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After many years of planning and design, the jewel box atrium is taking shape. Installation of the glass fascia and soffit panels began in mid-September 2012, and construction of the atrium is expected to run until late 2014. The overall work of the project is being phased over six years to minimize disruption to daily train service. When completed, the project will fully restore, repair and renovate all elements from the top of the roof down to track level, honour Union’s Station’s legacy as the most opulent railway station in Canada, and celebrate the nation’s busiest transportation hub.
DC: Its singularly monolithic gesture is pleasingly detailed in a decidedly restrained though refined way–which may do more to lessen the individuality of the project as a standalone feature, but is a welcome and true “last piece of the puzzle”–a piece that also reintroduces the nearly century-old Bush shed as a sophisticated and significant part of the overall composition of Union Station. Suddenly, the new glass-covered court space legitimizes the “back” into what may become a new “front”–particularly since it also becomes a navigable and highly identifiable floating (and by night, glowing) canopy reaffirming Toronto’s doorstep to the downtown district.
MCC: This project at Union Station reminds me of the monumentalism of 19th-century buildings like Gare du Nord or Gare de Lyon in Paris, seen in the lightness of the structure and the abundance of natural light. The proposal is very elegant and will provide Toronto with an interesting public space. The high-tech vocabulary is very appropriate and illustrates the challenges that we should be able to realize in this century–in a similar way that the architects of the 19th century did in the past.
BH: In a country where train station architecture has historically been underexpressed relative to the dramatic examples of great train stations in other parts of the world, the Union Station train shed provides an opportunity for large-scale urban intervention in the very difficult layered and grimy context of historic Union Station and its more recent sadder additions. The solution proposed has the potential to create a dramatic new public realm, while elevating the conversation about architecture for transportation.