DRL Station Design

[wyliepoon]

Fantasy Pan Am Village DRL station design

The 1985 plan for the Downtown Relief Line (DRL) showed the route as passing by what is now known the West Don Lands, with a station called Ataratiri (also spelled Atiratiri?). The West Don Lands is now selected as the athletes' village for the 2015 Pan American (Pan Am) Games. What if we resurrect the Ataratiri proposal as a station to serve the corridor of venues from the Pan Am Village to Exhibition Place along the Central Waterfront?

My design calls for an at-grade subway station just south of the rail corridor leading into the city from the east. After following Eastern Avenue westward from Pape Avenue, the DRL will emerge from the ground as it approaches the Kingston Sub. Here I see the line crossing the Don Valley Parkway and the Don River on a landmark transit-only (or a transit-and-bikes-only) bridge as it approaches the station, which provides a breathtaking view of the downtown skyline currently enjoyed by GO Train passengers and drivers on the Don Valley Parkway and the Gardiner Expressway. I will not elaborate on what happens to the line west of the station as its alignment is currently being debated. (I am not an expert on the proposed alignments. For my design I have the DRL returning into a tunnel as it approaches Cherry Street.)

The station is enclosed in a glass box with a roof that slopes up towards the west end of the station to emphasize the view towards downtown. Platform level is at grade, while the mezzanine is built over the middle section of the platform, within the glass box. Two footbridges branch out from the mezzanine - one north towards West Don Lands and the Pan Am Village, the other south towards Lower Don Lands Park, Lakeshore Boulevard and within walking distance of East Bayfront. In keeping with the TTC's plan of "greening" its subway stations, Pan Am Village has a green roof.

Google Earth views...

Interior renderings (you might notice that I've used my earlier Gerrard station design as a template)

 

[Second_in_pie]

...Impressive.

It'd be nice if the DRL could be blasted forward for the Pan Am games, and if the government pumped money into it, I could see it happening.

And while I don't like overbuilt stations, I think the DRL stations could at least have some character to them, like you have. But of course, that doesn't mean they'd be overbuilt.

 

[junctionist]

Tall ceilings, lots of glass for natural light and a unique look with the sloping motif (roof, pillars) make it refreshingly ambitious. Something like this would make the city proud.

 

[M II A II R II K]

That's a cool idea! And kill 2 birds with one stone too.

 

[TTC12]

Great designs! my only issues are that in gerard you used panels on the Station wall names! Come on Sandblasted into the wall people! Likemost of the stations we have, durable looks better than a painted metal sign mounted on a wall... And bare-concrete walls I personally don't like the unfinshed look of concrete walls. Perhaps tiles or some other material?

I really like your Pan Am Village Concept, you should really design a TTC station! Hmm... too bad theres no where to sanblast the name, so panels seem to be the only remedy. I really like how you incorporated the Pan Pam Logo and colors into the station as mentioned before lots of glass and light! My only Concern is what's the use of Pan Am Village Station after the Pan Am Games end?

 

[Dan416]

Nice work! Now if only the DRL was in the design phase!

 

[Northern Light]

Wylie, great designs. What do you do in real life? I think the TTC should hire you to do design work in-house! (if you lack the technical qualifications, they should pay for you to go get them!)

 

[Darwinkgo]

Re:Fantasy Pan Am Village DRL station design

Great design. Not overbuilt, a good fit. Only thing I would change is the pedestrian bridges, either make them completely open to the elements, or at least with only a roof. Having that long of an enclosed space in a likely rather low use station creates security problems.

 

[Long Island Mike]

DRL Design: Good renderings!

Wylie: Good renderings with nice detail concerning the DRL here-I am at a local Apple Store viewing this on a large-screen and the detail is amazing!
I like it alot! LI MIKE

 

[pman]

Lionel Groulx Metro Station

If Toronto ever builds DRL - not that I'm holding my breath - it will need to consider the design of a few transfer stations. Montreal did it amazingly well at the Lionel Groulx metro station, where the orange line crosses the green line. Even though the lines approach from and continue on at right angles, in the station they run parallel. That means one can get off an orange line train, cross the platform on the same level, and board a green line train. It's tremendously convenient and saves the crush on stairs and escalators you get in normal subway transfer stations.

 

[nfitz]

If Toronto ever builds DRL - not that I'm holding my breath - it will need to consider the design of a few transfer stations. Montreal did it amazingly well at the Lionel Groulx metro station, where the orange line crosses the green line. Even though the lines approach from and continue on at right angles, in the station they run parallel. That means one can get off an orange line train, cross the platform on the same level, and board a green line train. It's tremendously convenient and saves the crush on stairs and escalators you get in normal subway transfer stations.

The advantage Montreal had at Lionel-Groulx; and at Snowdon where the transfer is the same, is that both lines were constructed simultaneously. Note that in the situation where Montreal designed interchanges years later, at Jean-Talon, and at the cancelled Pie-IX station for line 7, there was a 90-degree angle.

At Lionel-Groulx, Montreal also pays a penalty for this transfer; instead of the Green Line following Atwater, it insteads loops very far west - almost 1-km, passing right underneath Westmount High School, before turning back east I'd think that people here would have a bird, if such a long extent of track was built just to line up an interchange station!

I'm not seeing much opportunity for such a station on the DRL. It would only be possible downtown at Union, unless there was some pretty extreme engineering.

 

[Ansem]

The advantage Montreal had at Lionel-Groulx; and at Snowdon where the transfer is the same, is that both lines were constructed simultaneously. Note that in the situation where Montreal designed interchanges years later, at Jean-Talon, and at the cancelled Pie-IX station for line 7, there was a 90-degree angle.

At Lionel-Groulx, Montreal also pays a penalty for this transfer; instead of the Green Line following Atwater, it insteads loops very far west - almost 1-km, passing right underneath Westmount High School, before turning back east I'd think that people here would have a bird, if such a long extent of track was built just to line up an interchange station!

I'm not seeing much opportunity for such a station on the DRL. It would only be possible downtown at Union, unless there was some pretty extreme engineering.

The big loop between Atwater and Lionel-Groulx on the green line is where the train goes almost at maximum speed while turning...

One of the fastest section on the network

Rubber tires have its advantages...

 

[nfitz]

The big loop between Atwater and Lionel-Groulx on the green line is where the train goes almost at maximum speed while turning...

One of the fastest section on the network

westbound perhaps, but not the fastest eastbound, as it has such a steep grade. It's one of the fastest sections BTW because it is one of the longest distances between two stations on the island. Despite being only about 900 metres between Atwater and Lionel-Groulx, the train has to travel about 2.1 km.

 

[wyliepoon]

Science Centre (Eglinton Avenue) Station (Don Mills Road/Eglinton Avenue East)

(I spent 3.5 months working on this station design, after a forumer asked me to design some more stations around Christmas. In the aftermath of my April Fools disaster, I felt that this might be something that could resurrect my UT design 'career'!)

The Science Centre station is designed as a transfer station between the Downtown Relief Line (DRL, which in my rendering is called the Don Mills-Downtown Subway) and the Eglinton LRT line. The station is entirely underground. The DRL portion of the station is located on the SW corner of the Don Mills/Eglinton intersection, under part of the existing north parking lot of the Ontario Science Centre (which the station is named after). The Eglinton LRT station is located north of the DRL platform, under Eglinton Avenue. A bus terminal is located at the SE corner of the intersection, which has potential for mixed use development above. The station is connected by an underground walkway to the Ontario Science Centre.

The station design has a science theme. Giant "stick and ball" models of water molecules hang above the DRL platform, and the "stick and ball" motif is replicated as columns in the rest of the station. Natural lighting is provided by skylights over the DRL platform, which appear at ground level as giant glass cubes in a public plaza, which is built over the DRL platform on a part of the Ontario Science Centre parking lot.

Section

Downtown Relief Line Platform

Downtown Relief Line Platform

Downtown Relief Line Platform

Eglinton LRT Platform

Eglinton LRT Platform

Entrance from Ontario Science Centre

Concourse (between DRL platform and Eglinton LRT station)

Ground level plaza above DRL platform (in OSC parking lot)

 

[Dan416]

Not sure why you use orange as the colour for the DRL. Orange is such an ugly colour (look at MT buses). Did we ever have a vote on the colour of the DRL? My vote is red.