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New look for the Victoria Park subway station (Brown and Storey)

Can't be done too soon. This is one of the ugliest and most poorly conceived stations; it's almost as if it was deliberately set up to be forbidding and unattractive.
 
The funny thing is, the platform area proper is actually quite airy and attractive--one of the best of the B-D line. But hoo boy, the rest is urbanistically clumsy...
 
^ Really? I don't find Vic Park's platform special in any way. I actually think the platform is rather dark (maybe another location in Toronto for a Calatrava-style train shed?). Warden, Keele, and Old Mill have more attractive platforms than Vic Park.

I think it would help the station and the community around it if the station contains more amenities. My impression of Vic Park is that it's a massive station, but most of the space inside it is underutilized. It would be nice to incorporate small rows of shops/cafes in the station like what you find on top of the bus bays at Warden station.
 
Good to finally see this happen. I hope they go to a rotunda style bus bay (like York Mills, or Kennedy, or STC).

At one time there was a good size mechanical storage area tucked away on the north end of the station, under the westbound platform. It used to house the escalator rebuild program (An excellent idea, started by the mechanics. When doing maintenance if they had a salvageable part left over they'd bring it to Vic Park instead of just throwing it out, and then they'd have a stockpile for later use. All kinds of miscellaneous things like belts and motors and escalator treads), but the program was cancelled. If they wanted to they could easily house half a dozen shops in that old storage area (and as a bonus, the stores could even have windows facing onto Dentonia, letting in lots more natural light)
 
The biggest problem I find with VP is that the e/b platform isn't directly linked to the bus bays which could be implemented easily. Similar could be done at Wilson.
 
^ Really? I don't find Vic Park's platform special in any way. I actually think the platform is rather dark (maybe another location in Toronto for a Calatrava-style train shed?). Warden, Keele, and Old Mill have more attractive platforms than Vic Park.
Click to expand...

Maybe this is a half-empty/half-full argument, but perhaps the merit is in the so-called "darkness"? I find a pleasing rectilinear restraint to the VP platform that makes Warden/Keele/Old Mill look fussy by comparison--perhaps it's the most "Parkinesque" of the B-D line stations in that regard, at least if we think of 60s Parkin a la Terminal 1 or Ottawa Station. (It feels real serenely good in a cool breeze, especially after doing something like this.)

Under such circumstances, "Calatravaing" VP is beside the point. I'd vouch for keeping the platform more or less as is, while transforming/urbanizing everything else. (And re said "everything else", I'd suggest not so much a Calatrava model as "neo-Parkin".)
 
the entire station needs a layout overhaul. There is no main entrance and the existing entrances are in very inconvenient locations.
 
"The biggest problem I find with VP is that the e/b platform isn't directly linked to the bus bays which could be implemented easily. Similar could be done at Wilson."

Yes, Wilson needs such a link badly. You're looking at a 2 or 3 minute walk from the platform to the bus bays or vice versa -- rather frustrating if you're in a rush.
 
All the stations on the Wilson-York Mills-Ellesmere corridor are bad. York Mills offers a bit of a hike as well to the bus terminal, but not as bad as Wilson (which can take forever for buses to enter the overbuilt terminal from the west) should have built a smaller terminal under the Allen). Ellesmere is noteworthy as it is the only rapid transit station which does not offer any worthwhile connection to any surface route where one exists.
 
good stuff. looks like a big improvement over what's theres now. i like the use of public art in the new station and the green roof is a step in the right direction towards sustainability. one thing is that i don't think it'll take only 2 years to do all of this. knowing how long projects go, it'll be 2011 i'm thinking before they finish it.
 
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