Toronto Eaton Centre (Ongoing Renewal) | ?m | ?s | Cadillac Fairview | Zeidler

What do you mean by "demolish the exterior"? They will likely be redoing the building's envelope and include a new facade for Nordstrom., different from what Sears has currently. If you mean that they should demolish the entire structure, it doesn't make any sense. The bones of the building are good, not to mention it would be incredibly wasteful. It makes the most sense to strip it down to its structure, and rebuild from there, which is what they are doing.
 
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It would be nice if they could have another go at the Dundas Street entrance while they're at it. Although it wasn't exactly efficient in it's former layout, it had a real sense of arrival to it. Now, it's such a blatantly awkward node of a thing. Room could be made to at least build up and bring back some of the old atrium feel. Nordstrom's might gain appeal from having a better-designed entryway there.

It had style.
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Agreed. The centrepiece is now a round garbage can.

There used to be a bit of a sense of place there. The windy woman art, the large galss atrium, even the police substation and ATMpalooza.

Of all the things Cadillac Fairview has done to butcher the Eaton Centre (red ribbons on Michael Snow's birds not withstanding) the desctructino of the Dundas Entrance and the construction the current media tower is the worst.

The removal of the sense of the place and its relationship to arriving at the Eaton's Store is one of the worst "renovations" made to a modern building. As for those who don't like the original exterior of Eaton's - its the victim of a) changing tastes b) poor upkeep and c) adaptation to differing uses.

In its original incarnation as Eaton's - I think it looked quite handsome.

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I always expected Michael York and Jenny Augiter to come out of those doors to find Peter Ustinov waiting on the sidewalk....
 
Nordstrom seems like an odd fit for a Yonge/Dundas location. The Nordstrom crowd definitely feels a little more uptown than downtown.
 
Are there any plans on changing the layout so that it makes better use of the Canadian Tire hallway?
 
Nordstrom seems like an odd fit for a Yonge/Dundas location. The Nordstrom crowd definitely feels a little more uptown than downtown.

Agreed, it would make more sense to have Simons here (as much as I would like to have Nordsrtom downtown) - the merchandise mix/price point and the store's target customer is better suited for Yonge and Dundas. The website "Retail Insider" did report however that Cadillac Fairview may try to fit Simons in to the "1 Below" level with some main floor exposure. http://www.retail-insider.com/2014/01/could-la-maison-simons-join-nordstrom.html
 
Agreed, it would make more sense to have Simons here (as much as I would like to have Nordsrtom downtown) - the merchandise mix/price point and the store's target customer is better suited for Yonge and Dundas. The website "Retail Insider" did report however that Cadillac Fairview may try to fit Simons in to the "1 Below" level with some main floor exposure. http://www.retail-insider.com/2014/01/could-la-maison-simons-join-nordstrom.html

Good article, NE. It's hard to believe that the Sears store was 816,000 SF (and was the largest Sears store in the world). Bloomingdale's on Lexington is 859,000, Sak's Fifth Avenue is 646,000 SF and Lord & Taylor is 611,000 SF. On the other hand Macy's on West 34th is 2.2 million SF.

(http://therealdeal.com/issues_articles/the-makeover-department/)

Nordstrom's flagship store is Seattle is 383,000 SF.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordstrom

Neiman-Marcus's flagship store in Dallas is 129,000 SF.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neiman_Marcus_Building

Harrod's is the largest department store in Europe with about 1,000,000 SF, and Selfridge's has 540,000 SF.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrods

Le Bon Marche in Paris is 344,000 SF.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/18/style/18iht-fbon.html?_r=0
 
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Are there any plans on changing the layout so that it makes better use of the Canadian Tire hallway?

There is barely any space back there to do anything with. Behind the walls is the Eaton Centre shipping docks and garbage room.
 
What do you mean by "demolish the exterior"? They will likely be redoing the building's envelope and include a new facade for Nordstrom., different from what Sears has currently. If you mean that they should demolish the entire structure, it doesn't make any sense. The bones of the building are good, not to mention it would be incredibly wasteful. It makes the most sense to strip it down to its structure, and rebuild from there, which is what they are doing.

I would argue. The current frame causes a giant eight story wall against Yonge that is unwelcoming and uninviting. They could create something amazing with this big space of land, but then again, this is CF we're talking about.
 

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