{"id":43837,"date":"2013-07-03T09:00:42","date_gmt":"2013-07-03T13:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=43837"},"modified":"2013-07-03T22:17:52","modified_gmt":"2013-07-04T02:17:52","slug":"mod-toronto-art-and-architecture-on-the-spadina-subway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/07\/03\/mod-toronto-art-and-architecture-on-the-spadina-subway\/","title":{"rendered":"MOD TORONTO: Art and architecture on the Spadina subway"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"feature-MODERNIST-TORONTO-600\"<\/a><\/p>\n

To coincide with the cover section of Spacing’s summer 2013 issue, we bring you a series of posts by local architect Robert Moffatt that examine Modernist buildings in Toronto.<\/em>
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

A defining characteristic of many great cities is their subway system (or metro\/underground), and the primary points of contact for those using the system are its stations. From the earliest stations in the London Underground, the Paris Metro and the New York Subway to the recent creations of Santiago Calatrava, Norman Foster and Renzo Piano, a city\u2019s subway stations are important elements of civic identity and pride for both residents and visitors.<\/p>\n

Toronto\u2019s relationship with its subway stations has been decidedly mixed since the system\u2019s opening in 1954. The early stations on the Yonge, University and Bloor-Danforth lines, based on standardized designs by John B. Parkin Associates, were intended to be functional: clean-lined, durable and efficient. But by the late 1960s, despite increasingly lurid combinations of coloured wall tiles, Toronto\u2019s stations began to seem overly utilitarian and sterile, particularly compared to the avant-garde stations of Montreal\u2019s new Metro.<\/p>\n

To address this aesthetic deficit, in 1974 the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) decided to engage architects and artists in the design of the eight stations comprising its new Spadina Line. Three architectural firms were selected and assigned two stations each: Arthur Erickson Architects (Eglinton West and Yorkdale), Adamson Associates (Spadina and Glencairn) and Dunlop Farrow Aitken (Dupont and Lawrence West). The TTC retained architectural control over the St. Clair West and Wilson stations due to their technical complexities. Nine Ontario artists were selected from over 400 entrants in an open competition: Ted Bieler, Claude Breeze, Louis de Niverville, Michael Hayden, Rita Letendre, Gordon Rayner, James Sutherland, Joy Wieland and Gerald Zeldin.<\/p>\n

\"MOD-dupont-platform\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Spadina Line opened with great fanfare in January 1978. Dupont, Eglinton West and Yorkdale are generally considered the most successful stations, combining architectural verve with vibrant and well-integrated artwork. Dupont is the most fantastical of the three, a wondrous subterranean world of organically curving walls lined in shimmering melon-coloured tiles, which culminate at platform level with James Sutherland\u2019s enormous glass-mosaic murals of psychedelicized plant life. Station entrances are Plexiglas bubbles framed in bright orange metal, startling insertions in their drab, workaday surroundings; hulking black steel gates by Ron Baird guard the electrical substation adjoining the northwest entrance.<\/p>\n

\"MOD-eglintonwest-exit\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Viewed from Eglinton Avenue, Arthur Erickson\u2019s Eglinton West station appears as an octagonal glass-walled pavilion, topped with a concrete waffle-slab roof and pyramidal skylights. Once inside, though, a series of terraced staircases descend through the station to platform level, which features Gerald Zeldin\u2019s well-loved Summertime Streetcar<\/em> murals of abstracted TTC streetcars. The station\u2019s refined details and limited materials palette of concrete, glass, stainless steel and variegated orange brick contribute to a visual serenity that counters the clamour of trains, buses and people.<\/p>\n

\"MOD-tcc-yorkdale-v1-lr\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Yorkdale station, also by Erickson, is a striking visual metaphor for speed and motion, a long, slim, stainless-steel-clad extrusion punched with oval windows like a subway car and capped by a vaulted glass roof running the entire length of the station. The slender steel roof arches once supported Michael Hayden\u2019s stunning Arc en Ciel<\/em>, a 570-foot-long light sculpture of neon tubes that pulsated with the colours of the spectrum in sequence with the arrivals and departures of the trains below. A particularly effective integration of art and architecture, the sculpture was unfortunately removed in the early 1990s for lack of maintenance funds. The same fate befell Rita Letendre\u2019s Joy, <\/em>a painted-glass skylight over the Glencairn station platform, which faded from sun exposure and was replaced by clear glass.<\/p>\n

\"MOD-ttc-glencairn-v1-lr1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Above:<\/strong> Yorkdale<\/del> Glencairn station when it opened; Below<\/strong>: Yorkdale station platform today<\/p>\n

\"MOD-yorkdale-platform-skylight2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"MOD-ttc-spadina-de-niverville-b-mr\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Above and <\/strong>Below<\/strong>: Spadina station on University-Spadina line<\/p>\n

\"MOD-ttc-spadina-wieland-b-mr\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Below<\/strong>: St. Clair West<\/p>\n

\"MOD-stclairwest-art2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Below<\/strong>: Lawrence West<\/p>\n

\"MOD-lawrencewest-bus-art\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Below<\/strong>: Wilson<\/p>\n

\"MOD-ttc-wilson-b-mr\"<\/a><\/p>\n

LIST OF DESIGNERS & ARCHITECTS:<\/h2>\n

Spadina<\/strong>: Adamson Associates; Morning Glory<\/em> by Louis de Niverville (porcelain enamel mural) and Barren Ground Caribou<\/em> by Joyce Wieland (fabric quilt)
\nDupont<\/strong>: Dunlop Farrow Aitken; Spadina Summer Under All Seasons<\/em> by James Sutherland (glass mosaic tile murals)
\nSt. Clair West:<\/strong> TTC architects; Tempo<\/em> by Gordon Rayner (porcelain enamel mural)
\nEglinton West:<\/strong> Arthur Erickson Architects; Summertime Streetcar<\/em> by Gerald Zeldin (porcelain enamel murals)
\nGlencairn<\/strong>: Adamson Associates; Joy<\/em> by Rita Letendre (painted glass skylight, removed)
\nLawrence West:<\/strong> Dunlop Farrow Aitken; Spacing\u2026Aerial Highways<\/em> by Claude Breeze (ceramic tile mural)
\nYorkdale:<\/strong> Arthur Erickson Architects; Arc en Ciel<\/em> by Michael Hayden (neon lightwork, removed)
\nWilson:<\/strong> TTC architects; Canyons<\/em> by Ted Bieler (aluminum wall relief).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

You can read more posts on Modernism by Robert on his blog Modern Toronto<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To coincide with the cover section of Spacing’s summer 2013 issue, we bring you a series of posts by local architect Robert Moffatt that examine Modernist buildings in Toronto. A defining characteristic of many great cities is their subway system (or metro\/underground), and the primary points of contact for those using the system are itsContinue reading “MOD TORONTO: Art and architecture on the Spadina subway”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8175,"featured_media":43897,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22,24,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-architecture","category-history","category-transit"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMOD TORONTO: Art and architecture on the Spadina subway - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/07\/03\/mod-toronto-art-and-architecture-on-the-spadina-subway\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MOD TORONTO: Art and architecture on the Spadina subway - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"To coincide with the cover section of Spacing’s summer 2013 issue, we bring you a series of posts by local architect Robert Moffatt that examine Modernist buildings in Toronto. 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