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(rshsdepot) Toronto (Union Station)

From the National Post.
 
Bernie Wagenblast
 
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
 
Not dead yet: Ten ideas to revive Union Station
Lots to learn from New York, Washington
Peter  Kuitenbrouwer  National Post
 
 
Next Wednesday, from 12:30 to 6:30 p.m., the City of Toronto hosts an open  
house in the Great Hall at Union Station, "to showcase the recommended approach 
 to Union Station's revitalization." 
Said the city press release: "The public is encouraged to visit Union Station 
 to view the display panels that outline the changes, speak with staff and 
fill  out a questionnaire with their ideas." 
After 50 years of neglect, Union Station is in rough shape. The proposal on  
how to, in Mayor David Miller's words, "bring the station back to life" goes 
to  city council on Nov. 26. 
To gain inspiration for a restoration job, councillors and staff this year  
visited Union Station in Washington, D.C. (restored in 1988), and toured New  
York's Grand Central Station (restored in 1998). Here are some ideas New York  
and Washington can teach Toronto: 
1. SPEND AS MUCH AS YOU NEED TO RESTORE THE ARCHITECTURE 
The train stations in New York, Washington and Toronto were all built in the  
Beaux-Arts style. Washington's Union Station, built in 1908, was boarded up 
in  1981. Then the U.S. Congress approved an act to sell bonds, spending  
US$160-million to restore it. 
Today the station is the most-visited spot in Washington. In New York, the  
government-owned Metropolitan Transportation Authority, using US$113-million of 
 its own money and selling US$84-million in 30-year bonds, sunk close to  
$200-million into scrubbing decades of grime off Grand Central Terminal (1913),  
revealing the 2,500 stars on its painted ceiling. The station is now a  
destination in itself.
 
2. PUT TRANSPORTATION FIRST 
Washington's Union Station failed when government visionaries transformed it  
into a "National Visitor Center," and was reborn when used for its original  
function: as a train (and now also subway) station. In New York, the  
Metropolitan Transportation Authority restored Grand Central as the hub for its  Metro 
North and subway trains. 
3. BRING IN NEW RETAIL 
The Oyster Bar clung to life in the basement of Grand Central during that  
station's long years of decline; today more than 100 retailers thrive in Grand  
Central, including an optician. Commuters bustle through cheese and fish shops 
 in the Grand Central Market. 
Union Station in Washington has 130 shops, including a hat shop, a tie shop,  
perfumers and a chocolatier. 
"You're leveraging the architecture to create a sense of place," explains  
Cubie Dawson, a senior vice-president with Jones Lang LaSalle, leasing manager  
in both the Washington and New York stations. "You put in goods and services  
that complement the needs of the users." The retail revenue paid off the money 
 borrowed for the restoration. 
4. FARM OUT LEASING MANAGEMENT 
Jones Lang LaSalle was a partner in the Union Pearson deal for Toronto's  
Union Station (which fell through last year.) "It keeps everyone focused on  
their core business," says Mr. Dawson. "Our core business is to run real estate,  
not to run trains." 
5. BRING THE RAILWAY IN-HOUSE 
In Washington, Amtrak's head office is in Union Station. In New York, the MTA 
 is on Madison Avenue next to Grand Central. But in Toronto, GO Transit today 
has  its offices at 20 Bay St. on Queen's Quay, a fair stroll from Union 
Station. 
GO now plans to build a new head office next to the GO bus terminal, east of  
Union Station. Why not move GO inside Union (where Scotiabank now has  
offices.) 
When the railway executives walk through the terminal every day, they'll make 
 sure the station glistens. 
6. SEND PEDESTRIAN TRAFFIC THROUGH THE GREAT HALL 
At Grand Central, thousands of New Yorkers stream through the main concourse, 
 heading from trains to subways or their offices. Ditto Washington. 
In Toronto, a torrent of passengers walks through the station's dingy east  
wing, notable for three-metre pressboard ceilings, a yellowy-brown tile floor  
and hospital-blue steel benches, and down into the terrible, overcrowded cave 
of  the subway platform. 
The Great Hall, meanwhile, stands empty. Redirecting the flow through the  
Great Hall will make commuters' journeys easier and more pleasant. 
7. DON'T LOWER 
THE CEILINGS 
One of history's great architectural tragedies was the 1964 demolition of  
Penn Station in New York. Today's Penn Station, the busiest station in the  
Amtrak network, is a grim place with a low ceiling. In Toronto, staff want to  
excavate under Union Station for a subterranean shopping mall, which would  
actually lower the ceiling of the train concourse above. I agree with Gary  McNeil, 
chief executive at GO Transit, that this is a bad idea: "Look at  Pearson's 
new Terminal One," he says. "Where the pedestrians are, you are  king." 
8. FIX THE CLOCK 
The four-sided, iconic brass clock atop the Information Booth at Grand  
Central is a meeting place for New Yorkers. And it displays the time, too. At  
Union Station in Toronto, only one face of the clock in the Great Hall has  hands. 
On the same theme: staff at the Grand Central information booth dispense  
train time and platform information; the volunteers at Toronto's booth today  
sometimes show up to give tourism advice. Bring back the train information  
staff. 
9. INNOVATE 
Union Station in Washington boasts a cinema popular with locals who live  
nearby; upstairs, embassies rent the space for furniture, art or photography  
shows. Grand Central rents out Vanderbilt Hall, a grand former waiting room, for  
nightly events. The under-used west hall of Toronto's Union Station is an  
obvious spot for such events. 
10. SELL NEWSPAPERS 
Every self-respecting train station has a newsstand. Today you have to go  
into the bowels of Union Station to buy a paper. Isn't it time to return a  
newsstand to our Great Hall? 
Railways built Canada. We should make Union Station a great train station; to 
 celebrate, as Councillor Gloria Lindsay Luby puts it, the "renaissance of 
rail  travel." As Mr. Dawson points out, "enhancing the experience leads to 
increased  ridership." 
pkuitenbrouwer_@_nationalpost.com



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End of RSHSDepot Digest V1 #1627
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