored "scone uplight style" (from inside) accents superimposing a mostly uniform red-box glow, as one of many possible example two-tone patterning from simple RGB spot lamps. Then leafs playoffs games could run a blue-white animation, as one possible theoretic example, by fading the various RGB spots in sequence in a blue-white fade-wave animation. Default theme would be a nice relaxing incandescent-colored warm glow (with or without a subdued second color such as orange) designed to calm commuters, and always used at peak period. Or who knows, maybe they want to do a lightshow every weekend as a tourist draw. The best LED accent lighting designers and crowd-calming lighting techniques can do a great job with this, to rollout RGB lighting without being circusy to stressed commuters mid-peak everyday.

Not everyone wants a flashing psychedelic distraction at 5:15pm ET...

Anyway, it's probably a single static color, but if they install RGB color lighting, it needs to be used artfully rather than willy-nilly circus 24/7 of flashing red-green-blue cacophony in the midst of that station. I've seen people install RGB accent lighting and "artfully light them" far more pleasingly than far-more-expensive installations, by designing and running a skilled color theme.

Just because the "tool" is there (color changeability) not everyone can paint a Monet or Rembrandt when given a paintbrush. And it's Union after all.
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With all the condos around could we not just put it as Kenny Rogers red every night?
 
The white film over the windows at Bay West Teamway was recently removed awaiting a reinstallation. This was the south east corner of the Bay Concourse.

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Going up the crowd crunch in the single-file stairway 5/6 in the Bay Teamway, I'm struck how the stairs is roughly 6 inches narrower than double-file stairways elsewhere. People can go up this stairs in a single file. And it grinds to a problematic halt when just one person wants to come down the stairs -- in a bigger bottleneck than the lineup to the Presto reader.

I immediately noticed the stairway handles protruding 8 inches from both walls. You could "widen" (without demolishing) these stairs by more than a third of a meter (more than one foot), simply by redesigning the stairway walls and handles, without needing to demolish the stairway housing or structure! There is not even bulkheads in the way here

This is nuts. 6 inches, for chrissakes, 6 inches -- would pretty much more than double pedestrian flow in this stairway in a situation of concurrent embark/disembark flow. Stairways only 6 inches wider than this, flow bidirectional pedestrian traffic more than twice as fast elsewhere on Union grounds.

I hope they've considered this issue in upcoming Bay Teamway stairway rebuilds.
 
mdrejhon said:
Going up the crowd crunch in the single-file stairway 5/6 in the Bay Teamway, I'm struck how the stairs is roughly 6 inches narrower than double-file stairways elsewhere. People can go up this stairs in a single file. And it grinds to a problematic halt when just one person wants to come down the stairs -- in a bigger bottleneck than the lineup to the Presto reader.

I immediately noticed the stairway handles protruding 8 inches from both walls. You could "widen" (without demolishing) these stairs by more than a third of a meter (more than one foot), simply by redesigning the stairway walls and handles, without needing to demolish the stairway housing or structure! There is not even bulkheads in the way here

This is nuts. 6 inches, for chrissakes, 6 inches -- would pretty much more than double pedestrian flow in this stairway in a situation of concurrent embark/disembark flow. Stairways only 6 inches wider than this, flow bidirectional pedestrian traffic more than twice as fast elsewhere on Union grounds.

I hope they've considered this issue in upcoming Bay Teamway stairway rebuilds.
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Oh and let's not forget the geniuses who got to stand right at the top of the stairway after getting off it.

AoD
 
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