9. Eaton Centre: Renovation or Destruction?
Tye Farrow and Sharon Vanderkaay
When the Toronto Eaton Centre opened in 1977 it immediately drew huge crowds of local and international origin.
Today it remains one of Toronto's top tourist destinations, attracting more than 50 million visitors each year, while holding the distinction of best-performing centre in Canada in terms of sales per square foot.
For the first time in its 34-year history, the interior of this grand urban space is undergoing a major renovation. Begun last July and scheduled for completion in the summer of 2012, the $120-million revitalization project will, according to owner Cadillac Fairview, “reinvigorate the retail experience” and “reaffirm the well-known landmark’s position as Canada’s premier urban shopping destination.”
Within the main galleria space, the new environment will be sleek and transparent: handrails, escalators and elevators will be finished in glass and stainless steel, floors will be granite tile in various shades of grey, and a custom light sculpture will be suspended over the iconic fountain.
It’s what’s being lost that is troubling. Designed by renowned Canadian architect Eberhard Zeidler, Toronto Eaton Centre literally redefined the urban shopping mall. It was a revelation: an bright, airy, truly exuberant interior shopping street. The design details—strong vertical pipe handrails, exposed structure and mechanical systems brought the strong, unifying industrial details of the city inside.
At this point it is worthwhile stopping to reflect on the reasons for this building’s iconic status. Charles Eames, the eminent American designer wrote, “The details are not details – they make the product. It is, in the end, these details that give the product its life.”
What made the design of Eaton Centre so powerful? It was the sum of many details, where each element, no matter how apparently insignificant, was carefully designed to complement other elements and contribute to the greater whole. For example, the railings were not standardized assemblies, but rather specifically designed as sculptural elements to harmonize with the steel space frame of the galleria overhead and to elegantly integrate with the floors and walls. Their perfect proportions emphasized the vertical thrust of the space and were complemented by floors of crystalline white terrazzo trimmed with warm-toned Welsh quarry tiles and pebbled aggregates. The tiles were carefully arranged to visually compress the expansive floors to a human scale. Those design details were intrinsic to Zeidler’s creation and thereby to its overwhelming popularity and financial success.
Unfortunately, these railings and other details that added up to this bold Canadian innovation have been eradicated by the mall’s revitalization project.
How big a leap of faith was the design of Eaton Centre? In May, 1977, Eb Zeidler said in Canadian Architect, “If the downtown area of the city is its heart then the building of Eaton Centre can be compared to open heart surgery and like such (an) operation is not without danger.’’
This risky intervention was undertaken with gusto and led to building a culturally significant icon that many shopping centre designers have tried to imitate without success.
Let’s consider how other countries regard their culturally significant structure? Would citizens of Paris condone a facelift of the decorative grillwork of the Eiffel tower? Or replacement of their Art Nouveau subway entrances with an updated structure?
There is a vast difference between renovations that serve evolving functional needs, and making changes that alter the design’s essence. This is not a clear issue of what is right and wrong. However, in the same sense that we have come to expect a vigorous design review of proposed waterfront buildings, future renovations to modern designs such as Ontario Place deserve a healthy dialogue regarding what has lasting value.
Why does our society demand that noteworthy designs of a hundred years old or more be preserved, while modern architecture is routinely being destroyed? In fifty years’ time, it is conceivable that Eaton Centre will undergo a major restoration to bring back the celebrated original impact.
As a society we need to engage in a larger discussion regarding the essential elements of an enduring design. Increased visual literacy can help us bypass the “oops” step of performing unnecessary surgery that threatens the building’s life.
Tye Farrow is a principal in the Farrow Partnership
