Museum Station

[drum118]

There will be no ceiling like the rendering drawing for the station and I maybe responsible for it. This was confirm at TTC meeting last week.

I said at various commissioner meetings these past few years regarding cleaning and repairs and missing slats that it would be cheaper both labour cost and capital cost just remove the ceiling slats and paint the ceiling. St Andrew is to be a test based using what being done for the Museum and on the Sheppard line.

By doing so, it would add a few inches to a few feet making more airier. Would not require various trades to have to wait until a crew can remove a section of the ceiling, crews getting cover by the brake dust, TTC not having to tag each piece and remove it to an off site storage area, riders complaining about the miss slats, finding time to get a crew to go back and reinstall the slats, having the public complaining about the miss match slats and how dirty the reinstall slats look.

There is a up front cost to remove the existing slats labour wise, but is off set by not having to schedule crews to remove sections and replace them as well having other trades waiting for work until the slats are removed.

There is no private funds at this time to do the other two.

Photo's from the weekend.

All black now.

Can see the dirt on the top of the pipe.

More new light fixtures closer to the ceiling

They were changing the tape from yellow to red

Couldn't they not clean the fixture after installing them.

Dead already

Happen in the last few days and cannot be clean with water,

Out of sight for camera.

Missing wall framing like rest of the station left of the mast.

 

[Jayomatic]

Garbage. Why bother posting pictures of this trash. Maybe I'll make a point to just rip a panel off each time i pass through there to return it to something thats presentable.

Thank god there are no funds to complete the other 2 stations. Last thing we need is the TTC to destroy the others. If you can't afford to maintain a current station that is made of tile, how the hell do you expect to maintain the new ones?

 

[unimaginative2]

It was a great idea, but damn that ceiling looks just awful. No offense, drum, but I really hope they don't take you up on your suggestion at other stations.

 

[andomano]

Was that the new signal in the last picture?

 

[syn]

I thought the renderings looked ridiculous. This is even worse.

It looked better before.

 

[drum118]

It was a great idea, but damn that ceiling looks just awful. No offense, drum, but I really hope they don't take you up on your suggestion at other stations.

I said to the Commissioners last week that I gave this station a C grade.

I hope they do a better job on the ceiling not only for this stations, but the systems than what I am seeing now.

Then this is TTC we are talking about. This ceiling is under TTC control as their share of $$ for the station redevelopment.

Had to reload the photo's to Flickr to get them to be full size now.

 

[MetroMan]

I went into the station to see how it was looking. OMG... I think the TTC has reached a new low. The ceiling has to be seen in person to appreciate how horrible and cheapened out it looks.

Why commit to beautifying a station when you can't afford to do the job properly and end up making it look worse than it was to begin with??

I'm gonna give Giambrone a piece of my mind next time I see him.

 

[CDL.TO]

As strange as this may sound, when I first saw the renderings the element I was most excited about was the new ceiling. It was the one big change that could give a subway station an opportunity to look finished and complete. Even with no changes to the walls and columns, a new ceiling would have made a world of difference.

It's extremely saddening to see that the one element that got completely chopped from the project was the ceiling.

 

[EnviroTO]

I said at various commissioner meetings these past few years regarding cleaning and repairs and missing slats that it would be cheaper both labour cost and capital cost just remove the ceiling slats and paint the ceiling. St Andrew is to be a test based using what being done for the Museum and on the Sheppard line.

Not a bad idea if they make sure the black wires running to the new high mounted lights, the light supports, and all the conduits are painted white. A white ceiling will definitely make the platform more bright. As they have added speakers, cameras, signs, etc they have been adding conduits to other visible ceilings. I guess people are buying into the loft look these days anyways.

 

[yyzer]

Media Advisory - Dramatically Redesigned Museum Subway Station Opens Tuesday, April 8 at 11:00 am


TORONTO, April 1 /CNW/ - Members of the media are invited to the official
opening of the dramatically redesigned Museum Subway Station as this new
'beautiful public space' on the Toronto Transit Commission's
Yonge-University-Spadina Line is fully revealed on the morning of Tuesday,
April 8 at 11:00 am.
Making brief remarks at the opening will be Deputy Premier George
Smitherman, Minister of Culture Aileen Carroll, Toronto Mayor David Miller,
TTC Chair Adam Giambrone and Rahul Bhardwaj, President and CEO of the Toronto
Community Foundation. The speakers' remarks will be punctuated by the arrival
and departure of the TTC's subway cars; it is business as usual on April 8th.
The highlight of the opening will be the unwrapping of the spectacular
columns designed to reflect the treasures and the historical range of the
recently reinvigorated Royal Ontario Museum and the Gardiner Museum which
stand above the station. The new Museum Subway Station will be an inspiring
sight for the thousands who pass through the station daily and an ongoing
invitation for all citizens and visitors to enjoy the cultural treasures
above.
The five column designs replicated throughout the station's platform
represent First Nations Canada ("The Wuikinuxv First National House Post"),
Ancient Egypt ("The Osiris Pilaster"), the Mexico's Toltec Culture ("The
Warrior"), China's traditional culture ("The Forbidden City Columns") and the
Parthenon in Greece ("The Doric Columns").
The opening of the redesigned reflects Toronto Community Foundation's
commitment to the idea of beautifying and invigorating public spaces in the
city. The impetus for the "Arts on Track" project came from the Mayor's "City
Beautiful" initiative. Subsequent dialogues convened by the Foundation brought
together a diverse group of partners and donors to complete this "Public
Philanthropic Partnership". The Foundation, its donors, the City, the Province
and the TTC have together created a great and beautiful public space that can
be shared by all.

Members of the media are invited to join the donors, officials, and
invited guests at a reception at the Gardiner Museum at 11:30 am following the
official launch.

 

[Towered]

If I were the mayor I'd be embarrassed to speak at the official opening.

The festering culture of incompetence at the TTC knows no bounds.

 

[interchange42]

Yeah, I'd demand to be released from this one too. Why should the big names be expected by the TTC to show up to trumpet something that obviously screams "incompetence"? Miller should be telling them to figure out what to do with the ceiling, and quit embarrassing us all.

42

 

[Tuscani01]

Yeah, I'd demand to be released from this one too. Why should the big names be expected by the TTC to show up to trumpet something that obviously screams "incompetence"? Miller should be telling them to figure out what to do with the ceiling, and quit embarrassing us all.

42

Im hoping that some visiting bigshot, or maybe even one of the major donors responds to the station makeover with:

"Oh, construction is coming along nicely... When is it supposed to be finished?"

I would be curious to see how the mayor's or Adam Giambrone's face looks as he tells them that what they are looking at IS finished.

 

[Northern Light]

Disappointing

Museum station really has turned out unfortunate.

I am one of the big proponents of renovating the old stations.

I really like the Spadina line and like the idea of stations with more visual interest.

There is also the pressing need for repairs and to make various other needed improvements (ie. elevators, second exits and additional capacity at many stations) and this could all be done at once.

This station seems to be from the HOW-NOT-TO-DO-IT playbook.

Sigh.

The paint over the existing ceramic tile looks cheap; the panels on trackside don't look very good either, they were aiming, I gather, at faux-sandstone, they didn't even get the colour right, never mind the material palate.

Its also the wrong colour for above anyway, since its Queen's Park and Victoria College that are sandstone, and not the ROM or the Gardiner.

But never mind....

The fact they also haven't done the mezzanine, leaving a clashing colour-scheme in place; they omitted the ceiling which was the nicest element in the render; and haven't done other necessary work simultaneously is very alarming.

Its just as if there was no forethought.

Museum still doesn't have elevators, or a direct connection to ROM, or the second exit; all of which will end up being built over the next 10 years as separate projects. This will inflate the cost, the mess, the inconvenience to passengers and likely leave the station with an even more mismatched set of materials and colours.

***

Its not like they don't know how to do this properly; they did a nice Job at Bloor Station (upper platform level). Of course that also took a year ++ and cost $11,000,000 as I recall; and that was back in (hmmm, 1991)?

Here's hoping they improve dramatically the next time out

 

[Tuscani01]

The paint over the existing ceramic tile looks cheap

Well, they have a good excuse for that paint job, and you mentioned it later on in your post:

Museum still doesn't have elevators, or a direct connection to ROM, or the second exit; all of which will end up being built over the next 10 years as separate projects. This will inflate the cost, the mess, the inconvenience to passengers and likely leave the station with an even more mismatched set of materials and colours.

A second exit and/or elevator would take the place where the tile was painted, therefore recladding that side would have been a waste of money. The opposite side has been recladded since an exit already exists there.