Friday, July 17, 2009

PDP #71: The Poor State of the Originals

When the Toronto subway was opened in 1954, each station used Vitrolite tiles - a special kind of reflective glass, apparently no longer manufactured - on their platform levels. Today, only Eglinton station's Vitrolite is still clean and intact, but there are more tiles than those still on the system. Too often, the case was that original Vitrolite tiling was covered up by later renovations.

St. Andrew station's platform walls are presently slats, though this is in the process of being replaced in favor of "fake Vitrolite" walls which are, I'm told, easier to wash. In some places, the slats have been removed and the original Vitrolite tiling is visible.

What a sad and shabby state it's in.

I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. This applies worldwide. In case this is not legally possible, I grant anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.

No comments:

Post a Comment