Museum station escapes from a prison image

During the past year of unprecedented conversation about local transit systems, nothing was met with more curiosity than the plot by the Toronto Community Foundation to give an aesthetic overhaul to stations along the University subway line, as rendered in November. And while the TTC itself can’t figure out how to market a T-shirt, philanthropists were rallying around the idea that stops adjacent to highbrow cultural locales merited interior designs consistent with the buildings above ground – especially since St. Patrick, Osgoode or Museum aren’t often thought of as more than perfunctory ports linking Union Station with Spadina. Confirmation that the idea is on track was provided at a press conference in the foyer of the Royal Ontario Museum, announcing that a $2 million contribution from the provincial government has enhanced a million bucks from the estate of Yorkville preservationist Budd Sugarman, and an anonymous donor who tossed in $500K after the elimination of the capital gains tax on charitable gifts of securities. William Thorsell, CEO of the ROM, might as well have been damning City Hall for not taking the lead on this kind of project, though – speaking of the “deterioration” of the neighbourhood over the past 15 years, Thorsell is now relieved that “the miasma of the situation” is being overcome. So, with the fresh determination to define the corner of Bloor St. and Avenue Rd. as the “Museum Arts District”, if the completed Daniel Libeskind crystal doesn’t frighten everyone away, the underground will be graced with a collection of thematic pillars. TTC chair Howard Moscoe showed up on the morning that both Star and Sun editorials were calling for his ouster, to boast of how “the early Canadian washroom architecture” would finally transcend “the character of a jail cell”. But then Moscoe also murmured something about a renewal of hope for the condo development overdue for erection on the site of the McLaughlin Planetarium, until plans for a 46-storey monstrosity were shouted down by annoyed locals – whose protest was further motivated by the fact that the condo was being tailored to zillionaires. Now, such accusations of elitism hurled at the ROM can be countered with the argument that its virtual virtues are being absorbed each day by bleary-eyed commuters. Similar plans for the other stations – and reincarnating Dupont as a Casa Loma stop, too – will proceed if the right tax shelter seekers find the Museum plans stimulating enough.

[Museum tile pic via Craig White's definitive TTC stations Flickr set]