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This weekend UrbanToronto, in our continuing series of articles looking at the Spadina Subway extension moves on to Downsview Park Station.
Downsview Park? Not Sheppard West?
Since the planning of the extension began, the working name for the first station north of Downsview has been Sheppard West. It makes some sense: it fits with the Spadina line practice of adding "West" to stations serving the same east-west arterials as the Yonge line.
The name doesn't make everyone happy however. The TTC expects that some people riding the Spadina line in the future and looking for Downsview Park, or the new neighbourhood developing around it, might get off at Downsview only to find they are not too close to their destination. GO Transit, which will also serve the new station with a new stop on their Barrie line, does not have a Sheppard station themselves, so they do not want to call this one Sheppard West.
The plan, not yet with final approved, calls for a bit of a swap: before the new station opens, the existing terminus at Downsview will be renamed Sheppard West. That will free up the name, allowing the new station to be named Downsview Park. Even though TTC online references to the new station still call it Sheppard West, for the purposes of this article, we'll go with the name change plan.
So, to start, the station, with the same team that is putting Highway 407 Station together - AECOM as Prime Consultant – Engineering & Architecture : Project Management, Aedas as Design Architect, and PB (Parsons Brinckerhoff) as Design Engineers - from the air:
The location and site plan. Downsview Park station will have east and west pavilion entrances, allowing barrier free access to both northbound and southbound GO trains, and to the future neighbourhoods.
Grade level plan.
The station's west pavilion entrance.
Station in section.
Interior of the pavilion... looking a little plain... at least compared to the previous stations we have looked at.
One reason for that is that Panya Clark Espinal's artwork has not been incorporated into the renderings of the station yet. You may be familiar with Espinal's stunning "floating" designs at Bayview station on the Sheppard line. At Downsview Park, Espinal will be installing "Spin", five circles which will float in different parts of the station.
If you want a better look at how Spin will change as you move through Downsview Park station, click this link.
Concourse level plan.
A view of the Concourse.
Platform level plan.
A view of the Platform level... with that "working name" cut into the walls.
So that's the station as it will be when it opens... amidst fields. Give it a dozen years though, and Downsview Park station will sit amidst two new neighbourhoods. The location of the station can be seen in red, at the top of the map.
East of the station will be the Chesswood neighbourhood. You can see Downsview airport's remaining runway in the background. The airport will keep building heights in the area low.
West and south of the station will be the Sheppard neighbourhood.
A final image for this station? A quick look at the same image as above, except showing the station in an early concept. What would the interiors of the more extravagant plan have looked like? It would be fun to turn those up some day! (If you have them, let us know!)
What do you think of Downsview Park station? Leave a comment here, or click on the link below to join in the conversation in UrbanToronto's thread for the project.
This article was originally published in forum thread: Spadina Subway Extension Updates
