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Saks Fifth Avenue Flagship (Queen & Yonge)

Okay, down on the concourse level at Hudson's Bay, here's what the tile looks like:

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...so it certainly looks like stone, but the tones are so perfect, maybe it's manufactured? I dunno, probably stone, and probably chosen by someone who refused to work on Women's College.

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Skeezix said:
As per Photo 1, I am somewhat appalled that they moved the war memorial to former Simpsons employees who died in the war (wars?). I get why Saks did it, and don't necessarily blame them, and don't even think it was necessarily the wrong thing to do (City Council actually approved it), but somehow it still just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. The march of progress favours pretty foyers over dead soldiers. The tribute to our men in uniform is replaced by ... a mannequin in uniform holding up nicely wrapped parcels.
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You expect a bunch of absentee American owners and executives to have any respect for Canadian war dead? Greed is the only monument they know.
 
Very nice store although they busted my ass for filming in here. By that time I already had some good footage but I kept filming discreetly anyway. Yeah, I'm a rule breaker. Hey, if Rob Ford can break every rule in the book and get away with it, why the hell can't I? That's my philosophy from now on. My video will be coming soon.
 
Forgotten said:
You expect a bunch of absentee American owners and executives to have any respect for Canadian war dead? Greed is the only monument they know.
Click to expand...

Wait--are you telling us that they didn't just remove the memorial, but they gutted the whole Yonge/Richmond vestibule? How on earth could they have gotten away with that--I'd have sworn it was one of the "reasons for designation", etc etc: the most magnificent remaining Deco interior feature in the store.

And by extension, I'm doubly appalled by how all the old ground-level urban-passage "desire lines" have been compromised; it used to be a thrill getting in via Yonge & Richmond/Yonge & Queen and just...walking through the store, unencumbered. Now, with Saks, the whole east end's become a sealed-off retail container; and if you want to walk through, either stick to the sidewalk or stick to the concourse. (Ditto with the blocking-off of the Yonge-Queen corner-cut slash-through; it now just feels...peevishly oppressive. Sort of like the Simpsons answer to the Eaton Centre's Dundas corner being H&M'd.).

I guess, that's what you get in an era when big-box retail's killed off malls.
 
A question.... When is holt renfrew going to seriously update/upgrade their bloor flagship. It's run down and old.
 
adma said:
Wait--are you telling us that they didn't just remove the memorial, but they gutted the whole Yonge/Richmond vestibule? How on earth could they have gotten away with that--I'd have sworn it was one of the "reasons for designation", etc etc: the most magnificent remaining Deco interior feature in the store.

And by extension, I'm doubly appalled by how all the old ground-level urban-passage "desire lines" have been compromised; it used to be a thrill getting in via Yonge & Richmond/Yonge & Queen and just...walking through the store, unencumbered. Now, with Saks, the whole east end's become a sealed-off retail container; and if you want to walk through, either stick to the sidewalk or stick to the concourse. (Ditto with the blocking-off of the Yonge-Queen corner-cut slash-through; it now just feels...peevishly oppressive. Sort of like the Simpsons answer to the Eaton Centre's Dundas corner being H&M'd.).

I guess, that's what you get in an era when big-box retail's killed off malls.
Click to expand...
Do you have any pictures of what you are describing?
 
Forgotten said:
You expect a bunch of absentee American owners and executives to have any respect for Canadian war dead? Greed is the only monument they know.
Click to expand...

I don't blame HBC so much. Sears Canada did largely the same thing in the 1990s (they couldn't be bothered keeping or maintaining the beautiful old Eaton's war memorials in the Eaton Centre store, reportedly offered them around, and finally convinced the War Museum in Ottawa to take them). The bad taste is largely due to the City allowing them to do it. I get it, but I also don't.
 
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