Why the original stations of Vancouver's SkyTrain and Vienna's U-Bahn look alike | Daily Hive

Cut from the same Austrian mold: How Vancouver's original SkyTrain stations followed Vienna U-Bahn's design templates

A Vienna U-Bahn Line 1 station (left) and Vancouver SkyTrain's Stadium-Chinatown Station (right). (Architektengruppe U-Bahn | Kenneth Chan)

When Metro Vancouver opened its groundbreaking SkyTrain system on Dec. 11, 1985, just months before the opening of the transportation-themed Expo ’86 World’s Fair, it was a cutting-edge showcase of fully automated, driverless urban rail rapid transit technology — one of the largest systems of its kind in the world at the time.

The region’s first SkyTrain line — officially named the Expo Line in 2002, when the opening of the Millennium Line required distinct line names beyond simply calling everything “the SkyTrain” — was actually constructed in continuous phases between 1982 and 1994.

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The initial phase built in time for Expo ’86 spanned between Waterfront Station and New Westminster, with construction on the subsequent phases beginning just after the World’s Fair — with construction to Columbia Station reaching completion in 1989, across the Fraser River to Scott Road Station in 1991, and then to King George Station in 1994.

skytrain expo line 1980s vintage rendering

Early 1980s conceptual artistic rendering of SkyTrain’s Nanaimo Station. (Architektengruppe U-Bahn)

Early 1980s conceptual artistic rendering of an Expo Line SkyTrain station. (Architektengruppe U-Bahn)

In 2016, the routes of the Expo and Millennium lines were reconfigured and recalibrated to optimally accommodate the opening of the Millennium Line’s Evergreen extension, with the 2002-built original segment of the Millennium Line between Columbia Station and Lougheed Town Centre Station reclassified as the Expo Line, and overlapping with a segment of the Millennium Line between Lougheed Town Centre Station and Production Way-University Station. Ever since, Expo Line outbound trains terminate at King George Station or Production Way-University Station.

Currently under construction, the Expo Line will see its single largest extension ever — the 16-km-long Surrey-Langley SkyTrain extension between King George Station and Langley City Centre, adding eight stations to the system.

It is increasingly evident that today’s newly built stations, as well as major renovations of older ones, feature designs and layouts that differ significantly from those of the original 1980s-era SkyTrain stations — not only from changing best practices, such as considerations for materials, accessibility, the optimal circulation flow of passengers inside the station, and security and Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) principles, but also from architectural expression.

1986 condition of SkyTrain’s New Westminster Station. (Architektengruppe U-Bahn)

1986 condition of an Expo Line SkyTrain station. (Architektengruppe U-Bahn)

SkyTrain is widely acknowledged as a North American leader in rail rapid transit — due to its high ridership, ability to shift people away from private car use, and its role in catalyzing high-density, transit-oriented development — and this success is largely attributed to the system’s competitive travel times, high operating speeds, frequent service, and reliability, made possible by driverless trains operating on a fully grade-separated right-of-way.

Yet, despite this recognition, the architectural and design roots of the original Expo Line stations are often overlooked, even though they played a key role in shaping the identity and experience of the system.

What many passengers might not realize is that the look and feel of the earliest SkyTrain stations were directly inspired not by Canadian or even North American public transit models, but by Europe — specifically, the Vienna U-Bahn metro rail rapid transit network in Austria.

Vienna U-Bahn. (Architektengruppe U-Bahn)

Vienna U-Bahn. (Darryl Dela Cruz/submitted)

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Granville Station on SkyTrain Expo Line. (Macklin Holloway/Shutterstock)

SkyTrain’s Burrard Station. (Kenneth Chan)

SkyTrain’s Burrard Station. (Kenneth Chan)

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SkyTrain’s Expo Line platforms at Commercial-Broadway Station. (Kenneth Chan)

The provincial government, through BC Transit — which operated Metro Vancouver’s public transit system at the time, until its Metro Vancouver division was spun off into the separate, regionally controlled agency TransLink in 1998 — selected the Austrian firm Architektengruppe U-Bahn (AGU) as one of the designers of the original SkyTrain stations. At the time, AGU had recently contributed to the design of the first modern stations on the Vienna U-Bahn.

When the decision was made in the early 1980s to partner with AGU, this specialized architectural firm was founded just over a decade earlier by the consortium that won the bid to build Vienna’s first U-Bahn line.

For Vienna, AGU developed a design concept template and established a set of standardized architectural and material principles that marked a significant evolution in the design of underground, at-grade, and elevated stations — principles that would later greatly influence the architectural character of Vancouver’s early SkyTrain network.

Vienna U-Bahn. (Darryl Dela Cruz/submitted)

Howe Street entrance for Waterfront Station on SkyTrain’s Expo Line. (Mae Pon/Shutterstock)

Howe Street entrance for Waterfront Station on SkyTrain’s Expo Line. (Alexandre Rosa/Shutterstock)

Between 1982 and 1986, the Austrian firm worked very closely with Vancouver-based Allen Parker & Associates to create the design of the Expo Line’s first 15 stations — between Waterfront Station and New Westminster Station — that were functional, durable, and unique for North America at the time.

This project was a rare early case where a Canadian public transit system took direct design inspiration from a European city, bringing a distinct European feel to revitalizing rail-based public transit in Metro Vancouver — after the streetcar network was fully decommissioned a quarter century earlier.

Vienna’s early U‑Bahn stations are known for human-scaled, minimalist modernist design, efficient layouts, and distinctive architectural elements — many of which found their way into Vancouver’s early SkyTrain stations. Photos of Vienna’s original stations, taken by local public transit advocate Darryl Dela Cruz earlier this year and shared with Daily Hive Urbanized, highlight the striking similarities with the early Expo Line stations.

Standardized designs and materials also helped enable the expedited construction of the Expo Line’s first 21-km-long phase with 15 stations in time for the World’s Fair; Main Street-Science World Station with a one-km-long prototype demonstration SkyTrain line along Terminal Avenue reached completion in 1983 after one year of construction work, while the remaining 20 km and 14 additional stations were built from Summer 1983 to late 1985.

Vienna U-Bahn. (Darryl Dela Cruz/submitted)

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Blueprints for SkyTrain’s original Expo Line stations completed in 1985. (Vaughan Hoy Works)

Today, visually unique elements such as rounded structural forms and hoop-truss architecture are still visible in stations such as Waterfront, Burrard, Stadium-Chinatown, Nanaimo, 29th Avenue, Patterson, Royal Oak, Edmonds, and 22nd Street, echoing the curved beams and archways seen in Vienna’s U1 and U4 lines. At-grade and elevated stations also featured a Vienna-style canopy with rounded edges and supports.

However, Cruz told Daily Hive Urbanized that differences in cleaning and maintenance practices appear to have led to a noticeable divergence over time.

Despite being built around the same period, Vienna’s earliest U‑Bahn stations and Vancouver’s earliest SkyTrain stations now look quite different in terms of their condition. According to Cruz, Vienna’s original U-Bahn stations have been remarkably well maintained, remaining visually close to their original, opening-day condition — even decades later. In contrast, the same cannot be said for Vancouver’s earliest SkyTrain stations, which show much more visible signs of aging, wear, grime, and dirt and train dust.

As well, over the past decade, parts of these Vienna-inspired design features have disappeared from major station renovations and expansions — at stations like Commercial-Broadway, Metrotown, and Joyce-Collingwood, and especially Main Street-Science World and New Westminster.

A recently completed maintenance project of Stadium-Chinatown Station also replaced its strikingly-designed original rounded vaulted skylights above the open mezzanine level and exterior station awnings with comparatively conventional peaked flat-surface frosted glass panels. Over time, the original skylights became deficient.

As the lead firm overseeing the overall station designs, siting, and shaping of the built forms for the original Expo Line stations, local architectural firm Allen Parker & Associates also made significant contributions — most notably the peaked glass canopy and the intricate terraced landscaping of Burrard Station.

Early 1980s conceptual artistic rendering of SkyTrain’s Burrard Station. (Architektengruppe U-Bahn)

1986 condition of SkyTrain’s Burrard Station. (Architektengruppe U-Bahn)

2021 condition; blossoming trees at SkyTrain’s Burrard Station. (Shawn.ccf/Shutterstock)

Graham McGarva, a founding principal of Baker McGarva Hart (later renamed VIA Architecture and, more recently, Perkins Eastman following a merger), told Daily Hive Urbanized that the landmark elements of this station next to Bentall Centre were designed by the late Alan Hart.

Burrard Station “was conceived as a proud but humble pavilion, nestled into an urban park, and has matured well over the decades — other than now needing equally sensitive expansion to address its vastly increased ridership.” However, in 2022, a major expansion project of Burrard Station was suddenly cancelled due to major cost escalation and the pandemic’s impact on TransLink’s finances, with the public transit authority instead proceeding with a far smaller interim project — a full replacement of the original escalators as a pressing reliability upgrade of the station’s ingress and egress capacity.

McGarva further described Burrard Station being a standout design, an outlier differentiating from the U-Bahn templates. “The Viennese stations could only wish their own urban design virtuosity, was as modestly rich as this Vancouver accomplishment. Integrative collaboration marked the heyday of Vancouver’s emergence of urban design excellence from the seventies to the early millennium.”

In 2013, the landscaped areas of Burrard Station’s city block, long admired for their springtime blossoms, were officially named Art Phillips Park after Vancouver’s late 32nd mayor.

The post-World’s Fair stations on the subsequent phases of the Expo Line in New Westminster and Surrey through 1994 also carried forward some of the early standardized design principles made by the Vienese architects for the first phase, but to a lesser extent.

Vienna U-Bahn. (Darryl Dela Cruz/submitted)

skytrain stadium chinatown station platform f

Expo Line platforms at SkyTrain’s Stadium-Chinatown Station. (Kenneth Chan)

Nanaimo Station on SkyTrain’s Expo Line. (Kenneth Chan)

Unlike the standardized and uniform architectural approach of the earlier Expo Line stations, the original Millennium Line stations, built in the early 2000s, embraced a distinctly diverse and expressive design.

Instead of using a single cookie-cutter template for all stations, TransLink commissioned a number of Canadian architectural design companies, each tasked with designing unique stations that would stand out as individual landmarks.

McGarva shared that Hart, who would later become his partner at Baker McGarva Hart, became the chief architect coordinating the original Millennium Line stations. He credits Hart for expanding “the creative opportunity of transit architecture, by championing the work of other architects for the Millennium Line.”

This individualistic approach resulted in a collection of stations, each with its own architectural character and identity — from sleek, modernist glass structures and the incorporation of wood materials for a uniquely West Coast look to bold steel forms and striking rooflines.

The most iconic among them, arguably, is Brentwood Town Centre Station, designed by Busby + Associates Architects (now known as Perkins&Will) — a standout award-winning design for its elegant glass enclosure, sweeping wooden structural components and ceiling, and overall sculpted design.

skytrain brentwood town centre station rendering

Early 2000s rendering of SkyTrain’s Brentwood Town Centre Station. (TransLink)

skytrain brentwood town centre station upgrades march 2025

Completed upgrades of SkyTrain’s Brentwood Town Centre Station, as seen on March 22, 2025. (Kenneth Chan)

Platform level of SkyTrain’s Brentwood Town Centre Station. (Kenneth Chan)

A very high degree of standardization and minimalism returned to new SkyTrain station designs later in the 2000s for the Canada Line, mostly for cost-conscious reasons (for both construction costs and ongoing maintenance costs).

But there were some notable exceptions to this practice — specifically, for Templeton Station and YVR Airport Station, which both broke from the slim budget mold with more expressive, individualistic designs funded by Vancouver Airport Authority.

When the Evergreen extension of the Millennium Line opened in 2016, that mold was broken once again. The design approach struck a balance between the Canada Line’s cost-conscious standardization and the original Millennium Line’s individuality.

While there was still an effort to maintain efficiency and coherence across the Evergreen extension stations, each one was also given enough unique character to stand as a landmark within its own area — reviving the spirit of the original Millennium Line’s diverse architectural identity. The same can also be said for the 2024-built Capstan Station on the Canada Line.

Templeton Station on SkyTrain’s Canada Line. (Kenneth Chan)

Moody Centre Station on SkyTrain’s Millennium Line Evergreen extension. (Kenneth Chan)

skytrain canada line capstan station opening day december 20 2024

Dec. 20, 2024, opening day of SkyTrain Canada Line’s Capstan Station. (Kenneth Chan)

Looking to the future, there will be a noticeable degree of standardization in the design of the six subway stations along the Millennium Line’s Broadway Extension, slated to open in Fall 2027.

However, this approach is even more pronounced in the design of the eight elevated stations on the Expo Line’s Surrey–Langley extension, expected to open by late 2029. The finalized station designs for this extension reflect a return to the principles of the 1980s-era Expo Line: a focus on functionality, clarity, and cost-efficiency, paired with a clean, minimalist aesthetic. That said, the artistic renderings still manage to show thoughtful station designs that feel inviting, warm, and human-scaled, representing a highly contemporary and West Coast interpretation of standardization that prioritizes both usability and architectural simplicity.

One of the few individualized design features in the upcoming eight stations of the Expo Line extension is, interestingly, also a form of standardization. Each station will feature distinctly coloured glass panels, strategically installed near elevators and along platform waiting areas.

These glass panels serve a dual purpose: they create a visually enhanced arrival experience for passengers and provide an informal system of wayfinding. The coloured glass will be visible both from the train and from the platform, allowing frequent SkyTrain passengers to associate each station with its own colour — adding a subtle yet effective layer of navigational clarity without the need for additional signage.

The selected colour for the glass panels of each station is said to be based on the neighbourhood’s local landscape, history, and surroundings.

green timbers station surrey langley skytrain

November 2024 revised design for Green Timbers Station on the Surrey-Langley SkyTrain extension. (Government of BC)

152 street station surrey langley skytrain

November 2024 revised design for 152 Street Station on the Surrey-Langley SkyTrain extension. (Government of BC)

fleetwood station surrey langley skytrain

November 2024 revised design for Fleetwood Station on the Surrey-Langley SkyTrain extension. (Government of BC)

bakerview-166 street station surrey langley skytrain

November 2024 revised design for Bakerview-166 Street Station on the Surrey-Langley SkyTrain extension. (Government of BC)

hillcrest-184 street station surrey langley skytrain

November 2024 revised design for Hillcrest-184 Street Station on the Surrey-Langley SkyTrain extension. (Government of BC)

November 2024 revised design for Clayton Station on the Surrey-Langley SkyTrain extension. (Government of BC)

willowbrook station surrey langley skytrain

November 2024 revised design for Willowbrook Station on the Surrey-Langley SkyTrain extension. (Government of BC)

langley city centre station surrey langley skytrain

November 2024 revised design for Langley City Centre Station on the Surrey-Langley SkyTrain extension. (Government of BC)

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