Sunday, March 19, 2006

Line 5: Acadie

Welcome back to a decade that you probably thought you had left behind. With a lively post-modernist style that is reminiscent of a nineteen-eighties era nightclub, Acadie is one of the most stylishly distinctive stations in the Montréal metro. It’s also one of the least used, so enjoy the relative peace and quiet in this electro-pop fantasy station.

To fully appreciate the coherence of the platform and overall station design, notice how the architects have established a rhythm of forms that run at forty-five degrees to the direction of the tracks. The basic determinant of the shape and scale of an underground station is the usually train itself: it’s a big long thin thing. Therefore more stations emphasise their length as part of the overall design, through the use, for example, of horizontal bands of materials and colours. Here at Acadie, however, from the tiles on the floor to the light fittings above the platforms, the architectural rhythm of the station has been set at a diagonal to the tracks.

On the floor are black and red embossed tiles, laid at this basic 45 degree angle to the platform edge. Above the platforms the same angle and colour is reflected in the lighting. Standard strip lighting units are used, but again twisted through 45 degrees. Bright red panels hang to reflect the light and to create a pattern that breaks up the length of the station.

The red re-appears in the chunky circular section tubes used to support the benches (designed by Michel Morelli). The benches themselves are formed out of the same material as the walls of the platforms: smooth black marble that alternates between polished and unpolished blocks. It’s a really coherently designed pair of platforms: smooth, sharp and high-contrast. The only exception to this fine finish can be found under the ticket mezzanine, which sits above the tracks. Here the rough poured concrete that forms the underside of the structure has been punctuated by rough recesses into which light fittings have been installed.

The angled rhythm continues with the steps from the platform up to the ticket mezzanine, which is directly above the tracks. The steps are split into two flights, with a half landing between the tracks and the ticket hall. The square-plan ticket hall is almost a cube in its overall dimensions, and again, is set at forty-five degrees to the direction of the tracks below. On the platform side of the ticket gates this contrast of angles creates a pointed balcony that looks down onto the tracks. Stand here and look down to the tracks, and you’ll see that to emphasise the intermediate space aside from the ticket hall and above the tracks through which you are lookeing, the deep grooved walls that form the walls of the main ticket hall volume don’t meet in the corner, and the space opens into a smaller and darker cubic space, with a mysterious pair of unused service balconies opposite. The rhythm of squares and ninety degree angles continues above the ticket hall in the deep ceiling coffers formed by the poured concrete beams that support the street above. The application of an architectural rhythm to the design and spatial organisation of the whole station is impressive. It’s one of the satisfying examples of a public building that reveals its character and organisation over a period of time to the regular visitor, and as such is one the modern classics of the Montréal metro.

Passing through the ticket gates into the ‘public’ side of the ticket hall, we find a striking piece of practical public post-modernist art: a combined bench and clock by the artists Jean-François Jacques and Pierre-Marc Pelletier. Set on a large square of dark grey marble instead of the blue tiles found elsewhere in the station, the motif of the clock is expressed in the position of two stainless steel benches. The circle of the clock face they describe is a thin strip of stainless steel set into the marble. The benches are even fixed at slightly different heights off the ground, like the hands of a clock, as if they are capable of moving with the time. They don’t incidentally, which is a bit of a shame, since it would transform this sympathetic piece of station furniture into an interesting form of dynamic art, and would provide an interesting way of having an unexpected liaison with the stranger sitting next to you on the other bench at the top of each hour. The clock face is an out-scaled take of the face of a watch, and recalls the classic modernist clocks that appeared in European railway stations in the early twentieth century. At the time of writing, it wasn’t working, but it’s still an entertaining piece of practical sculpture that in a station designed for large volumes of people passing through, provides for those who are not. A romantic rendezvous could not take place on a more appropriate station bench.

At the time of writing the small kiosk opposite the ticket booth is unoccupied and available for rent: a demonstration of the stark fact that this station is not supported by the number of passengers it is capable of handling.

Take the escalators up to the street underpass level, and follow the exit to Boulevard Acadie to take a look at how the rhythm of the station continues. This passage way connects the two street level entrance pavilions, and in many other stations a similar corridor would be finished with very little attention to the overall scheme. But notice how the contrasting colours of floor tiles, different ceiling heights, deep ceiling beams, recessed light fittings and stainless steel wall panels have been used to turn an ordinary underpass into an exciting space. Unusual balustrades frame the views down onto the ticket hall and tracks below. On one side of the escalator void and in the passageway to the Acadie exit are life sized images of people walking, leaping and falling by the artist Jean Mercier. These smooth surfaces are an invitation for graffiti, and it’s just a shame that the graffiti at Acadie isn’t up to much – lame half hearted tagging that doesn’t contribute anything.

Above ground are the two entrance pavilions: these don’t seem to continue or convey the architectural excitement of the station underground and are rather faded examples of post-modernist whimsy. A small park is formed around one, but otherwise there is very little to tie these entrances into the suburban landscape in which they sit.

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