Yorkdale station

Yorkdale
Location Yorkdale Road at Yorkdale Service Road, Yorkdale Shopping Centre,
Toronto, Ontario
Canada
Coordinates 43°43′29″N 79°26′51″W / 43.72472°N 79.44750°W / 43.72472; -79.44750Coordinates: 43°43′29″N 79°26′51″W / 43.72472°N 79.44750°W / 43.72472; -79.44750
Platforms Centre platform
Tracks 2
Connections Yorkdale Bus Terminal
Construction
Structure type At grade
Parking 1010 spaces, reopened February 2017[1]
Disabled access No
Architect Arthur Erickson
History
Opened 28 January 1978
Traffic
Passengers (2016[2]) 27,930
Services
Preceding station   TTC   Following station
toward Vaughan
 Yonge–University
toward Finch
Escalators to the platform from Ranee Ave entrance

Yorkdale is a station on the Yonge–University line in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in the median of the William R. Allen Road just south of Highway 401. Opened in 1978, it is named after the nearby Yorkdale Shopping Centre to which it connects by an enclosed walkway.[3]

Connections to GO Transit commuter and Greyhound intercity buses are available at Yorkdale Bus Terminal, immediately west of the station.

Entrances

  • Yorkdale Mall west entrance, next to Yorkdale Bus Terminal
  • Ranee Avenue and Allen Road, south entrance (physical TTC Metropass or Presto card is required to gain entry from this entrance)
  • Onramp to Highway 401 and Allen Road, north entrance

Architecture and art

Yorkdale was designed by Arthur Erickson.[4] The station is above ground, and also above street level. It has two tracks: northbound and southbound, and has a centre platform. A dramatic vaulted glass roof spans the length of the single centre platform. It terminates symmetrically at escalators and stairs at both ends of the platform, creating the appearance of a glass dome. The interior walls of the station at platform level are unfinished concrete, but artistically cast, and curve over the tracks to form the ceiling. The shape of the windows on these walls recalls the oval windows of subway trains. On the exterior, these concrete walls are clad with stainless steel.

Handrails on stairs leading to the platform are backlit. Platform shelters are unique to the station, designed in the oval shape which dominates many features in the station, with large windows. Like the centre pillars which hold X-shaped structural supports—distinctive in Toronto's rapid transit system to the station—they are clad in unpainted metal panels.

Yorkdale station won a Governor General's Award for Architecture in 1982,[5] and is listed as a heritage structure in Toronto's inventory of heritage properties.[6]

The station's glass roof originally featured an artwork by Michael Hayden—also responsible for the Sky's the Limit installation at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport—called Arc en ciel (French for "rainbow"). This piece consisted of a large number of mercury-vapour lamps painted in various colours that would light in a pattern, running along the station in the appropriate direction whenever a train went through. In the mid-1990s, it stopped working because of damaged transformers caused by water leakage.[7] Each transformer would have cost just $28 to repair at the time; however, because the TTC had not budgeted for its continued maintenance,[7] it was removed at the artist's request.

At a TTC meeting in September 2010, a deal was made for Oxford Properties, owner of Yorkdale Mall which connects to the station, to pay for the restoration of the installation.[7] The plan calls for the rebuilt piece to use LED lights, allowing for a broader range and customization of colours and patterns. Hayden requested that a maintenance contract be included, and for the piece installed by a Toronto-based company.[7] The cost of such a reinstallation was not known (the original installation cost $100,000)[8] until July 13, 2016, when it was revealed that the Oxford Properties would pay for much of the $500,000 cost to re-install the art installation, with some of the funds being from a pool dedicated to community improvements.[9]

Subway infrastructure in the vicinity

South of Yorkdale station, Allen Road descends into a shallow open cut below the surrounding ground level, and the subway descends with it until Eglinton West Station. North of Yorkdale, the tracks remain elevated and cross Highway 401 to Wilson Station.

In late 2013, the entrance at Ranee Avenue is being altered with the south and north driveways being removed and curb being added to run parallel with the support pillars. In future bus will no longer drop passengers off directly at the doors. This project is in conjunction with resurfacing of Ranee to remove asbestos and the future construction of residential buildings along Allen Road on the south side of Ranee.[10]

In January 2014, the parking structure connected to the subway, which could accommodate 1144 cars, was demolished for mall expansion.[11] Construction of the new parking structure was delayed to coincide with the opening of Nordstrom and reopened in February 2017.[1][12]

Surface connections

Toronto Transit Commission

A transfer is required to connect between the subway and surface bus routes.

TTC routes serving the station include:

Route Name Additional Information
47B Lansdowne Southbound to Queen Street West via Bridgeland Avenue and Caledonia Road
47C Southbound to Queen Street West via Orfus Road and Caledonia Road
109B Ranee Northbound to Neptune Drive and southbound to Eglinton West station via Flemington Road and Marlee Avenue

Yorkdale station was used as the Transit Hub station in the film The Last Chase (1981) because of its futuristic look. It also appears in Scanners (1981) and Overdrawn at the Memory Bank (1983).

References

  1. 1 2 "TTC Yorkdale Station". TTC. February 1, 2017. Retrieved April 9, 2017.
  2. ↑ "Subway ridership, 2016" (PDF). Toronto Transit Commission. Retrieved July 3, 2018. This table shows the typical number of customer-trips made on each subway on an average weekday and the typical number of customers travelling to and from each station platform on an average weekday.
  3. ↑ Bradburn, Jamie (November 29, 2011). "Vintage Toronto Ads: Yorkdale… Another Toronto Attraction". Torontoist. Retrieved January 21, 2017. ride the new Spadina Subway line right into Yorkdale's ultra-modern station. Descend the glass-domed escalator or stairs... and you've arrived!
  4. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-07-06. Retrieved 2008-11-16.
  5. ↑ Arthur Erickson - awards
  6. ↑ http://app.toronto.ca/heritage/property.do?pid=10221%5Bpermanent+dead+link%5D
  7. 1 2 3 4 Derek Flack (4 November 2010). "Michael Hayden's Arc en ciel might return to Yorkdale Station". blogTO. Retrieved 19 September 2011.
  8. ↑ Derek Flack (7 November 2010). "Sunday Supplement: Was John Tory conned out of the mayoral race?, pedestrian safety meets fashion disaster, Bloor Street open for business and memories of a Toronto igloo". blogTO. Retrieved 19 September 2011.
  9. ↑ http://www.metronews.ca/news/toronto/2016/07/13/yorkdale-arc-en-ciel-to-shine-again.html
  10. ↑ http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2012/ny/bgrd/backgroundfile-51338.pdf
  11. ↑ "TTC Yorkdale Commuter Parking Lot To Close Temporarily". TTC. November 5, 2013.
  12. ↑ "TTC parking lot at Yorkdale open for business after extensive renovations". Global News. February 1, 2017. Retrieved April 9, 2017.
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