Toronto Eaton Centre
The Toronto Eaton Centre is a large shopping mall and office complex in downtown Toronto, Ontario Canada. It is bounded by Yonge Street on the east, Queen Street West on the south, Dundas Street West on the north, and buildings on the east side of Bay Street on the west. Its interior passages also form part of Toronto's PATH underground pedestrian network, and the centre is served by two TTC stations: Dundas and Queen. The complex contains three office buildings, at 20 Queen Street West, 250 Yonge Street and Additionally, the centre is linked via skywalk over Queen Street to The Bay (formerly Simpson's).
History
Prior to the construction of the Eaton Centre, the Eaton's department store chain owned most of the land bounded by Yonge, Queen, Bay and Dundas streets, with the notable exceptions of Old City Hall and the Church of the Holy Trinity. The Eaton's land was occupied by Eaton's Main Store and a number of related mail order and factory buildings. As the chain's warehouse and support operations were increasingly shifting to cheaper suburban locales, Eaton's wanted to make better use of its valuable downtown landholdings. In particular, the chain wanted to build a massive new flagship store to replace the aging Main Store at Yonge and Queen and the Eaton's College Street store a few blocks to the north.
In the 1960s, early plans for the centre called for the demolition of both Old City Hall and the Church of the Holy Trinity, as well as the closing of a number of small city streets within the above-noted block (Albert Street, Louisa Street, Terauley Street, James Street, Albert Lane, Downey's Lane and Trinity Square). Local opposition eventually lead to the revision of the plans so as to save the Old City Hall clock tower, but not the rest of the city hall building. After a fierce local debate (during which Old City Hall had both its supporters, but also many detractors), Eaton's put its plans on hiatus.
The Eaton Centre plans were resuscitated in the early 1970s, thus reigniting the debate over the fate of Old City Hall. The congregation of the Church of the Holy Trinity also exhibited an increased willingness to fight the demolition plans. Eventually, the Eaton Centre plans were revised to save both Old City Hall and the church, and then revised further when Holy Trinity's parishioners succesfully fought to ensure that the new complex would not block all sunlight to the church.
These amendments to the plans resulted in three significant changes to the proposed centre. First, the new Eaton's store was shifted north to Dundas Street, as the new store would be too large to be accomodated in its traditional location on Queen Street (opposite its rival Simpson's) due to the preservation of City Hall. Fortuitously, this resulted in the mall being constructed with Eaton's and Simpson's acting as anchors at either end. The second sigificant change was the reduction in the size of the office component, so that the Eaton Centre project no longer represented an attempt to shift the City's financial district north of Queen Street, as the Eaton Family had originally contemplated in the 1960s. Finally, the bulk of the centre was shifted east to the Yonge Street frontage, and the complex was designed so that it no longer had any frontage along Bay Street. Old City Hall and the Church were saved, as was the Salvation Army headquarters building by virtue of its location between the the two other preserved builings (although the Salvation Army building was eventually demolished in the late 1990s to make way for an Eaton Centre expansion).
Construction
Eaton's partnered with the Cadillac Fairview development company in the construction of the Eaton Centre. The compex was designed by Eberhard Zeidler as a multi-levelled, glass-roofed galleria, modelled after the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan, Italy. At the time, the interior design of the Eaton Centre was considered quite revolutionary and influenced shopping centre architecture throughout North America.
The first phase, including the nine-storey, 1,000,000 square foot (100,000 square metre) Eaton's store, opened in 1977. The south half of the complex (replacing the old Eaton's store at Yonge and Queen) was opened in 1979, along with a cinema (now closed) that boasted 18 screens, at the time the largest multiplex in the world. The Eaton Centre reprsented one of North America's first downtown shopping malls.
Terauley Street, Louisa Street, Downey's Lane and Albert Lane were closed and disappeared from the city street grid to make way for the new complex. Albert Street and James Street were preserved only to the extent of their frontage around Old City Hall (although the city of Toronto required that pedestrians be able to cross through the mall where Albert Street once existed, at any time 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and pedestrians still enjoy this right today). Trinity Square lost its public access to Yonge Street, and became a pedestrian-only square with access via Bay Street.
Many urban planers and designers have long lamented the original exterior design of the Eaton Centre. The complex was oriented inwards, with very few street-related retail stores, windows or even mall entrances to animate the exterior. Much of the Yonge Street façade, facing what was once one of Toronto's primary shopping thoroughfares, was dominated by a parking garage. At the insistence of the city of Toronto, the complex was set back a considerable distance from Yonge Street, thus further weakening the centre's streetscape presence.
Eaton Centre Today
Despite the criticisms, the centre was an immediate success. In fact, the mall profits were said to be so lucrative that the success of the Eaton Centre has often been credited with keeping the troubled Eaton's chain afloat for another two decades before it finally succumbed to bankruptcy in 1999. Today, the Eaton Centre is one of North America's top shopping destinations, and is Toronto's most popular tourist attraction, attracting over a million visitors a week.
One of the most prominent sights in the shopping mall is the group of fibre glass Canada Geese hanging from the ceiling. This sculpture, named Flight Stop, is the work of artist Michael Snow. It was also the subject of an important intellectual property court ruling. One year, the management of the centre decided to decorate the geese with red ribbons for Christmas, without consulting Snow. Snow objected arguing that the ribbons made his naturalistic work "ridiculous" and harmed his reputation as an artist. Snow sued and in Snow v The Eaton Centre the court ruled that even though the Centre owned the sculpture, the ribbons had infringed Snow's moral rights. The ribbons were ordered removed.
In recent years, the Eaton Centre's owners have redesigned the mall's Yonge Street façade, bringing it closer to the street and making it more closely resemble an urban shopping district, with stores opening directly onto the street, and presenting a variety of façades to create the perception of an urban streetscape. Further redevelopments, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, added new retail space at the northeast corner (Yonge and Dundas intersection) of the mall (housing H&M's Canadian flagship store), and to the west side of the complex opposite Albert Street. There are now about 330 stores in the retail complex, which encompasses about 1,600,000 square feet (150,000 m²), making it possibly the largest downtown shopping centre in North America.
Currently, a further expansion is underway in the northwest corner of the property that will include more retail space, a new parking garage and the new School of Business for Ryerson University. This expansion is set to open in 2006.
With the demise of the Eaton's chain, the department store space at the north end of the mall is now occupied by Sears Canada. Nonetheless, the complex retains the Eaton Centre name, representing an ongoing tribute to Timothy Eaton and the small shop he opened at this location.
Other Eaton Centres
For a discussion of Eaton Centre malls constructed in other cities across Canada, see Eaton Centre (Canada).