Can an architectural revitalization turn Union Station into Toronto's "shining jewel"?

Union Station's always been sort of left out, it's always been dumpy. It's never been the shining jewel of the city. It's not as beloved as it could be.- Toronto writer Shawn Micalef

Toronto's Union Station is in many ways the heart of the city, but isn't usually the focus. But there's a plan to change this with a major construction project that is currently underway and set to finish in 2018. 

"There was an opportunity to really enliven this space, to make it a destination", says Brad Keast, VP of Development at Osmington, the company overseeing the project. "It's a gorgeous building, but it's bursting at the seams."

Making Union a destination

Toronto writer Shawn Micallef envisions a version of Union Station more like Grand Central Station in New York City or "some of the great train stations in London, that are almost like destinations. Places you might take a date to."

Keast sees a building that is full of people for a couple hours in the morning and a couple hours at night, but — outside of that — is largely unused. "There's another 20 hours of the day. There's gotta be something else that can be done with the building."

In addition to moving people more efficiently, the station will soon feature new retail and communication areas, a mezzanine in the historic hall, restaurants, and a place to project movies and sports on the south walls.

Utilities become sculpture

The architectural firm Partisans is working with Osmington on the project. Co-founder Alex Josephson says they saw an opporutnity to make the repeating utility elements of the station into "a family of sculptures."

"We saw things like light bulbs and air ducts and fire extinguishers and drywall and we said 'how do you marry those objects into some kind of sculpture?'"

The result, is a series of functional pieces that look almost nothing like what we're used to seeing, but Josephson sees them as compatible with and respectful of the Beaux-Arts architectural heritage of the station.

The "dig down"

In downtown Toronto, there's no space to expand the station's footprint in order to grow its capacity and amenities. Instead, they're digging down underneath the building and tracks all without getting in the way of any trains service. 

Under the station there are 447 columns supporting the building, the platforms, and the rail lines themselves. To create the space needed, construction workers are installing temporary supports, digging down, and then extending the supporting columns down one at a time. 

This type of project at this scale is a first in Canada and likely a first in the world. If it works out, maybe you'll soon find yourself on a date in this overlooked architectural gem.

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