Lawrence West is a subway station on Line 1 Yonge–University 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 Allen Centre. The station has a Gateway Newstands in the north end concourse area at street level.
History
The station opened in 1978, as part of the subway line extension from 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.
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. In addition, repairs were made to the sawtooth bus platforms and the roadway was repaved for low floor buses. The northside entrance remains inaccessible due to space restrictions and generally used as drop off point by car.
On 6 January 2019, this station discontinued sales of legacy TTC fare media (tokens and tickets), previously available at a fare collector booth. Presto vending machines were available to sell Presto cards and to load funds or a monthly Metropass onto them.
On 5 April 2019, Lawrence West and stations became the first two locations to sell single-use Presto tickets, which are sold from the stations' Presto fare vending machines.
Architecture and art
Dunlop Farrow Aitken was the firm responsible for the station's architecture. 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.
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."Design for Transit", p. 34 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, spreads across the north face of the main station building above the bus platform.
Surface connections
When the subway is closed, buses use stops outside of the terminal along Lawrence Avenue West. TTC routes serving the station include: Bay number Route Name Additional information1Wheel-Trans400Lawrence ManorCommunity Bus; eastbound to Humber River Hospital; westbound to Bathurst Street and Wilson Avenue109BRaneeNorthbound to Neptune Drive via Flemington Road109CNorthbound to Neptune Drive via Varna Drive2109B/CRaneeSouthbound to Cedarvale station via Marlee Avenue59AMaple LeafWestbound to Weston Road via Gary Drive59BWestbound to Weston Road via Church Street3952Lawrence West ExpressWestbound to Pearson Airport via Dixon Road52FLawrence WestWestbound to Royal York Road452ALawrence WestWestbound to Pearson Airport via Dixon Road52BWestbound to Westwood Mall Bus Terminal via Dixon and Airport Roads52DWestbound to McNaughton Avenue via Dixon and Airport Roads552GLawrence WestWestbound to Martin Grove Road via The Westway The following routes (eastbound only) can be boarded on-street outside the station entrance: RouteNameAdditional information52A/B/D/FLawrence WestEastbound to Lawrence station352Lawrence WestBlue Night service; eastbound to Sunnybrook Hospital and westbound to Pearson Airport952Lawrence West ExpressEastbound to Lawrence station
References
External links