The Tenor (10 Dundas St E, Ent Prop Trust, 10s, Baldwin & Franklin)

[Hydrogen]

C'mon guys. Let's be more global.

Comparing three downtown Toronto malls that have evolved and unfolded over time independently of one and other to something that has been developed as a national showpiece is kinda like comparing apples and oranges. Siam Paragon was created as a showpiece and carefully located in order to enhance the status of Bangkok as both a shopping and entertainment destination in Asia. I don't think the developers of the Toronto malls in question were so ambitious.

 

[adma]

Under the circumstances, you might as well point to Las Vegas as "more global", too...

 

[Pfloyd]

yeah



1) They certainly appear impressive, but I'm having trouble finding a store directory on the website. What I'm looking for, aside from the small luxury complex, are actual upmarket stores. Am I going to find retail equivalent to Williams-Sonoma and Tiffany's, or is it more along the lines of Payless Shoes and Xia Thao's Bargain Jewelry & Trinkets?

2) In fact, this was originally a discussion about how urban these inner-city malls like TLS actually are, so bringing up Soho, Rodeo, and Oxford St. brings us back to the original discussion, and is therefore more to the point, so I win.

No, you don't win.
Firstly, let me hold your hand again to find the store directory:
go to http://www.siamparagon.co.th/v3/index2.html
Then on the left, click on shopping guide, then on directory.
To the right you will find store list per level. Click on MF the luxury. The list is pretty much who's who in high fashion, basically Bloor/Yorkville in one floor and more because a number of those stores you won't even find anywhere in Toronto. Then you can go back to directory and check out the rest of the levels/stores just for fun. Got it?

 

[Pfloyd]

Under the circumstances, you might as well point to Las Vegas as "more global", too...

What I meant about being more global, was about being more aware of what's out there internationally before making uninformed grand statements. Caltrane was talking about Yonge/Dundas being unique in density and concentration of downtown malls, when in fact it's not the case, not even close.
Then Irishmonk was comparing it to Montreal's downtown malls, when that city is a much smaller player than Toronto in the subject...
And I haven't even mention cities like Tokyo...
Your bringing up Las Vegas (clearly a fake sprawling town in every respect) is unnecessary.

 

[Tewder]

Don't forget Trocadero in London or Les Halles in Paris. Then of course there are the urban forerunners of the shopping mall which were the shopping arcades such as Burlington Arcade in London and the Gallerie Vivienne in Paris. To me, the spirit of the Eaton Centre in Toronto is much more along the lines of an urban arcade than of a mall per se, which is partially defined as a suburban/car phenomenon.

 

[Urban Shocker]

... though the Eaton Centre was a deliberate attempt to recreate the success of places such as Yorkdale in order to make bigger profits off of the downtown location - to bring a suburban model downtown.

 

[grey]

No, you don't win.
Firstly, let me hold your hand again to find the store directory:
go to http://www.siamparagon.co.th/v3/index2.html
Then on the left, click on shopping guide, then on directory.
To the right you will find store list per level. Click on MF the luxury. The list is pretty much who's who in high fashion, basically Bloor/Yorkville in one floor and more because a number of those stores you won't even find anywhere in Toronto. Then you can go back to directory and check out the rest of the levels/stores just for fun. Got it?

Got it, thanks. Looks neat.

Now let me hold your hand through the reason why I win: the size of the mall is irrelevant, as is the quality of retail, which was just personal curiousity on my part, and a digression from the actual topic, which was the status of typically suburban shopping malls within the fabric of the urban environment, as Hydrogen, adma, tewder, and US have been discussing above. If we were discussing how pedestrian-friendly the area around the mall was, then this would be more in line with the original discussion.

To me, the spirit of the Eaton Centre in Toronto is much more along the lines of an urban arcade than of a mall per se, which is partially defined as a suburban/car phenomenon.

That's true, and I'm pretty sure I remember reading somewhere that the Eaton Centre's design was actually inspired by Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan, which is a glass-vaulted arcade.

 

[adma]

No, you don't win.
Firstly, let me hold your hand again to find the store directory:
go to http://www.siamparagon.co.th/v3/index2.html
Then on the left, click on shopping guide, then on directory.
To the right you will find store list per level. Click on MF the luxury. The list is pretty much who's who in high fashion, basically Bloor/Yorkville in one floor and more because a number of those stores you won't even find anywhere in Toronto. Then you can go back to directory and check out the rest of the levels/stores just for fun. Got it?

"Oooh! Aaah! Lookit me! I'm luxurious! I'm high-fashion!" If anything, it highlights more how ironically parvenu this particular notion of luxury/high fashion as the be-all and end-all of urbanity is--which is where my Vegas comparison doesn't hit far from the mark. As a "high fashion" benchmark goes, this is more Celine Dion than Leslie Feist...

 

[caltrane74]

Has the sign under the Jack Astors restaruant been installed yet? - Looks like it will be a relatively large sign when completed.

 

[grey]

I just looked out the window and there's no sign of it yet.

 

[Hypnotoad]

^^ hardy-har-har.

Will they ever install that light column on the pole near the south-east corner? Or is that feature of victim of the cheapeningtm?

 

[SP!RE]

It's horrible how they left that column feature uncovered. The cladding is so cheap, and whenever I've been on the Jack Astor's patio, it jumps out at me as a useless design feature. (Unless it was lighted up... with lighting it would actually be a functional design feature.)

 

[whatever]

How would a purely architectural light make it functional? Is it too dark to read the menus out on the patio?

 

[khris]

^^ hardy-har-har.

Will they ever install that light column on the pole near the south-east corner? Or is that feature of victim of the cheapeningtm?

I asked that question many pages back I'm also very curious.

 

[Ahab]

I was walking by the building on the west side of Yonge Street today and noticed for the first time the incredible amount of noise coming from it. I think the source of all this noise was the rooftop cooler. I actually found the noise to be pretty offensive and disruptive of my enjoyment of the usual urban street noise.