Content
Skip to Main ContentAccessibility Help
Toronto

Vaughan Metropolitan Centre expected to be centre of development

Vaughan Metropolitan Centre Station serves a city centre that has yet to materialize.

A preview of six new TTC subway stations

Michelle Adelman · CBC News ·
The TTC says problems with construction at the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre is one of a handful of factors that will make it a challenge to complete the Spadina subway extension by the fall 2016 target date. (Used with permission of the Toronto Transit Commission)

Art will blend with architecture in the six new subway stations now taking shape along the TTC's Spadina Extension subway line, set to open in the fall of 2016.

In this series, CBC looks at each of the six stations in more detail.

Vaughan Metropolitan Centre Station

Architects: Grimshaw Architects, London with Adamson Associates, Toronto

Artist: Paul Raff Studio, Toronto

Vaughan Metropolitan Centre Station serves a city centre that has yet to materialize. The station itself is expected to kick start development of a future residential and work hub that should reach a population density never before seen in York Region.

Paul Raff Studio embedded their “Atmospheric Lense” artwork into the station’s entry pavilion dome to create the effect of a large, overhead low-relief sculpture.

It treats the ceiling with a surface of highly reflective panels and perforates it with an irregular array of skylights, the sides of which are lined with coloured reflective surfaces.

Much of the station is clad in prefinished dark grey steel. (Used with permission of the Toronto Transit Commission)

Raff played with how the light penetrates the skylights as sun angles evolve from the height of summer to the depth of winter. He wanted to enhance the experience of the space by subtly changing the quality of the light.

Riders may not be able to point to where the architecture ends and the art begins in this station, Raff said, and it doesn’t matter. “What matters in that an artist’s thinking was brought to bear on a public space in a way that enriches it.”

The domed ceiling of the pavilion capping the vertical room can be seen from the platform. (Used with permission of the Toronto Transit Commission)

Beautiful spaces such as Union Station have a big impact on the quality of life and identity of place, Raff said, citing New Yorkers’ continuing anguish over the demolition of their beloved Penn Station 50 years ago.

Beautiful spaces are “good for citizens, tourists and the bottom-line, long-term value of an urban environment,” Raff said.

The station will provide an indoor pedestrian link under Highway 7, with the potential to unite the two halves of the future downtown. (Used with permission of the Toronto Transit Commission)

Read about the rest of the Spadina Extension subway line:

Michelle Adelman is a fellow in global journalism at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto.

CBC's Journalistic Standards and Practices|About CBC News
Corrections and clarifications|Submit a news tip|

Related Stories