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Interior of the Toronto Eaton Centre, looking north The Canada Geese of ''Flight Stop'' are in the foreground
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Toronto , Ontario , Canada
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1977 (first phase)
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Cadillac Fairview, TD Bank , Eaton's
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330
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3
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1,600,000 square feet <br> (150,000 m&2)
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The is a large
Shopping Mall and office complex in downtown
Toronto ,
Ontario Canada . In terms of the number of visitors, the shopping mall is Toronto's top tourist attraction.
The Eaton Centre is bounded by and
Queen . The complex also contains three office buildings, at 20 Queen Street West, 250 Yonge Street and 1 Dundas Street West. Additionally, the Eaton Centre is linked via skywalk over Queen Street to
The Bay (formerly
Simpson's ), and the centre is also attached to a 17-storey
Marriott hotel on Bay Street.
Timothy Eaton founded a dry goods store on Yonge Street in the
19th Century , and that small shop went on to revolutionize retailing in
Canada , ultimately becoming the largest
Department Store chain in the country. By the
20th Century , the
Eaton's chain owned most of the land bounded by Yonge, Queen, Bay and Dundas streets, with the notable exceptions of
Old City Hall and the
Church Of The Holy Trinity . The Eaton's land, once the site of Timothy Eaton's first store, was occupied by Eaton's large Main Store, the
Eaton's Annex and a number of related mail order and factory buildings. As the chain's warehouse and support operations were increasingly shifting to cheaper suburban locales in the
1960s , Eaton's wanted to make better use of its valuable downtown landholdings. In particular, the chain wanted to build a massive new flagship store to replace the aging Main Store at Yonge and Queen and the
Eaton's College Street store a few blocks to the north.
In the mid-
1960s , Eaton's announced plans for a massive office and shopping complex that would occupy several city blocks. Initial plans for the centre called for the demolition of both Old City Hall (except for the clock tower and
Cenotaph ) and the Church of the Holy Trinity, as well as the closing of a number of small city streets within the above-noted block (Albert Street, Louisa Street, Terauley Street, James Street, Albert Lane, Downey's Lane and Trinity Square). At one point, even the City Hall clock tower was slated for demolition. After a fierce local debate over the fate of the city hall and church buildings, Eaton's put its plans on hiatus in
1967 .
The Eaton Centre plans were resuscitated in
1971 , although these plans allowed for the preservation of Old City Hall. Controversy erupted anew, however, as the congregation of the Church of the Holy Trinity exhibited an increased willingness to fight the demolition plans for its church. Eventually, the Eaton Centre plans were revised to save both Old City Hall and the church, and then revised further when Holy Trinity's parishioners successfully fought to ensure that the new complex would not block all sunlight to the church.
These amendments to the plans resulted in three significant changes to the proposed centre from the initial
1960s concept. First, the new Eaton's store was shifted north to Dundas Street, as the new store would be too large to be accommodated in its traditional location on Queen Street (opposite its rival
Simpson's ) due to the preservation of City Hall. Fortuitously, this resulted in the mall being constructed with Eaton's and Simpson's acting as anchors at either end. The second sigificant change was the reduction in the size of the office component, so that the Eaton Centre project no longer represented an attempt to extend the City's financial district north of Queen Street, as the
Eaton Family had originally contemplated in the
1960s . Finally, the bulk of the centre was shifted east to the Yonge Street frontage, and the complex was designed so that it no longer had any frontage along Bay Street. Old City Hall and the Church were thus saved, as was the
Salvation Army headquarters building by virtue of its location between the two other preserved buildings (although the Salvation Army building was eventually demolished in the late
1990s to make way for an Eaton Centre expansion).
Eaton's partnered with the
Cadillac Fairview development company and the
Toronto-Dominion Bank in the construction of the Eaton Centre. The complex was designed by
Eberhard Zeidler and Bregman + Hamann Architects as a multi-levelled, vaulted glass-ceiling galleria, modelled after the
Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in
Milan ,
Italy . At the time, the interior design of the Eaton Centre was considered quite revolutionary and influenced shopping centre architecture throughout
North America .
The first phase, including the nine-storey, 1,000,000 square foot (100,000 square metre) Eaton's store, opened in
1977 . The south half of the complex (replacing the old Eaton's store at Yonge and Queen) was opened in
1979 , along with a
Cineplex cinema (now closed) that boasted 18 screens, at the time the largest multiplex in the world. The Eaton Centre represented one of North America's first downtown shopping malls.
Terauley Street, Louisa Street, Downey's Lane and Albert Lane were closed and disappeared from the city street grid to make way for the new complex. Albert Street and James Street were preserved only to the extent of their frontage around Old City Hall (although the city of Toronto required that pedestrians be able to cross through the mall where Albert Street once existed, at any time 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and pedestrians still enjoy this right today). Trinity Square lost its public access to Yonge Street, and became a pedestrian-only square with access via Bay Street.
Many urban planners and designers have long lamented the original exterior design of the Eaton Centre. The complex was oriented inwards, with very few street-related retail stores, windows or even mall entrances to animate the exterior. Much of the Yonge Street façade, facing what was once one of Toronto's primary shopping thoroughfares, was dominated by a parking garage. At the insistence of the city of Toronto (which had, at the time, short-lived plans to widen the street), the complex was set back a considerable distance from Yonge Street, thus further weakening the centre's streetscape presence.
The office component of the complex was constructed over the years, as follows:
- "One Dundas West" (29 storeys) in 1977 , designed by Zeidler Partnership Architects ;
- "Cadillac Fairview Tower" (36 floors) in 1982 , designed by Bregman + Hamann Architects, and Zeidler Partnership Architects; and
- "250 Yonge Street" (35 storeys) in 1992 , designed by Zeidler Partnership Architects, and Crang & Boake.
Despite the controversy and criticisms, the centre was an immediate success. In fact, the mall profits were said to be so lucrative that the success of the Eaton Centre has often been credited with keeping the troubled Eaton's chain afloat for another two decades before it finally succumbed to bankruptcy in
1999 . Today, the Eaton Centre is one of North America's top shopping destinations, and is Toronto's most popular tourist attraction, attracting over a million visitors a week.
One of the most prominent sights in the shopping mall is the group of
Fibre Glass Canada Geese hanging from the ceiling. This sculpture, named ''Flight Stop'', is the work of artist
Michael Snow . It was also the subject of an important
Intellectual Property court ruling. One year, the management of the centre decided to decorate the geese with red ribbons for
Christmas , without consulting Snow. Snow objected arguing that the ribbons made his naturalistic work "ridiculous" and harmed his reputation as an artist. Snow sued and in ''
Snow V. The Eaton Centre '' the court ruled that even though the Centre owned the sculpture, the ribbons had infringed Snow's
Moral Right s. The ribbons were ordered removed.
In recent years, the Eaton Centre's owners have redesigned the mall's Yonge Street façade, bringing it closer to the street and making it more closely resemble an urban shopping district, with stores opening directly onto the street, and presenting a variety of façades to create the perception of an urban streetscape. Further redevelopments, in the late
1990s and early
2000s , added new retail space at the northeast corner (Yonge and Dundas intersection) of the mall (housing
H&M's Canadian flagship store), and to the west side of the complex opposite Albert Street. There are now about 330 stores in the retail complex, which encompasses about 1,600,000 square feet (150,000 m²), making it possibly the largest downtown shopping centre in
North America .
Currently, a further expansion is underway in the northwest corner of the property that will include more retail space, a new parking garage and the new School of Business for
Ryerson University . This expansion is set to open in 2006.
With the demise of the Eaton's chain, the department store space at the north end of the mall is now occupied by
Sears Canada . Nonetheless, the complex retains the Eaton Centre name, representing an ongoing tribute to Timothy Eaton and the small shop he once opened at this location.
For a discussion of Eaton Centre malls constructed in other cities across Canada, see
Eaton Centre (Canada) .
