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Can you tell me where in Toronto this TTC subway station is? No points for those who have been following our series (or reading the title): this isn't in Toronto, this is how planners see the corner of Highway 7 and Millway Avenue in Vaughan sometime in the future, after the subway has come to town, and development has followed suit.
Here's what the corner looks like now. That's a big box Future Shop and Home Outfitters. Behind it is a parking lot. Behind that are several parking lots, fronting Wal-Marts and multi-screen cinemas and fast food joints.
And that's what the Spadina subway line is being extended to, for which many have called it the line to nowhere. (Here's an aerial imagining of how the spot will look upon the opening of the subway.)
Vaughan does not want 'nowhere' to be the case however, so the City has embraced the provincial government's Places To Grow plan which encourages much more dense development in nodes throughout the GTA. To that end, the new terminus of the Spadina subway line will be in an area dubbed 'Vaughan Metropolitan Centre'. (Here's an aerial imaging of how the area around the station will develop in the not too distant future.)
The City of Vaughan wants that name - Vaughan Metropolitan Centre - to be applied to the subway station too, and York Region Council agrees. The TTC has other ideas: it wants the much more sensible 'Vaughan Centre'. That name fits with North York Centre and Scarborough Centre stations, and it fits on maps too. (I can tell you from experience that mapmakers are not fans of run-on names for small points on a map.) What the shorter version doesn't fit with are the overly insecure Vaughan and York Region planners and politicians who think that we'll all sit up and take notice of Vaughan if they stick the word Metropolitan in there. What they will get for their insistence on pushing the pretentious moniker is a lot of eye-rolling. Let's hope that cooler heads prevail and that the shorter version survives when final decisions are made: Vaughan doesn't really need to be the object of any more derision than it already often is. (Remember their 'The City Above Toronto' line? This is more of that sloganeering, now becoming tacky and misguided.)
So, we've explored the context of the station, let's arrive down below on a train from the Big TO, and gradually return to the surface.
There's not really a lot to see at platform level. The walls are treated concrete. Below, first, an earlier rendering; below that, more up-to-date with several changes to the signage. Lower still, the Designated Waiting Area near the middle of the platform.
TTC/Arup Canada/Grimshaw Architects
You'll see where we are in this section.
TTC/Arup Canada/Grimshaw Architects
Up one level, and we are at the Concourse. Fare collection will be done on this level, and the fare paid area here only extends to the relatively small orange section seen in the middle of the plan below. All connections to other transit here are York Region Transit or GO or long range Brampton buses, so the fare paid area does not need to extend further. Note the arrows lining the lengthy walkways above the station. These hallways will connect the station to future developments above. The larger, angled hall at the top left is where passengers will connect to and from the VIVA bus station on Highway 7.
TTC/Arup Canada/Grimshaw Architects
Above the fare booth and barriers, stairs, escalators, and an elevator will access the entrance pavilion above.
TTC/Arup Canada/Grimshaw Architects
A newer rendering shows updated signage.
TTC/Arup Canada/Grimshaw Architects
Cross sections give you the feel for the vertical layout of the station at two points in the pavilion area, at one end, and in the middle.
The entrance pavilion is an oval dome, and is where Grimshaw Architects' design for the station starts to shine. The interior of the dome features artwork by Toronto's Paul Raff Studio.
A newer rendering shows some difference in the artwork, which is mostly made up of mirrors. They aren't reflecting any change in those using the station in the two renderings, so it remains to be seen where the colours will come from!
Here's a description of the artwork from Paul Raff Studio: This architecturally integrated artwork transforms the station’s dome into a sculpture of reflected light. It is composed of mirrors which create a dynamic three-dimensionally collaged view of life in the station, and skylights that are carefully aligned with solstice and equinox sun angles to accentuate the effects of sunlight through the deep spaces below.
This plan shows the entrance pavilion's position beside Millway Avenue within a landscaped plaza. Circulation in and out of the building comes at each "corner" of the oval.
Grimshaw, the designer of York University station, (along with many rail stations and airports around the world amongst their accomplishments), has given the pavilion an optimistic and welcoming look, springing from the ground and sheltering under its zinc clad roof, while being open with inviting glazing at the sides.
The landscaping will look great too, if they manage to pull something this lush off. Vaughan will want to make a statement here, that it has arrived along with the subway, so signs for a pleasant setting here are hopeful.
A slightly different view, newer and closer, of the same spot.
So, we'll take a quick look back at the grade level plans, at the time of opening first, and then in the future with substantial development around the station. Notice in both plans the location of the VIVA bus station in the middle of Highway 7 to the west of Millway Avenue. (North is at the right in the plans shown in this report.) The centre-of-the-road rapid busway and station will be in place by the time the station opens. Transferring passengers will access the subway via stairs leading underground at the east end of the bus station.
At Opening
Future Build-out
Here's the bus station in its planned future context,
and to end off, here is the greater future context, a densely built up and urban Highway 7 that we sincerely hope will come to pass not too long from now.
So, that's it, we have covered the stations on the extension of Spadina line, now under construction under the ground, near you. What do you think of Vaughan Centre station, or the line as a whole? Leave a comment here, or click on the Projects & Construction link below to join in the discussion in UrbanToronto's thread for the project.
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