In the later months of 2009, the TTC announced the approved designs for four of the six new subway stations to be implemented as the Spadina Subway Extension. This past fall saw architectural plans for Highway 407, Steeles West, York University and Sheppard West stations brought to the table, which leaves the far less glamorous locales of Finch West and Vaughn Corporate Center still undetermined in their sure to be surprisingly colourful futures.
The champion of the bunch is, without a doubt, the completely bizarre Steeles West station design (pictured above), which is poised to deliver the industrial wasteland that is the area immediately surrounding York University some much-needed pink and baby blue umbrella-esque apparatuses. This absolutely astounding choice, courtesy of Richard Stevens Architects (the firm responsible for Downsview, Bayview and Don Mills stations) and Alsop Architects (the firm responsible for OCAD's semi-ironic, semi-iconic Sharp Center for Design) will no doubt provide commuters and York students with an endless supply of jokes for years to come. It's not that it's especially ugly, rather it seems more like something that is destined to become extremely dated within mere months of its completion. Which is overall a shame, because it is fair to say that, but for a few notable exceptions, the TTC has generally been quite commendable for their tasteful architecture and design decisions over the years.
The thing that becomes somewhat worrisome in all of this is - and this is a problem that has plagued the Spadina Subway Extension project since day one - is that the locations of the proposed stations begs questions revolving around whether the very sunny and bright pictures painted by the architects will be in any way translatable to reality. For example, Sheppard West station (pictured above): sure does look all green and happy. Lest we forget, however, the sun never shines on grey, drab Sheppard West. It is extremely difficult to imagine this welcoming scene attached to this intersection.
Which isn't by any means a negative thing at all. The truly curious aspect of this whole scenario is how, or whether, the subway will or will not revitalize the neighborhoods that it will be henceforth cracking. Sheppard West is entirely surrounded by commercial and industrial projects on one side and Downsview Park on the other. The station, for all of its bells and whistles is being built entirely to be a GO/Subway hub, so should the design reflect its utilitarian functionality, rather than the neighborhood gathering place that is being depicted?
This is, however, the case for all of the forthcoming stations save for Finch West station: their purpose is one of practicality rather than being of any grand visionary nature regarding the future of forgotten neighborhoods. York University station's usefulness is self-explanatory; Steeles West station links to the Northern half of York campus, as well as serving the Jane LRT and Black Creek Pioneer Village; Highway 407 station (pictured above) was only ever meant to be a parking lot; ditto Vaughn Corporate Center Station. So, at this point we can hold out most of our hope for Finch West, the design for which has yet to be revealed - though it too is being handled by Richard Stevens Architects.
The big question surrounding this station is to what degree will it impact the still freshly-dubbed "York University Heights." It goes without saying that this station, being in an area with a high population density and a high percentage of transit users, is the station that would benefit the most from this space-age architecture. A fancy, wacky subway station could be indeed just what the doctor ordered to bring the neighborhood from scourge to "nice place to be." Truly, the introduction of a subway station to an intersection whose most notable feature is two competing Tim Horton's near a Lastman's Bad Boy and several refineries.
In some respects I say "yes!", thank god the subway is coming to York, it will be so wonderful for everybody. Even going to Vaughn isn't so bad because it might actually get the suburbanites out of their cars for a change. But in the end, subway technology is extremely expensive to build and to operate and both the city and the surprisingly powerful Steve Munro are pushing for more light rail to be implemented. This I have no problem with; it's just a little bit tough accepting that the vast, world class subway network that myself and other transit nerds dream of for Toronto will never get further than glorifying a bunch of parking lots and shopping centers. I like the Transit City plan a lot and I do think that it will do a lot of good for the city - light rail is, as they say, where it's at. Hopefully, as I digress, the TTC will be able to do well by placing their stations in suburban malls (Richmond Hill is next) and they can be as colorful as they can make 'em - how else are they going to make everyone forget about the Sheppard line?
