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Three stations on the University-Spadina line – Osgoode, Museum and St. Patrick – will be receiving radical redesigns.
The Toronto Transit Commission approved $1.5 million in funding over three years for the Arts On Track project headed by the Toronto Community Foundation at its meeting Monday, November 28. In committing the funds, the TTC is hoping to attract private money for the projects, whose estimated cost is $12 million.
Architect Jack Diamond thought up the concepts for the stations, which will include projected pictures on the tunnel walls and operatic music played when the train rolls in at Osgoode, replicas of Royal Ontario Museum artifacts at Museum and painted horses that gallop to the speed of trains arriving at St. Patrick.
Says TCF president and CEO Anne Swarbrick, “We want to grow culture by introducing people and tourists to some of the beauty of our local, national and international art.”
Gord Perks of Rocket Riders supports “integrating service into the community in an attractive way,” but is a little dismayed the cash-strapped TTC is using public funds when “we have important projects like expanding the streetcar network that need money. I hope we can find the funds to do both.”
But Dave Meslin of the Toronto Public Space Committee thinks more public funds should be committed.
“If the money is coming from the public, there’d be a more democratic role as to what is art. If only a handful of people in the city with the most money are paying for it, they are also deciding what the art is.”
news@nowtoronto.com
