Toronto Eaton Centre
Encyclopedia
The Toronto Eaton Centre is a large shopping mall
and office complex in downtown
Toronto
, Ontario
, Canada
, named after the now-defunct Eaton's
department store chain that once anchored it. In terms of the number of visitors, the shopping mall is Toronto's top tourist attraction, with around one million visitors per week. It is also the largest shopping mall
in Eastern Canada
and third-largest in Canada as a whole.
The Eaton Centre is bounded by Yonge Street
on the east, Queen Street West
on the south, Dundas Street West on the north, and to the west by James Street and Trinity Square
. Its interior passages also form part of Toronto's PATH
underground pedestrian network, and the centre is served by two Toronto subway
stations: Dundas
and Queen
. The complex also contains three office buildings (at 20 Queen Street West, 250 Yonge Street and 1 Dundas Street West) and the Ryerson University Ted Rogers School of Management. Additionally, the Eaton Centre is linked to a 17-storey Marriott
hotel, and to Canada's largest store, the flagship location of The Bay
department store chain.
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. This resulted in the mall being constructed with Eaton's and Simpson's acting as anchors at either end. The second significant 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 revolutionary and influenced shopping centre architecture throughout North America.
The Eaton Centre represented one of North America's first downtown shopping malls. The first phase, including the nine-storey, 1,000,000 square foot (100,000 square metre) Eaton's store, opened in 1977. The temporary wall at the south end was mirrored over its full height, to give an impression of what the complete galleria would look like. The old Eaton's store at Yonge and Queen was then demolished and the south half of the complex opened in its place in 1979. The same year, the north end of the complex added a multiplex cinema, Cineplex
, at the time the largest in the world with 18 screens.
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 at the request of the Church of the Holy Trinity, the city of Toronto required that pedestrians be able to cross through the mall where Albert Street once existed at all times, which is still possible. Trinity Square, however, lost its public access to Yonge Street, and became a pedestrian-only square with access via Bay Street.
Many urban planners and designers have lamented the original exterior design of the Eaton Centre. The complex was oriented inwards, with very few street-facing 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 Metro Toronto
government, which had jurisdiction over major roads, the complex was set back from Yonge Street. The goal was to eventually add an additional lane to the street. As a result, 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:
Despite the controversy and criticisms, the centre was an immediate success, spawning many different shopping centres across Canada bearing the same brand name of 'Eaton'. The mall's 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.
One of the most prominent sights in the shopping mall is the group of fibreglass 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 Ltd.
, the court ruled that even though the Centre owned the sculpture, the ribbons had infringed Snow's moral rights. The ribbons were ordered removed.
The mall contains a wide selection of 230 stores, restaurants and two food courts. The mall is served by two subway
stations, Queen
and Dundas
, located at its southernmost and northernmost points respectively.
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
, which is the chain's largest store in the world at about 817850 square feet (75,980.8 m²), though they have blocked off the top two floors and the lower two floors were converted to mall space. Shortly after Sears' acquisition of Eaton's, the Timothy Eaton statue
was moved from the Dundas Street entrance to the Royal Ontario Museum
. The complex retains the Eaton Centre name, representing an ongoing tribute to Timothy Eaton
and the small shop he once opened at this location.
In June 2010, a G-20 Summit
protester was filmed shouting at the locked doors of an entrance to the Eaton Centre, which was in the process of entering lockdown as the street protests loomed nearby. The video quickly became an Internet meme
, but was removed by the original poster shortly thereafter.
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.
office, relocated or were evicted to make way for H&M
's Canadian flagship store designed by Queen's Quay Architects International Inc.
One of the mall's two parking garages, the nine-storey Dundas Parkade on Dundas Street with its two spiral stack ramps and the multiplex cinema below it, was demolished in 2003. In the place of the garage and of a vacant development site on the southeast corner of Dundas and Bay streets, a new wing of the Eaton Centre was opened in 2006, containing Canadian Tire
and Best Buy
, with Ryerson University
's Faculty of Business and a new parking garage with 574 spaces on the upper levels. This work was done by Queen's Quay Architects International Inc. with Zeidler Partnership Architects.
There are now about 330 stores in the retail complex, which encompasses about 1722000 square feet (159,979 m²), making it the largest mall in Ontario.
Shopping mall
A shopping mall, shopping centre, shopping arcade, shopping precinct or simply mall is one or more buildings forming a complex of shops representing merchandisers, with interconnecting walkways enabling visitors to easily walk from unit to unit, along with a parking area — a modern, indoor version...
and office complex in downtown
Downtown Toronto
Downtown Toronto is the central business district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is approximately bounded by Bloor Street to the north, Lake Ontario to the south, the Don River to the east, and Bathurst Street to the west...
Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, 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...
, named after the now-defunct 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 chain that once anchored it. In terms of the number of visitors, the shopping mall is Toronto's top tourist attraction, with around one million visitors per week. It is also the largest shopping mall
Canada's largest shopping malls
The following is a list of Canada's largest enclosed shopping malls, ranked by reported total retail floor space, or gross leasable area . In cases where malls have equal area, they are further ranked by number of stores.-See also:...
in Eastern Canada
Eastern Canada
Eastern Canada is generally considered to be the region of Canada east of Manitoba, consisting of the following provinces:* New Brunswick* Newfoundland and Labrador* Nova Scotia* Ontario* Prince Edward Island* Quebec...
and third-largest in Canada as a whole.
The Eaton Centre is bounded by Yonge Street
Yonge Street
Yonge Street is a major arterial route connecting the shores of Lake Ontario in Toronto to Lake Simcoe, a gateway to the Upper Great Lakes. It was formerly listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest street in the world at , and the construction of Yonge Street is designated an "Event of...
on the east, Queen Street West
Queen Street West
Queen Street West describes both the western branch of Queen Street, a major east-west thoroughfare, and a series of neighbourhoods or commercial districts, situated west of Yonge Street in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Queen Street begins in the west at the intersection of King Street, The...
on the south, Dundas Street West on the north, and to the west by James Street and Trinity Square
Trinity Square (Toronto)
Trinity Square is a public square in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is bounded by the Toronto Eaton Centre, an office building known as Bell Trinity Square, and the Marriott Downtown Eaton Centre Hotel. The square's primary feature is the Anglican Church of the Holy Trinity...
. Its interior passages also form part of Toronto's PATH
PATH (Toronto)
PATH is a network of pedestrian tunnels beneath the office towers of Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. According to Guinness World Records, PATH is the largest underground shopping complex in the world with 371,600 m² PATH is a network of pedestrian tunnels beneath the office towers of Downtown...
underground pedestrian network, and the centre is served by two Toronto subway
Toronto subway and RT
The Toronto subway and RT is a rapid transit system in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, consisting of both underground and elevated railway lines, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission . It was Canada's first completed subway system, with the first line being built under Yonge Street, which opened in...
stations: Dundas
Dundas (TTC)
Dundas is a station of the Yonge–University–Spadina line of the subway system in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located at 300 Yonge Street at Dundas Street West/East....
and Queen
Queen (TTC)
Queen is a station on the Yonge–University–Spadina line of the Toronto, Ontario, Canada subway. It is located at 171 Yonge Street at Queen Street West/East.-Entrances:The main entrances are at the intersection of Yonge and Queen streets...
. The complex also contains three office buildings (at 20 Queen Street West, 250 Yonge Street and 1 Dundas Street West) and the Ryerson University Ted Rogers School of Management. Additionally, the Eaton Centre is linked to a 17-storey Marriott
Marriott International
Marriott International, Inc. is a worldwide operator and franchisor of a broad portfolio of hotels and related lodging facilities. Founded by J. Willard Marriott, the company is now led by son J.W. Marriott, Jr...
hotel, and to Canada's largest store, the flagship location of The Bay
The Bay
The Bay is a chain of 91 department stores that operate across parts of Canada. It is the main brand of Hudson's Bay Company , North America's oldest company. It has its headquarters in the Simpson Tower in Toronto. In French, the chain is known as la Baie, short for "Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson"...
department store chain.
History
Timothy Eaton
Timothy Eaton was a Canadian businessman who founded the Eaton's department store, one of the most important retail businesses in Canada's history.-Early life and family:...
founded a dry goods store on Yonge Street in the 19th century, and that small shop went on to revolutionize retailing in 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...
, ultimately becoming the largest department store
Department store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
chain in the country. By the 20th century, 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...
chain owned most of the land bounded by Yonge, Queen, Bay and Dundas streets, with the notable exceptions of Old City Hall
Old City Hall (Toronto)
Toronto's Old City Hall was home to its city council from 1899 to 1966 and remains one of the city's most prominent structures. The building is located at the corner of Queen and Bay Streets, across Bay Street from Nathan Phillips Square and the new City Hall in the centre of downtown Toronto...
and the Church of the Holy Trinity
Church of the Holy Trinity, Toronto
The Church of the Holy Trinity is an Anglican church in downtown Toronto, Canada at Trinity Square.-History:The modest Gothic Revival structure was built in 1847 by architect Henry Bowyer Lane, who also designed Little Trinity Anglican Church on King Street and St. George the Martyr Church in Toronto...
. 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
Eaton's Annex
Located on Albert Street, directly behind the Eaton's Main Store and Toronto's City Hall, the Eaton's Annex was a 10-storey building containing both retail and office space...
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
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...
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
Cenotaph
A cenotaph is an "empty tomb" or a monument erected in honour of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been interred elsewhere. The word derives from the Greek κενοτάφιον = kenotaphion...
) 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
Simpson's
The Robert Simpson Company, or Simpsons , was a Canadian department store chain, founded by Robert Simpson. The chain was eventually bought by the Hudson's Bay Company.- History :...
) due to the preservation of City Hall. This resulted in the mall being constructed with Eaton's and Simpson's acting as anchors at either end. The second significant 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
Eaton family
The Eaton family of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, were owners of the Eaton's department stores, a national chain that was founded in 1869, and became bankrupt in 1999. At the family's height, their net worth was around $2 billion...
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
Salvation Army
The Salvation Army is a Protestant Christian church known for its thrift stores and charity work. It is an international movement that currently works in over a hundred countries....
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).
Construction
Cadillac Fairview
Cadillac Fairview Corporation Limited is a North American investor, owner, and manager of commercial real estate.The name "Cadillac Fairview" came into existence in 1974 as a result of the merger between Cadillac Development Corporation Ltd and Fairview Corporation...
development company and the Toronto-Dominion Bank
Toronto-Dominion Bank
The Toronto-Dominion Bank , is the second-largest bank in Canada by market capitalization and based on assets. It is also the sixth largest bank in North America. Commonly known as TD and operating as TD Bank Group, the bank was created in 1955 through the merger of the Bank of Toronto and the...
in the construction of the Eaton Centre. The complex was designed by Eberhard Zeidler
Eberhard Zeidler
Eberhard Heinrich Zeidler, OC, O.Ont is a Canadian architect.he studied at the Technische Hochschule, Karlsruhe, Germany....
and Bregman + Hamann Architects
Bregman + Hamann Architects
B+H Architects , founded in 1953, is an international architecture, interior design and urban planning firm...
as a multi-levelled, vaulted glass-ceiling galleria, modelled after the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II
Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II
The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II is a double arcade in the center of Milan, Italy. The structure is formed by two glass-vaulted arcades intersecting in an octagon covering the street connecting Piazza del Duomo to Piazza della Scala....
in Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. At the time, the interior design of the Eaton Centre was considered revolutionary and influenced shopping centre architecture throughout North America.
The Eaton Centre represented one of North America's first downtown shopping malls. The first phase, including the nine-storey, 1,000,000 square foot (100,000 square metre) Eaton's store, opened in 1977. The temporary wall at the south end was mirrored over its full height, to give an impression of what the complete galleria would look like. The old Eaton's store at Yonge and Queen was then demolished and the south half of the complex opened in its place in 1979. The same year, the north end of the complex added a multiplex cinema, Cineplex
Cineplex Entertainment
Cineplex Entertainment LP , is the largest film exhibitor in Canada and owns, leases or has a joint-venture interest in 130 theatres with 1,351 screens. Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, Cineplex operates theatres from British Columbia to Quebec...
, at the time the largest in the world with 18 screens.
Many urban planners and designers have lamented the original exterior design of the Eaton Centre. The complex was oriented inwards, with very few street-facing 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 Metro Toronto
Metropolitan Toronto
The Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto was a senior level of municipal government in the Toronto, Ontario, Canada area from 1954 to 1998. It was created out of York County and was a precursor to the later concept of a regional municipality, being formed of smaller municipalities but having more...
government, which had jurisdiction over major roads, the complex was set back from Yonge Street. The goal was to eventually add an additional lane to the street. As a result, 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 Bregman + Hamann ArchitectsBregman + Hamann ArchitectsB+H Architects , founded in 1953, is an international architecture, interior design and urban planning firm...
and Zeidler Partnership ArchitectsEberhard ZeidlerEberhard Heinrich Zeidler, OC, O.Ont is a Canadian architect.he studied at the Technische Hochschule, Karlsruhe, Germany....
; - "Cadillac Fairview Tower" (36 floors) in 1982, designed by Bregman + Hamann Architects, and Zeidler Partnership Architects; and
- "250 Yonge Street" (formerly Eaton Tower) (35 storeys) in 1992, designed by Zeidler Partnership Architects, and Crang & Boake.
The Eaton Centre today
Canada Goose
The Canada Goose is a wild goose belonging to the genus Branta, which is native to arctic and temperate regions of North America, having a black head and neck, white patches on the face, and a brownish-gray body....
hanging from the ceiling. This sculpture, named Flight Stop, is the work of artist Michael Snow
Michael Snow
Michael Snow, CC is a Canadian artist working in painting, sculpture, video, films, photography, holography, drawing, books and music.-Life:...
. It was also the subject of an important intellectual property
Intellectual property
Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
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 Ltd.
Snow v. The Eaton Centre Ltd.
Snow v. The Eaton Centre Ltd. 70 C.P.R. 105 is a leading Canadian decision on moral rights. The Ontario High Court of Justice affirmed the artist's right to integrity of their work...
, the court ruled that even though the Centre owned the sculpture, the ribbons had infringed Snow's moral rights. The ribbons were ordered removed.
The mall contains a wide selection of 230 stores, restaurants and two food courts. The mall is served by two subway
Toronto subway and RT
The Toronto subway and RT is a rapid transit system in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, consisting of both underground and elevated railway lines, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission . It was Canada's first completed subway system, with the first line being built under Yonge Street, which opened in...
stations, Queen
Queen (TTC)
Queen is a station on the Yonge–University–Spadina line of the Toronto, Ontario, Canada subway. It is located at 171 Yonge Street at Queen Street West/East.-Entrances:The main entrances are at the intersection of Yonge and Queen streets...
and Dundas
Dundas (TTC)
Dundas is a station of the Yonge–University–Spadina line of the subway system in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located at 300 Yonge Street at Dundas Street West/East....
, located at its southernmost and northernmost points respectively.
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
Sears Canada
Sears Canada Inc. is a retailer, headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, that operates in all provinces and territories across Canada with a network of 196 corporate stores, 195 dealer stores, 38 home improvement showrooms, 108 Sears Travel offices and a nationwide home maintenance, repair, and...
, which is the chain's largest store in the world at about 817850 square feet (75,980.8 m²), though they have blocked off the top two floors and the lower two floors were converted to mall space. Shortly after Sears' acquisition of Eaton's, the Timothy Eaton statue
Timothy Eaton statue
There are two castings of the well-known statue of Timothy Eaton, the famous Canadian retailer: one in Toronto, Ontario, the other in Winnipeg, Manitoba.-History:...
was moved from the Dundas Street entrance to the Royal Ontario Museum
Royal Ontario Museum
The Royal Ontario Museum is a museum of world culture and natural history in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. With its main entrance facing Bloor Street in Downtown Toronto, the museum is situated north of Queen's Park and east of Philosopher's Walk in the University of Toronto...
. The complex retains the Eaton Centre name, representing an ongoing tribute to Timothy Eaton
Timothy Eaton
Timothy Eaton was a Canadian businessman who founded the Eaton's department store, one of the most important retail businesses in Canada's history.-Early life and family:...
and the small shop he once opened at this location.
In June 2010, a G-20 Summit
2010 G-20 Toronto summit
The 2010 G-20 Toronto summit was the fourth meeting of the G-20 heads of government, in discussion of the global financial system and the world economy, which took place at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, during June 26–27, 2010...
protester was filmed shouting at the locked doors of an entrance to the Eaton Centre, which was in the process of entering lockdown as the street protests loomed nearby. The video quickly became an Internet meme
Internet meme
The term Internet meme is used to describe a concept that spreads via the Internet. The term is a reference to the concept of memes, although the latter concept refers to a much broader category of cultural information.-Description:...
, but was removed by the original poster shortly thereafter.
Redevelopment
The exterior of the Eaton Centre store was designed in the style of the 1970s, intended at that time to be a statement of Eaton's dominance and its future aspirations. However, the "modern" design of this mustard-coloured box has not aged well and is generally considered (from an architectural perspective) to be a poor replacement for the demolished main store.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.
Late 90s, early 00s
Further redevelopments, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, added new retail space. The west side of the complex, opposite Albert Street, was expanded. The northeast corner (Yonge and Dundas intersection) was redesigned, with a number of former tenants, including a Toronto Police ServiceToronto Police Service
The Toronto Police Service , formerly the Metropolitan Toronto Police, is the police service for the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the largest municipal police service in Canada and second largest police force in Canada after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police...
office, relocated or were evicted to make way for H&M
H&M
H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB is a Swedish retail-clothing company, known for its fast-fashion clothing offerings for women, men, teenagers and children....
's Canadian flagship store designed by Queen's Quay Architects International Inc.
One of the mall's two parking garages, the nine-storey Dundas Parkade on Dundas Street with its two spiral stack ramps and the multiplex cinema below it, was demolished in 2003. In the place of the garage and of a vacant development site on the southeast corner of Dundas and Bay streets, a new wing of the Eaton Centre was opened in 2006, containing Canadian Tire
Canadian Tire
Canadian Tire Corporation, Limited is one of Canada's 60 largest publicly traded companies. The firm operates an inter-related network of businesses engaged in retailing hardgoods, apparel and petroleum as well as financial and automotive services, employing more than 58,000 people across Canada...
and Best Buy
Best Buy
Best Buy Co., Inc. is an American specialty retailer of consumer electronics in the United States, accounting for 19% of the market. It also operates in Mexico, Canada & China. The company's subsidiaries include Geek Squad, CinemaNow, Magnolia Audio Video, Pacific Sales, and, in Canada operates...
, with Ryerson University
Ryerson University
Ryerson University is a public research university located in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its urban campus is adjacent to Yonge-Dundas Square located at the busiest intersection in Downtown Toronto. The majority of its buildings are in the blocks northeast of the square in Toronto's Garden...
's Faculty of Business and a new parking garage with 574 spaces on the upper levels. This work was done by Queen's Quay Architects International Inc. with Zeidler Partnership Architects.
There are now about 330 stores in the retail complex, which encompasses about 1722000 square feet (159,979 m²), making it the largest mall in Ontario.