Haydain Neale, 1970–2009
Transit City and Transit Cities
Peeve Patrol
Newsstand: November 23, 2009
The Making of a Medley
Good news for the transit set: a host of actually good and deservedly famous architects will design the TTC's six new Spadina Extension stations slated to open by 2015. (Amazingly, Joe Clark sniffed this scoop out a full month ago.) Will Alsop, who designed OCAD, will tackle Steeles West and Finch West; Norman Foster, who designed U of T's Leslie Dan Pharmacy building, will take York University; Grimshaw Architects, who have tackled a bunch of international transit projects, will take Vaughn Corporate Centre; and Ædas, who make some very pretty buildings themselves, will design Highway 407 and Sheppard West. The cost? Per station, from $8 to 15 million. Luckily, Adam Giambrone told the Star that "we actually have the money in the bank...The project has already begun." As for Alsop, the Star reports that his "design will focus on bringing natural light and fresh air down into the bowels of the stations." Let there be light.
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Yay!
Many will say "just make the TTC function," but I don't want the bleak utilitarianism.
Oooo!
If there's money to make the subway pretty, how about restoring the Sheppard line design details ripped out as "frills" by the Province. York can have concrete sheds until such time as Toronto isn't on the hook for subway operating losses north of Steeles.
DowlingM, what do you refer to?
Did you see that total piece-of-shit rendering from Alsop in the Star today? Like, where do I get on the train? And why is God shooting laser beams at me?
@joeclark: Please, please, -please- link to whatever pic that is.
"And why is God shooting laser beams at me?" Perhaps one of the great metaphysical questions of our time?
pew pew pew!
i haven't seen Alsop's design, but i wish Toronto had 30 more buildings like OCAD
I think the OCAD building looks fine, but it functions HORRIBLY. Have you been inside?
It's only five storeys I think (a reasonably physical stair climb) but the only stairs to get there are unventilated without windows and painted a disorienting yellow. Once inside the Table Top the hallways are narrow and the common spaces feel claustrophobic since only a small fraction of the windows are at eye level.
If Alsop wants to bring light and air down to track level I'm all for it. He wanted to make OCAD into a landmark and he did that, so I'm confident he will accomplish what he sets out to do. It's the stuff he doesn't consider that has me worried.
Like, if the main goal is light and openness I hope that doesn't mean he's forgetting about navigability.
What's the $8 to $15 million for? The architect's fee? I'm pretty sure subway stations cost in the range of $100 million each. That's one reason we haven't been building many...
The other $ to watch are the life-cycle costs of maintaining the stations. I hope the starchitects explore the existing Spadina stations to see how well they have held up under the TTC's "State of Good Repair" regime.
It was in the printed Star and now I can’t find it.
The image at the top of this article is one of Alsop's preliminary concepts for Finch West.
Found it.