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

The old railings are still installed on the North part of the mall across from Sears. In the absence of an existing example, nostalgia always makes things seem nicer, but looking at them in person, I reaffirmed my gratitude for the updates.

The original railings look cheap and poorly manufactured in an era where cheap workmanship ruled. It was a time of transition from the detailed and time consuming workmanship of the early 20th century to the cheap, mass produced pre-built stuff of the 21st. Today, we've developed methods to mass produce and manufacture elements of buildings, yet keep them looking detailed, precise and beautiful. This is what the new elements are.

I look forward to a refreshed Eaton Centre.
 
MetroMan said:
The old railings are still installed on the North part of the mall across from Sears. In the absence of an existing example, nostalgia always makes things seem nicer, but looking at them in person, I reaffirmed my gratitude for the updates.

The original railings look cheap and poorly manufactured in an era where cheap workmanship ruled. It was a time of transition from the detailed and time consuming workmanship of the early 20th century to the cheap, mass produced pre-built stuff of the 21st. Today, we've developed methods to mass produce and manufacture elements of buildings, yet keep them looking detailed, precise and beautiful. This is what the new elements are.

I look forward to a refreshed Eaton Centre.
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Even if they were cheap, there was a design idea behind them to create a sense of security, for instance, amidst all the glass and different levels in the building. So the new design could have been in keeping with the old ideas. Certainly, the original could have been better. They could have hired an artist to come up with a unique modern motif. However, it should be noted that by the 1970s, the transition to mass production was complete. That meant that nicely detailed products in the modern aesthetic could be made. The era those came from was a time of mass production with some quality workmanship, though obviously not in every product. Thus, even if the railings were less then stellar and could be replaced, it would be better to install a new and better detailed railing in the spirit of the old.
 
To elaborate, if you look at the original railings, you can see cheap off the shelf rods and poles soldered together and then painted many times over. It couldn't have been done cheaper. There was little to no detailed work done on them. It's not like we had an artist design these rails and painstakingly build them full of details. Sure, they became the look of the Eaton Centre but they're still cheap. Compare that to other malls in the Toronto area and Eaton Centre looks run down and cheap. I'm 100% behind the update.
 
MetroMan said:
To elaborate, if you look at the original railings, you can see cheap off the shelf rods and poles soldered together and then painted many times over. It couldn't have been done cheaper. There was little to no detailed work done on them. It's not like we had an artist design these rails and painstakingly build them full of details. Sure, they became the look of the Eaton Centre but they're still cheap. Compare that to other malls in the Toronto area and Eaton Centre looks run down and cheap. I'm 100% behind the update.
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If we're to operate by your kind of Sunday-painter-amateur "anti-cheap" standard, then one might as well demolish/disfigure/compromise a lot of interesting/noteworthy post-WWII houses, schools, etc--after all, thanks to postwar material shortages, new/untested building techniques, and a reaction to pre-WWII stolidity, they can make the 70s Eaton Centre look positively Milanese.

Come to think of it, re your "compare that to other malls" argument; well, let's go kitty-corner to the NE...
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Practically from the time it was built, it looked "run down and cheap" compared to the 70s Eaton Centre.
 
^ Well, I agree: let's demolish that piece of shit and start from scratch -- better planned this time to get shovels in the ground as soon as this thing is turned to dust. (of course starting from scratch is not financially feasible).
 
I honestly think it can be saved ... not into something amazing per say but something decent ... without that much money - clearly it needs to be finished! There are bunch of fine details left off
 
taal said:
I honestly think it can be saved ... not into something amazing per say but something decent ... without that much money - clearly it needs to be finished! There are bunch of fine details left off
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It would be wasteful to start from scratch. But still, I don't know how salvageable this thing is. The waste of space on the interior and the HORRIBLE layout is abysmal.
 
The interior layout is pretty bad, but out of curiosity what is so bad about the exterior?
Is it bad quality or something? Cause I personally think the overall look is fine..
 
Isn't it a bad time to be doing mall construction, given that it's christmas shopping season?? When will it be finished?
 
Well, at best/most charitable, it fulfills Condovo's thesis of malls being inherently disposable and transitory far better than the Eaton Centre, which is larded up with a little too much vestigial "urban gravitas" for comfort...
 
bigtony22127 said:
Isn't it a bad time to be doing mall construction, given that it's christmas shopping season?? When will it be finished?
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It's a project that's going to take over a year from beginning to completion so it had to go through at least one Christmas. A lot of the first phase is being finished and hoarding coming down before Christimas shopping season to make a minimal impact and they'll get back to heavy work in the new year. I'm sure the time line was a major consideration and well thought out.
 
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