Toronto Eaton Centre
The CF Toronto Eaton Centre,'' commonly referred to simply as the Eaton Centre, is a shopping mall and office complex in the downtown core of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is owned and managed by Cadillac Fairview. It was named after the Eaton's department store chain that once anchored it before the chain went defunct in the late 1990s.
The Toronto Eaton Centre attracts more visitors than any of Toronto's tourist attractions because it sits on top of two subway stations in downtown Toronto and is close to Union Station. It is North America's busiest shopping mall when one counts the daily commuters along with tourist traffic. The mall has over 230 stores and restaurants in 2014.
Location and access
The main portion of the Toronto Eaton Centre complex is bounded by Yonge Street on the east, Queen Street West on the south, Dundas Street West on the north, and to the west by James Street and Trinity Square. There are three office towers, while the main retail mall in the centre is organized around a long arcade, running parallel to Yonge Street. The mall's north street entrance is one level higher than the south street entrance, given that the mall is built over the former Taddle Creek and the mall is thus on a gentle slope.South of the main shopping arcade is the Hudson's Bay Queen Street complex, including the Simpson Tower offices and flagship location of the Hudson's Bay department store chain. Hudson's Bay Queen Street is connected to the main retail mall by a skywalk over Queen Street West and underground by Toronto's Path network, and has been managed as part of the Eaton Centre since 2014 after being purchased by Cadillac Fairview. Hudson's Bay Queen Street itself is bounded by Yonge Street to the east, Queen Street West to the north, Richmond Street West to the south, and Bay Street to the west.
The Toronto Eaton Centre's interior passages also form part of the Path underground pedestrian network, and the centre is served by two subway stations: TMU and Queen on Line 1 Yonge–University; TMU station is connected to Level 1 and Level 2, while Queen station is connected to Level 1. The complex also contains four office buildings and Toronto Metropolitan University's Ted Rogers School of Management. Additionally, the Toronto Eaton Centre is linked to a 17-storey Marriott hotel on Bay Street.
History
Early plans
founded a dry goods store on Yonge Street in the 19th century that revolutionized retailing in Canada and became the largest department store chain in the country. By the 20th century, the Eaton's 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, once the site of Timothy Eaton's first store, was occupied by Eaton's large Main Store, the Eaton's Annex 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 in the 1960s, 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 streets and the Eaton's College Street store a few blocks to the north.In the mid-1960s, Eaton's announced plans for a massive office and shopping complex that would occupy several city blocks. Eaton's sought to demolish Toronto's Old City Hall and the Church of the Holy Trinity. The plan required the closing of a number of small city streets within the block: Albert Street, Louisa Street, Terauley Street, James Street, Albert Lane, Downey's Lane and Trinity Square. At one point, even the Old City Hall clock tower was to be demolished. After a fierce local debate over the fate of the city hall and church buildings, Eaton's put its plans on hiatus in 1967.
The Eaton Centre plans were resuscitated in 1971, although these plans allowed for the preservation of Old City Hall. Controversy erupted anew, however, as the congregation of the Church of the Holy Trinity exhibited an increased willingness to fight the demolition plans for its church. Eventually, the Eaton Centre plans were revised to save Old City Hall and the church and then revised further when Holy Trinity's parishioners successfully 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 from the 1960s concept. First, the new Eaton's store was shifted north to Dundas Street, as the new store would be too large to be accommodated in its existing location on Queen Street as a result of the preservation of Old City Hall. This resulted in the mall being constructed with Eaton's and Simpson's acting as anchors at either end. The second significant change was the reduction in the size of the office component so that the Eaton Centre project no longer represented an attempt to extend the City's financial district north of Queen Street, as the Eaton family had 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 thus saved, as was the Salvation Army headquarters building by virtue of its location between the two other preserved buildings.
Name
At the time of the centre's opening in 1977, the complex was marketed as "The Eaton Centre", before changing its name to "Toronto Eaton Centre" in the early 1990s to disambiguate from other Eaton Centres across Canada.Despite the bankruptcy of the Eaton's department store chain in 1999, the mall retained the Eaton Centre name, representing an ongoing tribute to Timothy Eaton and the small shop he once opened at this location. However, as Sears retained the Eaton's trademarks and other intellectual property, the name was used under licence until December 2016, when mall owner Cadillac Fairview acquired the Eaton's IP outright.
In early 2014, mall management began an effort to enforce usage of the full "Toronto Eaton Centre" name. However, at that time, exterior signage was inconsistent as to the centre's name, with signs facing Sankofa Square simply reading "Eaton Centre" while several others used the full name. Soon after, in September 2015, Cadillac Fairview announced it was rebranding all of its mall properties by adding the prefix "CF"; thus, the complex has subsequently been referred to as "CF Toronto Eaton Centre" by its owners. This branding was phased in on signage over the following year as renovations in the former Sears wing concluded.
Construction
Eaton's partnered with the Cadillac Fairview development company and the Toronto-Dominion Bank in the construction of the Eaton Centre. The complex was designed by Eberhard Zeidler and Bregman + Hamann Architects as a multi-levelled, vaulted glass-ceiling galleria, modelled after the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan, Italy. At the time, the interior design of the Eaton Centre was considered revolutionary and influenced shopping centre architecture throughout North America.The first phase, including the nine-storey, Eaton's store, opened in 1977. The temporary wall at the south end was mirrored over its full height to give an impression of what the complete galleria would look like. The old Eaton's store at Yonge and Queen streets was then demolished and the south half of the complex opened in its place in 1979. The same year, the north end of the complex added a multiplex cinema, Cineplex, at the time the largest in the world with 18 screens.
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. Trinity Square, however, lost its public access to Yonge Street and became a pedestrian-only square with access via Bay Street.
The exterior of the Eaton Centre store was designed in the style of the 1970s, intended at that time to be a statement of Eaton's dominance and its aspirations. Urban planners and designers have lamented this original exterior design. The complex was oriented inwards, with very few street-facing 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 nine storey parking garage. At the insistence of the Metro Toronto government, which had jurisdiction over major roads and wanted right-of-way to add an additional lane to Yonge Street, the complex was set back a considerable distance from Yonge Street, thus further weakening the centre's streetscape presence.
The office component of the complex was constructed over the years, as follows:
- "One Dundas West" in 1977, designed by B+H Architects and Zeidler Partnership Architects;
- "Cadillac Fairview Tower" in 1982, designed by Bregman + Hamann Architects, and Zeidler Partnership Architects;
- "250 Yonge Street" in 1992, designed by Zeidler Partnership Architects, and Crang & Boake; and
- "Simpson Tower" at 401 Bay Street, completed in 1969 and became part of the Toronto Eaton Centre upon Cadillac Fairview's acquisition of the Hudson's Bay block in 2014.
Early years
One of the most prominent sights in the shopping mall is the group of fibreglass Canada geese hanging from the glass ceiling. This group of sculptures, named Flight Stop, is the work of Canadian 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 the Christmas season, without consulting Snow. Snow sued, arguing that the ribbons made his naturalistic work "ridiculous" and harmed his reputation as an artist, and in Snow v Eaton Centre Ltd, the court ruled that even though Eaton Centre Limited owned the sculpture, the ribbons had infringed Snow's moral rights. The ribbons were ordered removed.
File:Flight stop.jpg|thumb|The Eaton Centre features fibreglass Canada geese hanging from the ceiling, which is an art installation by Michael Snow. This installation is named Flight Stop.