Toronto Hudson's Bay Centre Renovations | 32.87m | 6s | Brookfield | Adamson

Just went by the building today, and just realized what a monstrosity this is and what bad implications it has for the rest of the area. The tower is okay, but the Marriott and the Bay are just about as fugly as you can get. We need a new store that is much less oppressing and more inviting, something that will have a good effect on the rest of Bloor east of Bloor and west of the viaduct by gentrifying the commercial on Bloor. We also may need a square/ public space surrounded by retail, allowing Yorkville to come east.
 
adma said:
And what's especially intriguing is how it must be by far the most perversely aloof high-rise building anywhere in Toronto--just thrusting up from the deepest bowels of the pillbox, true to no street elevation or nothing other than itself, or any apparent sort of human activity less than 100 feet above ground level. Must be a terrible place to be, psychologically speaking, in case of a "towering inferno" situation (and I seem to recall there *was* a fire there in the 80s or so, with the singed floors visible).
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The Plaza II apartment fire was in August of 1982


plazaII-fire.jpg



p1.jpg



p5.jpg
 
Ryuinfinity said:
Wow. Those newspaper articles are sensationalist crap.
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No, not really. What happened was many of the building services failed (power, communications, water pressure) compounding the problem, slowing emergency crews from getting to the site of the fire and plunging residents who were home or trying to escape into darkness. There's also a labyrinth of various stairwells and doors between the apartment tower, the hotel, The Bay and the street - it's not a typical stairwell by any means, so crews had a heck of a time getting up there in the dark. Most everything that could have gone wrong, did. It's very fortunate that more people didn't perish given all the obstacles faced by the Fire Department and how the very thick smoke spread through the 15th-20th apartment levels.
 
Which was exactly my point re "must be a terrible place to be, psychologically speaking, in case of a "towering inferno" situation".

But boy, seeing that photo now (and article, for that matter) *is* mind-blowing, even more so now than then...
 
There used to be several sets of highly shagadelic large, white, blobby, moulded plastic double seats in the underground Hudson Bay Centre concourse in the 1980's. The mall was larger in those days - with more retailers - until The Bay created an underground retail floor and swallowed up the space about 20 years ago. The part of the original concourse that has now disappeared, which had stores facing onto it, ran north from near where the LCBO now is and curved round past where the original washrooms still are ( subsumed in the Bay ) - near where there were also stairs up to Asquith Avenue - and joined the mall again near where the food court is. I wonder where the blobby plastic seats went? They'd probably sell for a fortune on Queen Street nowadays.
 
I remember those chairs very well. There was a group of them in front of the lottery kiosk about where The Bay concourse entrance is now.
Those retail stores where The Bay concourse level is sat empty for several years in the early 90's, save for one or two dollar stores. That end of the mall was a disaster for well over a decade. Actually most of the concourse was a disaster for most of that time, including that dark, smelly food court at the east end.
 
There was a very hot nightclub there in the 70's & early 80's called "Heaven", down below where Fabricland is now. I was in it once, but I was well underage!
 
I worked at the Plaza II hotel in '81/'82. The doormen/bellmen would often slip down to the disco for drinks after (or even during) work.
The Mall wasn't as tacky as it has become. With the two underdrground movie theatres and a lot of clublife focused on Yonge St. back then, there was more energy to the place than is evident there now.
Not to mention the reputation the Mall had (with those 'shagadelic blobby plastic charis) on rainy Sundays back in the days before (gasp!) Sunday shopping brought Christendom to and end. ;)
 
dt_toronto_geek said:
There was a very hot nightclub there in the 70's & early 80's called "Heaven", down below where Fabricland is now. I was in it once, but I was well underage!
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Heaven was originally a disco. It later became Rock and Roll Heaven and specialized on hard rock. That was in the days when Q107 had it studios in the tower above.
 
Wow,

As a potentially 'younger' UT member, it's always interesting to hear how the city has changed in the recent past (1970+).

Was 'Heaven' inside what is now Fabricland or underneath it, as dt_toronto_geek recalls?
 
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