On April 10, 2019, the Ontario government announced that Don Valley station, under its planned name Science Centre, would be the northern terminus for the proposed Ontario Line,[3] construction of which began in March 2022.[4]
Description
Main entrance to the station
This station's main entrance is located at the southwest corner of the intersection with Don Mills Road.[5] A secondary entrance is on the opposite northeast corner, with a new bus terminal stretching beyond that to Gervais Drive. The TTC bus terminal will have seven bus bays as well as on-street bus connections. An underground, accessible passage will link the bus terminal to the light rail transit concourse level, which will have retail spaces. The station will provide 30 outdoor and 30 indoor bicycle parking spaces.[1]
The underground Don Valley station was built using cut-and-cover method. The station is between two surface sections of the line. To travel under Don Mills Road, the line dips underground, passes through the station under the middle of Eglinton Avenue and re-emerges to the surface at the other side.[6] To the west of Don Valley station, there is a facing-point crossover just beyond the ramp descending to the station's west portal. To the east of the station, there is a double crossover on the ramp descending to the station's east portal.[7]
Architecture and artwork
The Line 5 station was designed by Arcadis, following an architectural concept designed by architects gh3* from Toronto and Daoust Lestage Lizotte Stecker from Montreal.[8][9] As with other stations on Line 5, architectural features include natural light from large windows and skylights, steel structures painted white, and orange accents (the colour of the line).[8]
As part of a program to install artworks at major interchange stations along Line 5 Eglinton, Don Valley station features an artwork titled Total Lunar Eclipse by British-American artist Sarah Morris. The artwork is a mural consisting of porcelain tiles that were silkscreened by hand. According to the artist, the artwork is a "wall painting" that "invites reflection on concepts of light, scale and motion through space".[10]
The station's main entrance has louvres in the glass panels above the doors. Metrolinx predicted that the louvres "will be a well-known and a distinctive part of the transit destination's look".[11]
Name
Main entrance of Don Valley station (then called Science Centre) under construction in January 2024
During the planning stages for Line 5 Eglinton, the station was given the working name Don Mills. In 2015, a report to the TTC Board recommended giving a unique name to each station in the subway system (including Line 5 Eglinton).[12] Thus, the station was named Science Centre to reflect its proximity to the Ontario Science Centre (similar to Museum station, which is adjacent to the Royal Ontario Museum) and to avoid confusion with the existing Don Mills station on Line 4 Sheppard.
In April 2023, the Ontario provincial government announced plans to move the Science Centre to Ontario Place (near the opposite terminus of the Ontario Line).[13] In June 2024, the government announced that the Science Centre would close permanently following an engineering report that cited a significant risk of roof collapse.[14]
Bus terminal under construction in January 2024Total Lunar Eclipse by Sarah Morris from the second level
On March 28, 2025, as a result of the closure, Metrolinx announced that the station would be renamed Don Valley to reflect the station's proximity to the Don Valley Parkway, the Don River, and the Don Valley itself. Other names considered for the station were Concorde, Industrial District, Olympia Square, Ferrand, and Don River.[15]
Don Valley is one of the Line 5 stations that was reported to have most excited developers.[16] On April 3, 2017, Urban Toronto reported that the City's planning department's initiative for the intersection had been named Don Mills Crossing, while it would be accompanied by a plan for nearby properties, in 2018.
Northbound to Steeles Avenue East via Don Mills station and southbound to Broadview station (On-street connection)
325
Don Mills
Blue Night service; northbound to Steeles Avenue East and southbound to Commissioners Street (On-street connection)
334A
Eglinton
Blue Night service; eastbound to Kennedy station and westbound to Renforth Drive and Pearson Airport (On-street connection)
334B
Blue Night service; eastbound to Finch Avenue East and Neilson Road via Morningside Avenue and westbound to Mount Dennis station (On-street connection)
354
Lawrence East
Blue Night service; eastbound to Starspray Boulevard and westbound to Eglinton station (On-street connection)
↑Bateman, Chris (August 6, 2014). "Crosstown LRT spurs massive redevelopment proposal". blogTO. Retrieved January 12, 2017. An underground stop on the Eglinton-Crosstown LRT is due to be built on the southwest corner of Eglinton and Don Mills
↑Lestage, Daoust. "Eglinton Crosstown LRT – Design excellence – Daoust Lestage". Retrieved February 22, 2026. Daoust Lestage inc. (Fairbank Station) DIALOG and Arcadis (Forest Hill, Chaplin and Avenue Stations) Arcadis (Mount Dennis, Keelesdale, Oakwood, Eglinton, Leaside, Laird, Science Centre and Kennedy Stations and At-grade Stops) NORR (Caledonia, Cedarvale and Mount Pleasant Stations)
↑"Line 5 Eglinton Station Names"(PDF). Board Presentation. Toronto Transit Commission. November 23, 2015. Archived from the original(PDF) on November 26, 2019. Retrieved January 12, 2017. TTC staff evaluated the initial report and the proposed names and provided feedback and recommendations. A primary TTC concern was to avoid replication and redundancy with existing TTC station names. The proposed names are unique and are not likely to be confused with existing station names.
↑
Julian Mirabelli (April 3, 2017). "Big Plans in Store for the Transformation of Don Mills & Eglinton". Urban Toronto. Retrieved April 4, 2017. First, City Planning is undertaking a comprehensive planning study of the area they have named Don Mills Crossing, encompassing the four corners of the intersection while considering the neighbourhoods beyond, for which a Secondary Plan will be introduced in 2018.
