Progress in the Bay Concourse! I didn't get any pictures, but granite cladding is going up around the large concrete pillars, as well as new temporary wood boarding along the bases. It looks like there's much more construction activity in the concourse now.

The structure of the moat cover is almost complete on the East moat, too.
 
Good news, but as someone who walks through Union daily I’m trying understand why the Bay Concourse seemed to be frozen in time for so long, especially considering how delayed it is. How much of the pending construction could possibly be dependent on Metrolinx adjustments? Is there a finite amount of construction workers available? Do Unions prevent overnight work?

AnotherCanuck said:
Progress in the Bay Concourse! I didn't get any pictures, but granite cladding is going up around the large concrete pillars, as well as new temporary wood boarding along the bases. It looks like there's much more construction activity in the concourse now.

The structure of the moat cover is almost complete on the East moat, too.
Click to expand...
 
sikandar said:
Good news, but as someone who walks through Union daily I’m trying understand why the Bay Concourse seemed to be frozen in time for so long, especially considering how delayed it is. How much of the pending construction could possibly be dependent on Metrolinx adjustments? Is there a finite amount of construction workers available? Do Unions prevent overnight work?
Click to expand...

Noise issues aside do you really want a groggy construction worker operating heavy machinery or walking around on floors with only minimal fall protection? I doubt that it is a union issue but there is probably a finite budget which would be overrun if you have to pay for 24/7 construction work to be done. It is likely not that they don't want to speed things up, it is more likely that they don't have the budget for 3 sets of construction staff.
 
Perhaps the work that was being done was less visible, and therefore the appearance of being stuck in time from the outside.

I know that I regularly saw trucks bringing in/out materials through construction entrance off of Bay St.
 
The chocolate shop is already gone. In its place, a plant shop opened up, forgot their name already.
Also, Greenhouse juice opened up recently.
 
raptor said:
The chocolate shop is already gone. In its place, a plant shop opened up, forgot their name already.
Also, Greenhouse juice opened up recently.
Click to expand...

Succuterra is the plant shop. It's actually kind of cute, if not out of place in a train station... I guess for when you need a cactus at the last minute? Or maybe a gift for the boss.

CXBO Chocolates was only a temporary "pop-up" and they were always scheduled to close at the end of February. I'm surprised they lasted that long, to be honest; I don't think I ever saw a customer in there.
 
AnotherCanuck said:
Succuterra is the plant shop. It's actually kind of cute, if not out of place in a train station... I guess for when you need a cactus at the last minute? Or maybe a gift for the boss.

CXBO Chocolates was only a temporary "pop-up" and they were always scheduled to close at the end of February. I'm surprised they lasted that long, to be honest; I don't think I ever saw a customer in there.
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CXBO made no effort to attract customers. I'm an unapologetic foodie and have fallen in love w/the Danish Pastry Shop, LOL......but I never went into the chocolate place.

No sample tables, door closed, thin display, blah merchandising, staff usually reading a book.
 
CXBO did some good business in the lead up to Christmas, but not much after. I assume that the end of February was to sell again pre-Valentines. Great stuff though—their chocolates are fantastic.

42
 
interchange42 said:
CXBO did some good business in the lead up to Christmas, but not much after. I assume that the end of February was to sell again pre-Valentines. Great stuff though—their chocolates are fantastic.

42
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I walked past fairly often at a variety of times. Must say I never saw customers and the staff were usually reading or looking bored.
 
A panorama and closeup of the aforementioned column cladding facing Southwest. Taken today.

lGf1HoJ.jpg


7IGlJKb.jpg
 
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I was talking to the heritage architect for Union yesterday - she confirmed that there WILL be new lighting in the Great Hall. (The City actually advertised the tender for new fixtures about 18 months ago and then cancelled it (too soon?) so I am not sure if it is being re-advertised or ???)
 
DSC said:
I was talking to the heritage architect for Union yesterday - she confirmed that there WILL be new lighting in the Great Hall. (The City actually advertised the tender for new fixtures about 18 months ago and then cancelled it (too soon?) so I am not sure if it is being re-advertised or ???)
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There's been some developments in lighting technology in that period of time. Hopefully they'll be embracing some of the newer technology. The following is not the return to thermionic emission sources now being developed, but is a huge improvement of the harsh monstrous glarification of recent times:
Seoul Semiconductor: SunLike Series Natural Spectrum LEDs Illuminate Pompeii Ruins

PRESS RELEASE Businesswire
Mar. 7, 2018, 05:45 AM
[...]
The Lumen Center Italia (LCI) has developed spotlights that employ nine units of 25W COB-type SunLike Series natural spectrum LEDs from Seoul Semiconductor to illuminate the restored murals in the Pompeii ruins in Casa dei Vettii, Italy. The SunLike Series LEDs reproduce the spectrum of sunlight as closely as possible to show the color of the object as it appears in natural light and provide a good sense of depth based on high contrast ratio to accurately represent the murals.

Most artificial lights, such as fluorescent lights and conventional LEDs, exhibit light with a different spectrum from natural sunlight. The light output of those devices typically has a higher peak of blue light when compared to sunlight. Even conventional LEDs with a high CRI (Color Rendering Index) of 90, have a significantly lower color quality than natural sunlight. The oversaturation of blue light produces a scattering effect, causing distortion in the color of objects and making it difficult to accurately identify their contrasts.

SunLike LED technology, on the other hand, produces light with superior color quality compared with conventional LEDs because the spectrum of SunLike LEDs closely matches that of natural sunlight. Conventional artificial lighting has applied the color rendering index (CRI) that evaluates color quality based on fluorescent lamps. However, as LED technology has advanced, it has exceeded the color quality of fluorescent lamps. As a result, new standards of color quality scales are being used. In particular, if the existing CRI (color rendering) was the mechanical color used for experiments and measurements, CQS is characterized by the expression of more natural colors that the human eye can perceive.
[...]
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http://markets.businessinsider.com/...trum-leds-illuminate-pompeii-ruins-1018251529

Addendum: As much as the topic of "LED lighting" has been 'discussed to death' in this string, mostly by myself, the above article indicates a huge leap in understanding why LEDs can be so 'wrong' for lighting.

Someone sent me this just now:
https://www.cnet.com/news/shining-a-light-on-high-cri-led-bulbs/

An excellent article supplementing the one I posted above, internet search to buttress a hunch I had on the physics of LED light (and the LASER factors shared) shows this, a remarkable insight into what's missing in a lot of LED installations: (Sections further down in the paper are devoted to LED)
Coherence properties of different light sources and their effect on the image sharpness and speckle of holographic displays
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5517614/

It's much in Union Station's favour that the 'light' is not yet installed. When done so, it should be forward compatible with the emerging improvements in the light source (bulbs?) as they become available. The structure and space deserve nothing less than to get this 'right'.

Something the above paper discusses is 'holography' and why some light sources are far better than others in that respect. The importance for a place like Union Station besides the visual joy? Depth perception.
 
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