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PhotoTO: The New Museum

By Miles Storey

2007_12_23museum_stn_5.jpg
As part of the TTC’s subway revitalization project, Museum subway station has been undergoing renovations under the direction of architects Diamond and Schmitt. The redesign of the station [hotly-contested by some––Ed.] is themed after Egyptian antiquities in the Royal Ontario Museum above, with hieroglyphics decorating the giant lettering and castings of artifacts wrapped around the columns to form a hall of caryatids.
After five months of renovations the first glimpses of the finished design are now visible. More images follow.


2007_12_23museum_stn_1.jpg
Until the columns are unwrapped these giant letters are the most visible sign of the redesign.
2007_12_23museum_stn_3.jpg
A glimpse of the hieroglyphics are visible behind this torn wrapping.
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The bulky shape of these columns hints at the shape of the artifacts underneath.
All photos by Miles Storey

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  • Spi Boy

    As dumb as this sounds. I Always thought they closed down Museum station to fix tracks, turning signals and other pieces of equipment that have aged beyond their use.
    This is god awful and a half. What was anyone thinking, wait,.. no one was. Architects from one or all of the local universities would have done a WAY better job.

  • wilshire

    Oh dear. Who kerned those letters?

  • Miles Storey

    You can see the plans for the finished station on the Diamond and Schmitt website (it’s flash so you can’t bookmark that specific project). Also you can see the plans up for Osgoode and St Patrick station.
    Whatever opinions I have about the designs of these stations, or even the necessity for an aesthetic makeover at all, what gets me most is that there’s no commonality in the designs. Surely it’s possible to create individual design elements at a station while still retaining some kind of overall look and feel.

  • David_Kopulos

    Agreed. Perhaps the only good thing to come of the renovation is, if you were in the right place at the right time, the opportunity to snag an amazing souvenir:
    http://bp0.blogger.com/_nCRSw_C3MXo/RpotK5sd1bI/AAAAAAAAAFE/FGEIAqriA1M/s1600-h/Museum.jpg

  • Gloria

    @4: AWESOME!

  • ariehsinger

    Funny I just saw the changes this weekend, and snapped a bunch of shots.
    @Dave – Freaking brilliant! What a lucky duck!

  • Jonathan Goldsbie

    Sometimes I think it would be nice if Jack Diamond were removed and destroyed.

  • AR

    I just think Diamond should find some other city to focus on.

  • wilshire

    Wow Jonathan, that’s asshole-crass of a Bad Buildings calibre.

  • Jonathan Goldsbie

    I dislike Diamond, but I wish no harm upon him.
    If I wanted to be super-generous, I’d call the phrase “removed and destroyed” a meme, but it’s really just a Torontoist in-joke at this point.

  • Karen Whaley

    What is everyone whining about? The more caryatids, the better, I always say…

  • Ryan L

    “The rape of Museum station” – Joe Clark.
    Does he not know what that word means?
    Because inconsistent typography is on a level equal to rape.
    Seriously, people need to fucking think about what they’re saying before they say it sometimes.

  • Gloria

    I dunno, what happened to the early design mock-ups? They showed a kind of clean, bright, light Museum station. The horrible hieroglyphics were nowhere to be seen.

  • rek

    I’m willing to wait and see the station when it’s done before passing judgement.
    Glad to see removed and destroyed mentioned once more. Run with it, Jonathan.

  • Robert Lubinski

    Wasn’t Joe Clark removed and destroyed by Brian Mulroney?!?
    Seriously, I’d like these renovations more if they would actually fix up a decaying mess like Islington or Yonge.

  • Marc Lostracco

    There’s a lot of hateration going on here, but from what I see from these photos, I love it. The big letters light up, right? It might have been even cooler if they used giant, freestanding letters like that in stations like Bloor where the track is in the centre—so you’d basically see through the space around the big letters.
    I do agree on the cruddy kerning, however.

  • joeclark

    Joe totally knows what he’s saying.

  • joeclark

    Dave Kopulos, do please link us to the real Flickr page for that photo.

  • SteveMunro

    It’s a shame that the original designs are no longer posted on the Toronto Community Foundation’s site so that people can see just how much the designs have changed since the original proposals.
    Also, if you look closely at the images on the Diamond & Schmidt site (choose Portfolio, then Community, then scroll to the third subject and finally step down to the fourth and fifth images in the string – nothing like simple navigation) you will see that they haven’t even used a Toronto subway car in the image.

  • joeclark

    Well, I believe my Flickr set of Museum renderings is a reasonably accurate timeline of this botched concept.

  • montauk

    That’s some mad scary kerning.
    The pillars look “fun”, but what will we lean on?
    And are they animatronic?
    I could not find clarification of that in the mockups.

  • joeclark

    Keep in mind, esteemed colleagues, that kerning refers to pairs of characters. Across a longer span, the terms are tracking and letterspacing (nearly exact synonyms). They’re treating the word MUSEUM as though it were a monospaced font. (You can see how they’re aligning the letters by centreline inside fixed squares.)
    This is merely one of my many objections to the project.
    Also, merry Christmas, caryatids.

  • Ryan L

    Again. Not sure how mono spaced fonts are equivalent to rape.
    Whether you like it or not is a subjective matter. I think our efforts are best focused on places where nothing is being done instead of complaining about letter spacing when something IS done. Out of order elevators, other accessibility problems, the wheel trans service, streetcar upgrades, fares, security, maintenance.
    These are all more important things than station typography. I understand that we shouldn’t ignore something because there are other things more important, but that doesn’t mean we should blow that something completely out of fucking proportion.

  • joeclark

    Ryan, if those are your issues, go to town on them. Surely we can agree that all the physical-accessibility defects you listed should be removed and destroyed.

  • Robert Lubinski

    Wait until all those fancy pillars and wall art pieces are covered in grimy brake dust. It will fit in with all the other stations. Once all the little nooks and crannies fill with grime, it won’t look much like the architect renditions. Are the suppliers of the funds to build this stuff going to provide any $ to keep this clean or will it fall back in to the “miasma” of dirty subway stations?

  • rek

    Ryan – This is Joe Clark you’re talking to. Nothing is more important than kerning, typeface selection, and making sure everyone knows what character they use for ‘th’ in Iceland.
    Nothing.
    Fortunately for us and unfortunately for Joe, the TTC can’t move millions of people with proper leading alone.

  • variastudio

    Hm,
    This does not look too pretty

  • joeclark

    Hey, T-Rex, I actually have other priorities, like proper espresso in the morning. What you’re describing are merely areas of expertise. Do you have any of those?

  • rek

    You say that, but I think it’s clear the froth and foam you prefer is related to metal signs that will soon be removed and destroyed.

  • psihavong

    hahaha…wilshire. that’s a funny observation. The kerning IS really bad. They should have used a monospaced font if they wanted to keep it in the box. Still funny that no one caught that during the design.