Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Longfields Station: All shiny and new


I stopped by the brand new Longfields Station in Barrhaven on my way home Monday afternoon. Overall? Very impressed. The aesthetics of the design was a marked improvement from most of OC Transpo's hamster-cage designs, and the inclusion of an art installation was cool, too. For a gallery of photos, check out my Flickr page.

The photo above is of the entryway to the northbound platform, which is up a set of stairs (or an elevator) from where I was standing. The landscaping isn't totally finished, but you can see the design is significantly more pleasing to the eye than a lot of other OC Transpo stations.

Below is the northbound platform once again, but of the second level (I was standing on the southbound platform to take the photo).


The art installation, entitled "Bellwether", consists of four life-sized sheep and a border collie, cast in bronze and--one sheep notwithstanding--painted with a patina finish. The photo below is two of the sheep "grazing" on the green roof near the northbound platform, and the border collie keeping them in check.



And this is the unfinished bronze sculpture, also on the northbound platform but right near where people would be standing, where the City says "the public will be free to touch and playfully interact with it". Hopefully interactions remain innocently playful...



Check out my Flickr page for more photos.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Any glass etchings from the local youths yet?

Centretowner said...

Thanks for taking those photos.

It kinda reminds me of the new Ottawa airport, at least from the outside. The art is part of the 1% for art policy whereby the City puts 1% of the capital cost of projects over $1m into public art.