Complexe Les Ailes (Montreal)
Encyclopedia
Saint Catherine Street
This article is about the street in Montreal called the rue Sainte-Catherine in French. For other streets of this name, see Rue Sainte-Catherine ....
in Downtown
Downtown Montreal
Downtown Montreal is the central business district of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is nearly enitirely located at the southern most slope of Mount Royal and is approximately bounded by Sherbrooke Street to the north, Papineau Avenue to the east, Guy Street or until Shaughnessy Village to the west,...
Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. Designed by the firm Ross and Macdonald
Ross and Macdonald
Ross and Macdonald was one of Canada's most notable architecture firms in the early 20th century. Based in Montreal, Quebec, the firm originally operated as a partnership between George Allen Ross and David MacFarlane from 1907 to 1912. MacFarlane retired in 1913, and Robert Henry Macdonald...
and first constructed between 1925 and 1927, the building served as the Eaton's
Eaton's
The T. Eaton Co. Limited was once Canada's largest department store retailer. It was founded in 1869 in Toronto by Timothy Eaton, an Irish immigrant. Eaton's grew to become a retail and social institution in Canada, with stores across the country, buying offices across the globe, and a catalogue...
department store until 1999. Until its recent conversion to a shopping and office complex, it was the largest store in Quebec, and the second largest in Canada. For many years, the Montreal Eaton's store and Eaton's College Street
College Park (Toronto)
College Park is a shopping mall, residential and office complex located on the southwest corner of Yonge Street and College Street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada...
in Toronto were the crown jewels of the retail chain.
The ninth floor restaurant
Eaton's Ninth Floor (Montreal)
The Montreal Eaton's 9th floor restaurant is an Art deco landmark in Montreal. It used to be known simply as "The Ninth Floor".Lady Eaton was the wife of the multi-millionaire owner of the former Eaton's chain of department stores in Canada. For several decades she endeavoured to give her own...
, constructed in 1931 and known for years as the "Ninth Floor" or "le 9ieme", is an Art deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
landmark in Montreal. Modeled after the first class dining hall of the Ile de France
SS Ile de France
The SS Ile de France was a French ocean liner built in Saint-Nazaire, France for the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique. The ship was the first major ocean liner built after the conclusion of World War I and was the first liner ever to be decorated entirely with designs associated with the Art Deco...
, a transatlantic ocean liner, the restaurant was planned in the early 2000s to be restored by Fournier, Gersovitz, Moss et associés, a Montreal architecture firm. This plan never came to life.
After the bankruptcy of the Eaton's chain, the building was converted to a shopping centre with office space on the upper floors, and was named after the Les Ailes de la Mode
Les Ailes de la Mode
Les Ailes de la mode is a Canadian retail store chain. Its flagship store is in downtown Montreal and is the anchor tenant of the Complexe Les Ailes....
department store chain. The shopping mall is connected to Montreal's underground city
Underground City, Montreal
Montreal's Underground City is the set of interconnected complexes in and around Downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada...
.