Subway Stations Re-designed

November 30, 2005 - Today, the Toronto Community Foundation and the TTC unveiled its proposal to redesign three subway stations on the Yonge-University-Spadina route. The main goal of this redesign is to boost cultural tourism, improve transit ridership in Toronto, and revitalize public space. The three stations, Museum, St. Patrick, and Osgoode, will be redesigned to act as gateways to the cultural institutions found nearby. For example, Museum Station (see picture), will be transformed into a museum, with the support columns turned into mummies, totem poles, and classical Greek columns. Osgoode Station might possibly be renamed Osgoode-Opera to reflect the new Four Season Centre for Performing Arts opening right above the station. Music will be piped into the station from the Centre and moving pictures will be projected on the side walls. St. Patrick Station will be turned into a semi-art gallery, with scenes depicted on the walls to mirror themes from the AGO.

Personally, I have mixed feelings towards this revitalization. I think the idea of revitalizing these stations is a good one, since many of our stations are in desperate need of repair and updating. While the TTC tries to install public art into many of the stations (the Spadina line stations come to mind), the majority of them still look bland and are pretty ugly. Revitalizing some of our older stations is also one of the many ways to revitalize the entire transit system.

However, I feel that there should have been an open-competition to redesign these stations, rather than just accepting the proposal from one architect firm. While the design for museum Station looks pretty cool, the other ones are not THAT attractive (I don't see how the new St. Patrick Station has anything to do with the AGO). Also, are ads still going to be on displayed at these stations? If these stations are to be public art, they should be ad-free. Why redesign these stations if they are to be infiltrated with ads for pain medication or tv shows?

The new Museum Station will be opened next year, coinciding with the opening of the ROM Crystals. I guess time will tell whether the redesigned stations will be great pieces of public art or just tacky attempts to dress up our crumbling transit system.