What's the Emergency?
It is truly beyond me how anyone could want to preserve any station on the Bloor line, and more than 1 on the Yonge line.
To be clear I'm big advocate of preserving great historical examples of architecture and am saddened by the loss of many great buildings over the years.
However, there is no way anyone of sound mind can say anything about the original subway lines of Toronto is great.
This is another case of preserve it cause its old, who cares if its ugly.
The energy being put into preserving junk architecture is astounding; where were these people when the University Theatre was demolished?
Joe Clark suggested Eglinton West and Glencairn are ugly.
Those are two of the nicest stations on the system; they show some architectural ambition.
Best station on the system (pure aesthetics) has to be:
Dowsview.
The finishes show great quality, there's incredible airyness with no central columns. Subway design as it should be!
I met the architect on that one and he spoke very kindly towards the TTC as a client at that time.
He's also going to be doing some of the upcoming work and has said it won't be as easy this time as they're on tighter budgets (Downsview as a station has a budget of well over $100,000,000., in the early 90's)
After Downsview, the nicest stations are
Glencairn and Eglinton West
Many of the Sheppard stations would have looked good too if not for the budget cuts (no ceilings, no custom light fixtures, no track-side tile)
***
The one concession I will grant is that most station reno's have not been handled all that well.
Though, I think Osgoode turned out quite nicely, and St. Andrew not bad; Bloor also looks half decent; so does Rosedale.
Too bad about the rest. But energy is better spent demanding good design and projects that finish like their renderings than it is trying to preserver 50-year old regrettable design.