Toronto Eaton Centre (Ongoing Renewal) | ?m | ?s | Cadillac Fairview | Zeidler

Don't let your pre-hatred for this project influence your opinion at all.... Really? Do you really think those plastic supports are permanent? Common...

The finished product is actually quite beautiful. The stainless steel trims and rounded glass look very refined and clean. I like it.

This photo doesn't show the railings. Go have a look at the South end of the mall where they're finished. Better yet, let's wait until all the work has been done before judging.
 
Hairy Yeti Poo Balls said:
Are you sure those supports aren't permanent? Why would they place those there temporarily?
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They're there until they add the railing which holds everything together. Even without knowing that, is it not obvious that they're temporary by their mere misalignment in relation to one another and common... do you think they'd go through all that trouble and expenditure to use curved glass only to ruin the aesthetic with bulky plastic joints whose function could be accomplished by relatively cheap stainless steel? Anyway, the point is moot. They're temporary.

This is not the best picture to point out what is being done. Go down there and you'll see. The new glass and stainless steel railings are quite nice.
 
I have no doubt that they are "nice." The question is does it fit with the overall aesthetic of the building or detract from it. It's just like the glass railings in every other new mall project. One less thing making the eaton's centre distinctive.
 
^ I agree. The Eaton Centre is special and therefore should not be striving to look more like generic suburban malls.
 
Despite losing some elements that are characteristic of the Eaton Centre, I'm very happy that Cadillac Fairview has decided to invest in it.

I've watched in sadness as malls made massive investments into renewal and expansion (i.e. Yorkdale) while Toronto's iconic downtown shopping centre continued to look tired and abandoned.

The foodcourts were my primary target and they're getting fixed. The floors and rails with gunked on layers of paint were second. They're also getting fixed. I'm a happy guy.

Other improvements not noted here yet:

-- The exposed ventilation pipes are being painted white instead of the very 70's off white/yellow. Very fresh looking.
-- The elevators have some sort of framing on them. I'm going to guess that they're recladding them in the stainless steel and glass theme that is being applied to the rails.
 
MetroMan said:
Despite losing some elements that are characteristic of the Eaton Centre, I'm very happy that Cadillac Fairview has decided to invest in it.

I've watched in sadness as malls made massive investments into renewal and expansion (i.e. Yorkdale) while Toronto's iconic downtown shopping centre continued to look tired and abandoned.

The foodcourts were my primary target and they're getting fixed. The floors and rails with gunked on layers of paint were second. They're also getting fixed. I'm a happy guy.

Other improvements not noted here yet:

-- The exposed ventilation pipes are being painted white instead of the very 70's off white/yellow. Very fresh looking.
-- The elevators have some sort of framing on them. I'm going to guess that they're recladding them in the stainless steel and glass theme that is being applied to the rails.
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Ah, but MetroMan, explain why a more restorative approach to the existing 70s aesthetic couldn't be even more "fresh looking"--especially now that retro-70s is more "in" than ever.

IOW stop looking at Eaton Centre as a simple-minded "mall", and start looking at it in terms of being a pre-existing architectural landmark--for that matter, if you retrospectively did likewise re Yorkdale's "massive investments into renewal and expansion", maybe you'd grasp how certain aspects of the "renewal" are heavy-handed or worse, esp. re the 1964-era interiors...
 
Hairy Yeti Poo Balls said:
The nicest mall in the city is suburban (Yorkdale).
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I agree. It has the most beautiful ceilings I've seen in any shopping mall, anywhere. Many people don't notice them, but they and other details contribute to the overall beautiful appearance of Yorkdale.

Yorkdale opened in the 60s, the largest mall in the world then. Continued investment has kept it up to date and looking fresh. I may have lost a lot of its original elements but a shopping centre is an evolving animal. It needs to keep up to continue to attract traffic. Malls that don't renew end up looking old and tired and shoppers flock to the newest mall in town.

The Eaton Centre fell into a catch 22: maintain the original architecture or continue fresh and relevant. I'm glad they made the right decision. Declining to stay modern would have ended up in customers flocking to the new suburban malls and abandoning the Eaton Centre. I think the preservationists would have ended up in a worse situaton: an abandoned mall would eventually be a demolished mall.
 
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MetroMan said:
The Eaton Centre fell into a catch 22: maintain the original architecture or continue fresh and relevant. I'm glad they made the right decision. Declining to stay modern would have ended up in customers flocking to the new suburban malls and abandoning the Eaton Centre. I think the preservationists would have ended up in a worse situaton: an abandoned mall would eventually be a demolished mall.
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Not really. Any good mall can keep its distinctive design elements intact while making renovations keeping the spirit of the original design alive. The trick to keeping it looking fresh is making enhancements in the way of more exotic materials, furniture, and better finishes in general. That's an approach that's more evolutionary than revolutionary.
 
And besides, it takes more than "dated aesthetics" to trigger an abandoned mall. So, re

Declining to stay modern would have ended up in customers flocking to the new suburban malls and abandoning the Eaton Centre.
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...uh, Toronto isn't exactly St Louis, or name-your-Canuckistani-city-with-a-failed-Eaton-Centre-wannabe. An Apple store can coexist quite nicely with the original EC aesthetic; the latter doesn't need to be cattle-prodded into something more self-consciously au courant.

And, MetroMan, since you're talking about new suburban malls here (and why do you write like you're on some mall-developer's payroll?), keep in mind the demographic you're referring to. By this measure: ultimately, the "must do" argument for these kinds of Eaton Centre makeovers is more of an asinine piece with Rob Ford's nuke-the-streetcars logic, or with the kinds of idjits who think Yonge Street should be plowed down and rebuilt wholesale. By your logic, a 50s Don Mills bungalow would be unmarketable if it weren't torn down or drastically made over...
 
Dirt and debris was getting kicked through the old railings and falling on people / their food in the food court seating area below. This was a problem during periods of heavy foot traffic and during winter, when everyone has wet street junk stuck to their boots.

I think that's the only improvement these new glass and steel railings will offer over the original, more distinctive railings. And that's only for the south end. They are totally irrelevant in other areas of the mall. There was nothing dated about them; they were as timeless as other architectural/structural elements. For the most part, they're doing a good job maintaining a reasonable balance between the interior refresh and maintaining Zeidler's original aesthetic, but replacing the railings was another unfortunate step towards what will eventually become a hodge-podge of poorly-considered "improvements" that are really just degradations of the overall design.

They didn't need to be modernized, just like the south tower entrance didn't need to be modernized with materials alien to the rest of the building and windows that don't even line up with the mall.
 
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Saw the completed railings for myself this weekend and think they look much better than what was there before. I don't see what all the fuss is about. Its a minor detail, and actually looks good.
 
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