Tuscani01
Senior Member
Absolutely nothing on the news about the great reveal. What time was this supposed to take place?
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Urban Shocker
Doyenne
They whip the tarps off next Tuesday, apparently.
Tuscani01
Senior Member
WOW... What the hell made me think today was Tuesday?
Chuck
Senior Member
Wow, that's so TTC! Our stations really aren't that bad in the right lighting.
Best solution of all regarding subway station architecture is to build a new subway line with world class stations, and leave the old stations in tact - save for a thorough cleaning.
adma
Superstar
They tried that with the Spadina line in 1978. It worked--sorta. But given how the splash it made has been buried by posterity (or at least by the will to celebrate the subway-font classics of the 50s and 60s) it maybe also elucidates the vanity of banking everything on "world class stations". (Then again, 1978 isn't 2008.)
junctionist
Senior Member
The station looked very sharp in that old photo. It could have been enhanced nicely.
unimaginative2
Senior Member
Some of the Spadina stations look great, while others have not stood the test of time. I think a model like the Washington Metro stations would be great to follow. They still look fantastic after all these years. I'm sure the stations in Munich, while very different, will also look great. I think that openness and airiness should be the number one goal for an underground station. That's always successful.
ShonTron
Moderator
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My one complaint about Washington's stations is that I found them to often be very dark, but they have the common late-brutalist look to them that stands up well today.
adma
Superstar
I've never used the Washington system, but an alternate complaint might be that by Toronto standards, they're a little Singaporean in policing/regulating the system...
TKTKTK
Senior Member
I think that's also a function of where they are - those stations weren't exactly built downtown. I'm sure the majority of visitors to Toronto never have a reason to even journey on the Spadina line (I really can't imagine Yorkdale is that big of a draw).
I think we should have show-piece stations in the core. I think most of the stations we have are really under-designed, not poorly-designed necessarily but they certainly don't rise to the occasion.
wyliepoon
Senior Member
How ironic that Washington originally looked to Toronto as a model for building its metro stations, and now it's the other way around.
http://chnm.gmu.edu/metro/arc1.html#
http://chnm.gmu.edu/metro/arc1.html#
TKTKTK
Senior Member
According to that site, Toronto's clean and bright subways were the first inspiration point - but dropped because they were also drab and uninspiring. In '66 Lyndon Johnson stated that the subway should “be designed so as to set an example for the Nation, and to take its place among the most attractive in the world.â€
So, not so ironic.
Chuck
Senior Member
Nor actual Torontonians for that matter, except for the stations south of St. George.
nfitz
Superstar
It's certainly the only line I haven't used in the last 5-years, north of Spadina at least.
If you visit one Washington downtown metro stations, it certainly looks quite impressive - until you start visiting the others, and they all seem to have been done by the same architect. It's a shame they didn't visit Montreal instead of Toronto.
adma
Superstar
Which, of course, wasn't even part of the 1978 Spadina line.