In the beginning, there was the bus shelter. It was good.Now, there's the sidewalk waiting room. It is better.Both serve the same purpose and can be seen throughout the city. The older, which has been around since the late 1970s, is a basic black box made of steel and glass.The new one, though it's also made of steel and glass, is a stylish enclosure with a cantilevered roof and curves where before there were only straight lines and flat surfaces.In the old one, the bench faced the wrong direction - away from the bus or streetcar. The new one has handsome vacuum-moulded seat with armrests and a nice bum-accommodating shape. It faces out to the street.All that's missing is the coffee table piled high with magazines."We decided to look at the shelters some time ago," says Kim Warburton, marketing director of Viacom Outdoor (until last week known as Mediacom). "The ones you see going up now are the product of a year's work."The designer, Toronto-based Jeremy Kramer, travelled to Europe to check out street furnishings in Barcelona and London, not just bus shelters but also benches, trash cans and lighting fixtures. "We actually developed the new shelter for the City of Mississauga," Kramer explains. "We wanted something lighter and more transparent. Through transparency, we thought, it would integrate with more environments."Since June, nearly 100 of the new structures have appeared in Toronto, most of them downtown. Mississauga, which started building earlier, has 300 in place. When installation is complete in seven years, there will be 1,100 in Toronto and, in Mississauga, where waiting for the bus is serious business, there'll be 2,000.The most obvious feature of the new shelter is indeed its transparency. Unlike the earlier version, which was supported on four columns, this has only two. They're at the back corners, leaving the front free of visual obstacles. The glass panels are secured by a series of stainless steel bolts screwed into the sidewalk. Four curved steel beams that cantilever out from the rear hold up the glass roof. The biggest, most solid, element is the advertising wall; it is a thick curved surface, backlit for emphasis. User comfort and safety may be important concerns, but advertising remains paramount."If we didn't have advertising," Warburton makes clear, "we wouldn't have shelters. Viacom pays for design, construction and maintenance of the shelters and we pay the city a fee. If advertisers don't see an advantage to being with us, we can't make money. This new design improves the advertising face; they're illuminated, so they look fabulous."Up to 100 of the new units have scrolling machines that will allow up to three ads per side, or six in total. They will be concentrated in the downtown core, where advertisers most want their messages to be seen.But as well as providing space for ads, transit users and homeless people, the shelters are destined to become a prominent feature on the urban (and suburban) landscape. After all, there will be several thousand of them scattered along hundreds of streets. Inevitably, they will be a big part of the city's visual identity, especially in Toronto, where public transit is a viable alternative to the car. At an intersection as busy as, say, Queen and Bay Sts., there will eventually be as many five or six shelters.The trick lies in devising something that both stands out and blends in. The shelter must fit in downtown and in more residential areas. What looks appropriate in one environment can seem wildly out of place in the next. But this had to be a one-size-fits-all solution, not easy."It has to be a bit chameleon-like," Kramer agrees. "You don't want it to be too `Look at me.' On the other hand, you do want people to notice it. It also has to do a good job for advertisers but enhance the street, too. We wanted a design that felt like a signature piece, but at the same time something that had the subtlety to fit in." For those who use the TTC regularly, those who spend countless hours of their life waiting for buses and streetcars, the new shelter is a much more pleasant place to waste time. Admiring the details alone can occupy minutes at a stretch. After that, riders can sit down, relax and enjoy the view.If only there were something to read.
Christopher Hume is The Star's urban issues reporter. He can be reached at chume@thestar.ca
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