Lawrence West (TTC)

Lawrence West
Location 655 Lawrence Avenue West
Toronto, Ontario
Canada
Coordinates 43°42′57″N 79°26′39″W / 43.71583°N 79.44417°W / 43.71583; -79.44417Coordinates: 43°42′57″N 79°26′39″W / 43.71583°N 79.44417°W / 43.71583; -79.44417
Platforms centre platform
Tracks 2
Connections
Construction
Structure type at grade in highway median
Parking None
Disabled access Yes
Architect Dunlop Farrow Aitken [1]
History
Opened 28 January 1978
Traffic
Passengers (2014[2]) 21,420
Services
Preceding station   TTC   Following station
toward Downsview
 Yonge–University
toward Finch

Lawrence West is a subway station on the Yonge–University line in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in the median of William R. Allen Road at Lawrence Avenue West. The station serves the local communities of Lawrence Heights, Lawrence Manor and Glen Park, and nearby destinations such as the Columbus Centre, Lawrence Heights Community Recreation Centre and Lawrence Square Shopping Centre.

Besides the collector booth, the station has a Gateway Newstands in the paid area of the south side area.

History

The station opened in 1978, as part of the subway line extension from St. George to Wilson Station.

In 2008, the Toronto Star reported this station, along with Lansdowne, Kennedy, and Warden to be a "known problem area" in terms of crime in the subway system.[3]

In 2014 an elevator, automatic sliding doors and an accessible fare gate were installed in the main part of the station on the south side of Lawrence Avenue, to make the station wheelchair accessible.[4] In addition, repairs were made to the saw-tooth bus platforms and the roadway was repaved for low floor buses.[5] The northside entrance remains inaccessible due to space restrictions and generally used as drop off point by car.

Architecture and art

Main station structure and bus platforms, on the south side of Lawrence Avenue West

Dunlop Farrow Aitken was the firm responsible for the station's architecture.[6] The structure is composed of an enclosed train platform area in the median of Allen Road, which is bridged by a bus loop and waiting area on the south side of the Lawrence Avenue bridge. Staffed entrances on both sides of the street connect to a transfer area which links the train platform and the bus area.[7]

Upon entrance from the Lawrence Avenue bridge over Allen Road, the bus waiting area and the train platform are apparent. This openness is achieved through glazed walls and a large stairwell.[8] The glass is framed with distinctive orange-painted metal. The platform level features exposed concrete walls, with a long strip of skylights above the tracks with the same orange framing used throughout the station. Rectangular prism benches with rectangular tiles of yellow, orange, and brown hues are unique to the station. Similar tiles are used on the floors and centre pillars.

Spacing... Aerial Highways, a large 300 foot ceramic tile mural designed by Claude Breeze,[9] spreads across the north face of the main station building above the bus platform.

Surface connections

52A Westbound to Pearson Airport via Dixon Road
52B Westbound to Westwood Mall Bus Terminal via Dixon Road (Extra fare required west of Airport)
52D Westbound to McNaughton via Dixon Road (Extra fare required west of Airport)
52F Westbound to Royal York Road
52G Westbound to Martin Grove Road via The Westway - terminates here eastbound
59B to Weston Road via Church Street
109B north to Neptune Drive via Marlee Avenue and Flemington Road; south to Eglinton West Station
109C north to Neptune Drive via Marlee Avenue and Varna Drive; south to Eglinton West Station

References

  1. ↑ http://archindont.torontopubliclibrary.ca/ArchindontWeb/buildingType.do?type=Subway+Stations&typeID=112
  2. ↑ "Subway ridership, 2014" (PDF). Toronto Transit Commission. Retrieved September 12, 2015. 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. ↑ 4 held in subway swarmings
  4. ↑ "Lawrence West Station: Elevator Construction Update". website. TTC. Retrieved October 2014. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  5. ↑ Lito Romano, Community Liaison (April 2013). "Lawrence West Station: Easier Access Program" (PDF). TTC. Retrieved December 2014. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  6. ↑ http://www.tobuilt.ca/php/tobuildings_more.php?search_fd0=6518
  7. ↑ "Design for Transit", Canadian Architect, 21: 34, 1976
  8. ↑ "Design for Transit", p. 34
  9. ↑ "Breeze, Claude". Saskatchewan Archival Information Network. Retrieved August 2012. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)

Media related to Lawrence West Station at Wikimedia Commons

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