{"id":100966,"date":"2025-08-27T14:17:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T14:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/100966\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T14:17:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T14:17:08","slug":"an-ambitious-plan-for-an-iconic-heritage-site","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/100966\/","title":{"rendered":"An ambitious plan for an iconic heritage site"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Renderings of the redevelopment plan for Toronto’s College Park and the former 1930s-era Eaton’s College Street department store, designed by Hariri Pontarini Architects.GWL Realty Advisors<\/p>\n

\u201cAll night, till the rain came, little crowds of the curious stood about guarded entrances, glued eyes to curtain chinks, peered past mystery-shrouding screens,\u201d wrote the unnamed writer in The Globe on Oct. 29, 1930. \u201cLast night was moving night at Eaton\u2019s \u2013 an end of old things and a beginning of new \u2013 for the big store and the big city it serves.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next day, when Timothy Eaton\u2019s grandson, John David Eaton, pulled open the big bronze doors of Eaton\u2019s College Street to allow his mother, Lady (Flora) Eaton, to walk in first on behalf of that big city, the pair would be followed by a \u201cveritable stampede\u201d of Torontonians \u2013 10,000, in fact, would visit on that day to see what the hubbub was about.<\/p>\n

At the risk of overstating the point, when the new 600,000-square-foot store opened, it was a watershed moment in Canadian retailing. No longer were department stores about serviceable goods; they were places of culture, where fine art could be displayed or concerts could be held, and in rooms and spaces designed by professionals and artists, all with the aim of turning average Torontonians into aesthetes.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe had a strong vision for what could be done,\u201d ERA Architect\u2019s Scott Weir says of Lady Eaton, widowed in 1922 when John Craig Eaton died of influenza. \u201cShe also had worldly experience; she\u2019d been shopping in Paris, in New York, knew what was happening out there as a cutting-edge thing, and she said, \u2018We can bring this back to Toronto and really transform [the city]\u2019 \u2026 but also showcasing a Canadian palette of materials, innovation, and so on.\u201d<\/p>\n

1\/12<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

It\u2019s true. The Art Deco building, clad in creamy Tyndall limestone from Manitoba, was penned by two prolific and important Canadian firms: Montreal\u2019s Ross and Macdonald (designers of Maple Leaf Gardens with Jack Ryrie and Mackenzie Waters) and Toronto firm Sproatt and Rolph (responsible for the University of Toronto\u2019s Hart House). The two firms had also teamed up to design the Royal York Hotel. <\/p>\n

To lend a European flair, however, Lady Eaton commissioned French architect and designer Jacques Carlu (along with Eaton\u2019s staff interior designer Ren\u00e9 Cera, also French-born) for the famous \u201cSeventh Floor,\u201d which contained the Eaton Auditorium, Foyer and the Round Room (known today as \u201cThe Carlu\u201d).<\/p>\n

However, as most Torontonians know, only a small part of Lady Eaton\u2019s vision was ever realized. Rather than the 5,000,000-square-foot behemoth \u2013 complete with a stepped, wedding cake-shaped 38-storey office tower \u2013 only phase one, the 600,000-sq.-ft. store (and Seventh Floor cultural complex) was built before the Great Depression halted the scheme. <\/p>\n

However, back then, and still today, what was gifted to the city carries much architectural weight and majesty.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

A model of the Eaton’s College Street department as it was planned to look. The Great Depression killed the plan and only the first section was built.Dave LeBlanc\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re standing on the shoulders of giants,\u201d says the mild-manned David Pontarini, one of the founding partners of Hariri Pontarini Architects, the firm responsible for completing Lady Eaton\u2019s scheme almost a century later for present-day owner GWL Realty Advisors (GWLRA). But rather than the New York-style \u201curban mountain\u201d that was promised (an original model sits in the lobby of 21 College St.), Mr. Pontarini says his inspiration comes from Rockefeller Center, which was designed around the same time (urban legend has it Rockefeller Center\u2019s Rainbow Room was inspired by Eaton\u2019s Seventh Floor).<\/p>\n

\u201cDo smaller, more slender towers, which are more elegant,\u201d the architect says. \u201cThat\u2019s the DNA that we\u2019re going back to.\u201d <\/p>\n

Indeed, if built as planned, there will be three towers ranging in height from a dizzying 96 storeys (333.3 metres) to 65 storeys (228.1 m) \u2013 by comparison, \u201c30 Rock\u201d is 70 storeys (266 m). \u201cAnd,\u201d continues Mr. Pontarini, \u201cwe\u2019re respecting the base.\u201d<\/p>\n

Actually, the team, which also includes landscape architecture studio Public Work, is going one further than just respect. Where the existing building tapers from seven to two storeys further south on Yonge Street (and reveals architect Edward I. Richmond\u2019s rather plain College Park Apartments from 1978-79 tucked in behind), Lady Eaton\u2019s full-sized podium will be completed.<\/p>\n

Walking with GWLRA\u2019s Daniel Fama, Mr. Weir, Mr. Pontarini, and Public Work co-founder Marc Ryan, Mr. Weir points to the grand entrance at 444 Yonge St. that should\u2019ve had the 38-storey tower behind it and, beyond that, the \u201cbase of the column shafts\u201d that fizzle out into nothing. We walk along the south fa\u00e7ade and note that Mr. Richmond\u2019s building rises up rather like a sore thumb; the southwest fa\u00e7ade is worse, a hodgepodge of connections between architectural eras, and blank fa\u00e7ades facing the rather uninspiring park. All will be remedied, however.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will all be new, more open, more transparent, more visual connection between inside and outside. \u2026 This will all be a completely different expression,\u201d says Mr. Pontarini.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

The main staircase in the former 1930s-era Eaton’s College Street department store.Dave LeBlanc\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a whole stitching that\u2019s going to happen here,\u201d adds Mr. Ryan, \u201cso that this feels like the most animated building-park relationship that we have in Toronto \u2026 and [Hariri Pontarini] has got this incredible, glassy atrium, winter garden space, so it\u2019s almost like the relationship of a park and a conservatory.\u201d<\/p>\n

All of that, juicy as it is, exists only in fancy renderings, so the rest of our walk is spent enjoying the bits and bobs of Art Deco deliciousness inside: the scalloped and curved marble; the incredible metalwork; those light-up elevator indicators; the typography; the grills that contain a cipher explaining the proportions of the building; and, of course, every single thing about the Carlu.<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s impossible to have the new bits (well, they\u2019re larger than just bits!) in place for the building\u2019s centennial in five years, the future of College and Yonge looks very bright for this big city.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was intended to be a marquee landmark site for the city and the country,\u201d finishes Mr. Fama. \u201cWhat we brought forward is our version of what we think it wants to be for the next one hundred years.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Renderings of the redevelopment plan for Toronto’s College Park and the former 1930s-era…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[967,76,354,355,49,48,356,75,968],"class_list":["post-100966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-architourist","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-real-estate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}