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A defining piece of the Toronto Eaton Centre’s identity and history returned from a year-long absence this morning. High in the rafters of the southern volume of the shopping centre’s central Galleria, the iconic art installation, Flight Stop, composed of 60 life sized model geese, was reinstalled below the newly renovated Galleria skylight.
“Since its inception over 45 years ago, CF Toronto Eaton Centre has been a cultural hub in the heart of Downtown Toronto,” said Sheila Jennings, General Manager at Cadillac Fairview (CF), greeting the audience attending the ceremonial return of the installation. “One iconic art display that has been with us since the beginning is the unmistakable installation we see above us, Flight Stop. Designed by legendary Toronto artist, Michael Snow, the 60-geese art piece has been on display at the CF Toronto Eaton Centre since 1979, making it a critical piece of the shopping centre’s heritage, and a cultural landmark for the City of Toronto.”
Speaking with CF’s Senior Director of Project Management, David Stewart, we had a chance to learn more about the revered installation, why it was removed, and the effort that went into making sure it was returned the right way.
The project began with Cadillac Fairview’s move to retrofit the Eaton Centre’s 6,500m² skylight, the defining element of the mall’s Galleria atrium space. “After 45 years, the skylight had reached the end of its life,” Stewart explained, “ it wasn’t energy efficient, and it didn’t allow a lot of natural light in.” Design for the retrofit began in 2019, and installation work was underway by March of 2022, with a robust scaffolding system deployed right in the Galleria enabling the workers to disassemble the tired glazing. Naturally, this work would complicate the lives of the geese, and in order to protect them from potential damage, CF decided to remove them temporarily, marking the first time the art piece had been moved in its 43-year life.
Bringing the birds back down to earth, Stewart commented that it was immediately clear that their time in the sky had caused some problems that needed professional care. “Most of the deterioration was UV damage,” he said, “you have to remember that they are essentially paper maché, which dries out in extreme heat.” Before the birds were restored to their original stature, however, CF wanted to ensure that the integrity of the art piece was managed with care, so they brought in specialists Toronto Art Restoration Inc (TARI) to inform the process.
Consulting Snow’s original notes stored in the AGO archives, TARI worked with the Queen’s University School of Fine Arts to develop a restoration program that was closely aligned with the project’s initial vision; the entire process took between 12 to 16 hours per bird. The team also created a number scheme to identify each of the 60 birds, and measured their position within the overall configuration down to the milimetre to ensure that the installation could be reinstalled identically to Snow’s initial arrangement.
The timeline for the reinstallation of the geese was dependent on the progress of the skylight retrofit project, which remains ongoing, moving from south to north and replacing the glazing in sections of about 500m² at a time. The main impetus to update the glazing system was to allow the building to meet the current standards for operating efficiency. With the new glazing, Stewart commented that CF will save as much as $125,000 annually in energy costs, and will eventually result in a net energy benefit, helping the Eaton Centre transition towards its net-zero emissions targets.
The new glazing system also enjoys a much higher level of transparency compared to the previous iteration, which was treated with a translucent film in order to limit UV rays and heat loss; thanks to advances in building technology though, those systems are now baked into the clear glass. With more natural light filling the space, Stewart also noted that the building will require less supplementary lighting, further reducing energy consumption; but when lighting is needed, the new skylight comes outfitted with LEDs that require roughly 10% the amount of power that was needed to operate the previous lights.
Looking ahead at the work still to come on the retrofit, “we’ll get about 90 percent done by November of this year,” Stewart said, “and then we’ll finish the last piece up at Trinity Way next spring.” Meanwhile, the return of Flight Stop’s 60-geese array pays homage to the history of the shopping centre that continues to evolve. “There are thousands upon thousands of people that have had their pictures taken with these geese as a backdrop,” Stewart said. “They’re not just a piece of the CF Toronto Eaton Centre, they’re a piece of Toronto.”
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