bearcat said:
I mean the original Bloor-Danforth stations and Yonge subways aren't really marvels of architecture or grand in any way. Especially the Bloor-Danforth stations, they are very simple and utilitarian.

How far back in time do we go to see grand transit infrastructure being built?
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Well I wasn't only referencing transit infrastructure in particular. But if I had to name some I'd say the opening of the new Terminal 1 at YYZ in 2004, the Vaughn extension stations of Line 1, Billy Bishop's newer terminal, Museum station on Line 1, and some of the older Line 1 stations around DuPont.

Looking forward, some of the Ontario Line stations are quite impressive besides East Harbour. I'm thinking of Exhibition and Gerrard.
 
ComptoirGeneral said:
Well I wasn't only referencing transit infrastructure in particular. But if I had to name some I'd say the opening of the new Terminal 1 at YYZ in 2004, the Vaughn extension stations of Line 1, Billy Bishop's newer terminal, Museum station on Line 1, and some of the older Line 1 stations around DuPont.

Looking forward, some of the Ontario Line stations are quite impressive besides East Harbour. I'm thinking of Exhibition and Gerrard.
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Yes, exactly, lots of more recent infrastructure compared to "the past". The point is "the past" isn't always better.

I am just trying to figure when exactly this "nation building mindset" was in time in "the past" that's gone now.

Compared to the 50's and 60's arguably we are building more grand transit infrastructure now.
 
The Bloor line stations were drably utilitarian from opening day onwards, a product of parochial thinking and limited civic imagination. But decades later, to see what's in store for the subject of this thread, one might be forgiven for feeling a certain amount of shopworn despair.
 
It's a sort of austerity culture that has taken hold, in my opinion. The few projects in the public sector that have ambitious designs may be beloved by the public but lambasted for "wasting taxpayer money". I believe the Line 1 Highway 407 Station falls under this. It's very nice to walk around in and look at (aside from the concrete walls on the platform level), and my family often comments on how futuristic it looks. We just need to find a way to implement more whimsy or grandeur without breaking the bank, and I don't think that's impossible, but East Harbour did not appear to be going in that direction from the jump.
 
north-of-anything said:
It's a sort of austerity culture that has taken hold, in my opinion. The few projects in the public sector that have ambitious designs may be beloved by the public but lambasted for "wasting taxpayer money". I believe the Line 1 Highway 407 Station falls under this. It's very nice to walk around in and look at (aside from the concrete walls on the platform level), and my family often comments on how futuristic it looks. We just need to find a way to implement more whimsy or grandeur without breaking the bank, and I don't think that's impossible, but East Harbour did not appear to be going in that direction from the jump.
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Austerity culture is fine if it results in the goals that austerity aims for.

However, It is absolutely not ok that the Ontario Line will be (per km) one of the most expensive subways on the planet and have stations that look worse than even the most value engineered projects in Europe.

Whatever the French are doing, we need to be working to replicate it in Canada. A western, democratic, heavily unionized nation is able to build stations like this on the Grand Paris Express which costs around $273,000,000 INTD per km.

For reference, the Ontario Line is projected to cost around $492,400,000 INTD per km. (both stats from NYU Transit Costs Project)


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north-of-anything said:
It's a sort of austerity culture that has taken hold, in my opinion. The few projects in the public sector that have ambitious designs may be beloved by the public but lambasted for "wasting taxpayer money". I believe the Line 1 Highway 407 Station falls under this. It's very nice to walk around in and look at (aside from the concrete walls on the platform level), and my family often comments on how futuristic it looks. We just need to find a way to implement more whimsy or grandeur without breaking the bank, and I don't think that's impossible, but East Harbour did not appear to be going in that direction from the jump.
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I don't think this is new. Ontario has always had a conservative design culture. If you've ever wondered why there are few Art Deco buildings in TO, it's because elites were stuck on trad styles of the 19th century until after WWII. The contrast between design of the Bloor-Danforth and the Montreal Metro projects of the mid-60's shows what was possible in Canada at the time, were it not for a culture that prioritized practicality.

On the flip side, the moment Toronto tried imitiating Montreal with the Spadina line coincides with the point that subway expansion lost momentum. Paris' line 14 extension stations are mostly identical at platform level - it's clear they've systematized the design to cut costs - with a few of the standout stations getting all the social media attention. Having a different firm design each station like the Vaughan extension might not be the fastest way to grow rapid transit.
 
Has there been any recent update or confirmation to the planned opening date for the GO train side of the station? The last I heard is 2028 but that was ages ago, and don’t see any timeline included with the most recent contract announcement.
 
telefann said:
Yes, we did build great things in the past, when our nation was young(er) and the broader Western world was not yet in decadent cultural/moral decline.

Somewhere along the way, the Canadian cultural character lost its propensity to dare and dream big once our establishment was handed over from generations formed in the hard crucible of late-19th century geopolitical fragility, Depression, and/or the World Wars to generations that had known nothing but postwar-boomer comfort and contentment for their whole lives.

Somewhere along the way, we Torontonians/Canadians decided that the labour and toil of building up our city and nation was "done", and we could sit back, stop aspiring to "more" or "greater", and let things deteriorate.

The classic adage of "good times creating weak men creating hard times..."

I'm not saying that we won't ever be capable of great things again, but one must realize the cyclical nature of societal advancement and regression. Building a truly magnificent structure at East Harbour (or condos not laced with spandrel, or streets that aren't overloaded with frontier-town wooden poles, dangling wires, and cracked asphalt, etc. etc.) isn't simply a matter of "if only we tried harder", "if only we'd gone through a proper design and procurement process". No, the problem is far more upstream than that. We need to become a society and culture that once again has the gumption and courage to think bold, dare, advance, and transcend. That spirit belongs to China and parts of Southeast Asia and the Middle East nowadays. It is decidedly broken in Toronto, Canada as a whole, and a good chunk of the broader West.

I'm not the least bit surprised that East Harbour isn't turning out like the "Union Station of our present age", or something of the calibre of the Harris Water Treatment Plant or both our old and new City Halls. Because the present age is a diminished age here in Canada in which we've lost something so emblematic of the earlier stages in our nation-building journey: ambition.
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Decadence? Cultural/moral decline? In the early 20'th century buildings were seen as symbols of a company's power and influence. Think the Sears tower, the Chrysler building, Pan Am's Worldport at JFK. Then came the era of corporate austerity. Buildings weren't assets anymore they became utilitarian, sold off to real estate and building management corporations. Their operation outsourced so that the company could focus on their 'primary' business operation. With this buildings lost their flair and became blander, more utilitarian. With focus on extracting as much from the building as possible.
 
Coolibop said:
That blue railing is a welcome change from the drab grey. I wish places around the GTA would put a bit of effort into painting and maintaining them more to give the space a bit of colour.
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...I think that's some sort of protection netting for those rails. Thus likely only temporary.
 
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