Eaton Centre needs a facelift?

[Skeezix]

Discover Toronto, John Richmond's illustrated notebook showing different buildings and streetscapes, was published around the same time as these illustrations. Copies of the book show up from time to time in places such as the St. Lawrence Sunday Antique Market.

A number of copies also on sale at abebooks.com too.

 

[syn]

I really miss the old Yonge Street facade. I know what they were trying to do with the upgrade, but modifying the original would've been better.

 

[Skeezix]

This isn't good news.

For a couple of months now, this one light standard has been installed in the Eaton Centre (sorry for the poor quality camera phone pic):

I was hoping that mall management would have the good sense not to install others, but I suspect I was wrong. Recently, all of the original light standards on the third floor of the Eaton Centre (the ones with the frosted glass bulbs) have gone missing. I am guessing that the plan is to replace them with the "new" standards as shown above.

Such a disappointment. In another effort to "update" and "freshen" the look of the mall, they are destroying the original design asthetic of the interior. What's worse, they are installing new fixtures that already look dated. One more step towards transforming the Eaton Centre's unique architecture into generic this-could-be-anywhere mall design.

 

[299 bloor call control.]

yeah these things hardly blend in with the original architecture.. .what's next? replacing all the metal railings with glass?

 

[Towered]

Speaking of the metal railings, I noticed they've been painted beige rather than the original white. I was really irritated by that. Why can't we on this forum just be normal people who don't notice or give a shit about such details?

 

[299 bloor call control.]

Beige? That's horrid. White white white white white, glass, and yellow wayfinding is what Eaton Centre is supposed to be about. (Though the new grey wayfinding signs are a decent addition)

 

[wyliepoon]

Not a big fan of the light standard in the photo. Even gas lamps or torchlight would work better.

 

[freshcutgrass]

Such a disappointment. In another effort to "update" and "freshen" the look of the mall, they are destroying the original design asthetic of the interior.

That's exactly what they are doing...and what is scarier than a building owner who is so stupid as to not realize he is ruining his own property? CF went from being owned and run by people with impeccable architecture and design taste, to being run by a pension fund that has none.

Perhaps they could have all the elements of TEC declared "art" and sue the shit of of CF like Michael Snow did for pissing around with his geese?

 

[adma]

That's exactly what they are doing...and what is scarier than a building owner who is so stupid as to not realize he is ruining his own property? CF went from being owned and run by people with impeccable architecture and design taste, to being run by a pension fund that has none.

Also note the skateboard-proofing warts (complete with CF logo) on the TD Centre benches...

 

[ShonTron]

I agree CF needs to be taken to school (and why not, they're owned by the faceless Ontario Teachers' Pension Fund, you know, the ones who also own MLSE).

I still miss the backlit yellow wayfinding signs. That screamed 1980s Toronto to me, but in a good way.

I find all the interior billboards also take away a bit from the original asthetic. The worst are the Global ads that used to be where Eaton's had all the provincial flags.

What next? Michael Snow's geese?

 

[Skeezix]

I agree CF needs to be taken to school (and why not, they're owned by the faceless Ontario Teachers' Pension Fund, you know, the ones who also own MLSE).

I still miss the backlit yellow wayfinding signs. That screamed 1980s Toronto to me, but in a good way.

I find all the interior billboards also take away a bit from the original asthetic. The worst are the Global ads that used to be where Eaton's had all the provincial flags.

What next? Michael Snow's geese?

You're right about the former south wall of Eaton's. It was supposed to be a display window writ large, and Eaton's did use it that way for the most part, often with the provincial flags you noted. Towards the end, Eaton's was also using for large perfume and cologne ads, but at least the ads tied in to a product that Eaton's was actually selling and promoting. Sears returned the space to its original purpose, during the "eatons" experiment, but has since used it for third party advertising unrelated to the store, which is just abysmal.

 

[Skeezix]

That's exactly what they are doing...and what is scarier than a building owner who is so stupid as to not realize he is ruining his own property? CF went from being owned and run by people with impeccable architecture and design taste, to being run by a pension fund that has none.

Perhaps they could have all the elements of TEC declared "art" and sue the shit of of CF like Michael Snow did for pissing around with his geese?

...or they could designate the Eaton Centre under the Ontario Heritage Act.

 

[TKTKTK]

...or they could designate the Eaton Centre under the Ontario Heritage Act.

Why hasn't this been done already? The Eaton's Centre doesn't strike me as a hard sell on the heritage front - most people seem to understand that it's a great space (even despite the calls for glass railings and spot-redesigns).

 

[Alvar]

Eaton Ctr.

It is disgraceful how they are altering the Eaton Centre. The owners truly do not know what they have. The modifications to the exterior were bad enough, but now toying with the interiors....? You never know what you have until it is gone. *SIGH*. So Toronto.

 

[adma]

Why hasn't this been done already?

Probably a combination of (a) at 30, it's still a little too new for the "heritage argument" to sink in; (b) the property owners will almost certainly get antsy; (c) through various (mostly exterior) rebuilds, it's already had its "original integrity" compromised...