VMC Transit Terminal. Photo courtesy of Diamond Schmitt Architects.
An inter-regional transit terminal has broken ground at Vaughan Metropolitan Centre, playing a key role in the intermodal transit hub to support this burgeoning urban community adjacent to Toronto.
The transit terminal, designed by Diamond Schmitt Architects, will serve York Region Rapid Transit?s extensive bus network and have pedestrian connection to the Viva Bus Rapid Transit as well as the new terminus of the Toronto Transit Commission?s extension of the Spadina subway line. Both the bus terminal and subway are slated to open at the end of 2017.
?The conventional hierarchy of the bus terminal was inverted here, with pedestrians playing the central role in defining circulation and the spaces around the terminal,? said Mike Szabo, principal, Diamond Schmitt Architects.  The wood-lined SmartCentres Place Bus Terminal is located within a pedestrian plaza and has a large, 4,000 m2 (43,000 sq ft) horseshoe-shaped roof over two open platforms and a 910 m2 (close to 10,000 sq ft) glazed pavilion.  ?Bus traffic is separated from pedestrian circulation by a permeable wooden canopy structure and bus entry,? said Szabo. ?The buses enter and exit from a single entry at the north end of the site away from the primary pedestrian area, creating a seamless transition between plaza and pedestrian entry to the bus terminal.?
VMC Transit Terminal. Photo courtesy of Diamond Schmitt Architects.
The pavilion houses the ma...