The amazing history of the Yorkdale Shopping Centre in Toronto
When visiting Yorkdale Shopping Centre today, I find it difficult to realize that it is the same plaza that I experienced when it opened in 1964.
It has been greatly expanded during the past five decades, and though the original sections of the mall survive, they are almost unrecognizable.
The story of Yorkdale is a vital part of the history of retailing in the Toronto area. It was Canada’s first indoor mall, an improvement for shoppers that particularly suited the Canadian climate. It allowed people to park, walk inside an enclosed structure, and access shops from its interior.
Yorkdale was built in an era when many suburbanites shopped at “strip malls,” constructed to accommodate those living in communities surrounding the city that owned cars.
The first strip mall in the Toronto area was at Bayview and Eglinton. Many such malls still exist today, consisting of shops built in one or more rows, their front doors facing an outdoor parking lot. Customers enter the stores directly from the parking lots.
Strip malls began appearing after the Second World War, when many Torontonians were relocating from the city’s urban core to the suburbs.
They were following a dream of owning larger homes on more generous-size building lots. Some of the houses they left behind in the inner city were purchased or rented by the immigrants arriving in the city.
Relocating to the suburbs was facilitated by the post-war’s booming economy, which placed automobile prices within the reach of more and more Canadians.
Vehicle sales skyrocketed, creating the beginning of a “car-dominated society.” It allowed people to travel greater distances to shop or attend a movie.
Eaton’s was one of the first to realize the potential of meeting the needs of the increasing number of suburbanites.
Prior to the Second World War, the company’s department stores were in the downtown core. Aware of the expansion in population in the suburbs, in 1954, for the price $1.4 million, Eaton’s bought 100 acres of land located to the northwest of the city. The intent was to erect a large shopping mall on the site.
Eaton’s knew that it needed another major retailer to join in the venture. As a result, in 1961, the company offered to sell the Robert Simpson Company one half of the site if it joined in the enterprise.
However, Simpsons wanted only 19 acres, on the west side of the property, and stipulated that the price must include sewage, water connections and roadways. Eaton’s agreed and spent $1 million to satisfy the terms of the deal.
The land where Yorkdale was to be erected was cleared and ready for construction by the spring of 1962, the work commencing during the early-summer of that year.
Everything was completed by February 1964. As opening day drew near, John David Eaton insisted that the mall close at 5:30 or 6 p.m., similar to its downtown stores.
However, the smaller retailers in the project strongly objected, since they wanted to remain open until 9:30 p.m.. John David finally agreed, after he was assured that employees would not be required to work longer hours than they wanted.
On Sunday, February 16, 1964, long lines of customers gathered at the various entrances to Yorkdale, waiting for the 9:30 a.m. opening. By mid-morning, its four parking lots (6,500 spaces) were completely filled.
At 2:30 p.m., drivers were scouring the lots trying to find a place to park. By the end of the day, the Star newspaper estimated that 100,000 shoppers had crammed into the mall.
Yorkdale had over 1.2 million square feet of space, containing 61 retail shops, several restaurants, and multiple services.
The Dominion (today their stores are named Metro) was the largest the company had ever built, containing 17 checkout counters.
The week the plaza opened, some of the shops were not yet occupied, but it was still an impressive sight. For a short period of time, Yorkdale was the largest indoor shopping mall in the world. Though its size was impressive, its importance was perhaps due to another factor.
Yorkdale set the pattern for future malls across Canada. It demonstrated the advantages of locating malls near transportation hubs, which allowed shoppers access from nearby arterial roadways.
As well, it showed that if retail enterprises of this size were to be successful, more than one large-scale store was required. Yorkdale actually possessed three—Simpsons on its west side, Eaton’s on its east, and a Dominion Store on the south.
It was the first time that Canada’s two largest department store chains—Eaton’s and Simpsons—were under one roof. This was accomplished, even though they had been competitors across Canada for many decades.
Prior to the opening of Yorkdale, many people living in the suburbs had continued to shop downtown or visited local strip malls. Neither of these options was truly convenient.
When suburbanites drove downtown, even then, parking was becoming a nightmare. Strip malls were also at a disadvantage as they were exposed to the vagaries of the Canadian weather.
The appeal of Yorkdale was obvious. It offered numerous retail outlets that were closer to home than the downtown, were impervious to the weather, and possessed plenteous free parking.
Torontonians were able to drive to the mall to shop indoors, enjoy a meal or snack, and attend a movie theatre, all at one destination.
The configuration of the Yorkdale Plaza was basically an “L-shape.” The top of the “L”, the bottom, and elbow of the “L” were anchored by one of the large stores.
The corridors that connected the big stores resembled indoor shopping streets, one-third of a mile long, 40 feet wide, the ceiling above them two storeys in height.
The three large retailers had large open spaces in front of them, similar to a courtyard or piazza, which were three-storeys high.
Since the mall was climate controlled, shoppers were able to enjoy strolling along the wide avenue-like areas and courtyards in comfort, immune to the weather outside.
The curtains in the spacious windows, located high above the shops, could be automatically adjusted to allow the proper amount of light to enter the interior of the plaza.
Other pleasing features were the two large fountains as well as numerous 20-foot trees, some of them palm trees.
In 1964, Yorkdale had many popular stores — Reitman’s, Collyer Shoes, Peoples Credit Jewellers, Laura Secord Candies, Hunts Bakery, Jordan Wines, Henry Birks and Sons Jewellers, Jack Frasers Men’s and Boy’s Wear, Toy World, Kresge’s and Eddie Black’s Camera Store.
I vividly remember Coleman’s Delicatessen and its delicious corned beef sandwiches, the restaurant located near the Dominion Store.
There was a Smitty’s Pancake House, which also served small steaks (the site later became “Obies”). The Encore Noshery was reputed to be the largest restaurant in Canada in a shopping centre.
The beauty parlour, “Ponytails,” which catered to the needs of small children, had hobbyhorses instead of regular chairs.
Yorkdale had a cinema with two auditoriums, with combined seating for 1200 patrons. I remember seeing Mel Brook’s zany film Blazing Saddles at the Yorkdale Cinema in 1974.
It was an afternoon matinee, attended mostly by seniors. I was one of the few persons in the audience that did not have purple-tinted hair. As a matter of fact, even then, I did not have much hair at all.
As the screening progressed, I discovered that I was also one of the few that was laughing. I admit that the humour was a little off-colour— typically Mel Brooks.
Eaton’s and Simpsons both had restaurants. The Simpson’s Court restaurant overlooked the cathedral-like interior courtyard with its three-storey ceiling.
I remember visiting it numerous times for lunch, usually ordering the daily special of soup, chicken-pot pie, and a salad.
Eaton’s Vista restaurant was on the second floor, at the northwest corner of the store, overlooking the mall where there was a fountain. In the evenings, the Vista featured all-you-can-eat buffet, which included roast beef.
I sometimes visited it on a Friday for dinner. I seem to remember that Eaton’s restaurant was later renamed “The Loft,” but I cannot find any proof of this. Memory sometimes plays strange tricks.
Though Yorkdale was located quite a distance north of the downtown, it was connected by several arterial roadways—Highway 401, Wilson Avenue, and Dufferin Street.
Market research conducted by Eaton’s had shown that the mall was likely to attract shoppers from within a 30-minute drive. This meant that people as far away as Brampton and Whitby could easily drive to Yorkdale, as well as those living north of Bloor Street.
This was a potential market of almost a million shoppers. In 1966, the location became even more advantageous when the interchange at the Allen Expressway and the 401 was completed, and in January 1978, when the mall was connected to the University/Yonge subway line.
The architect of the Yorkdale Mall and the Eaton’s Store was John Graham Consultants. The store Graham created for Eaton’s had a striking exterior, with off-white bricks containing three-dimensional patterns that accented the vertical elements of the design.
Another added feature of the plaza was the underground truck tunnel that delivered goods to the retail outlets. The gigantic Dominion Store featured an underground conveyor belt that delivered customers' purchases to a station in the south-west parking lot, where they could pick up their groceries.
John B. Parkin Associates were hired to design the Simpsons store, the architect within the firm who was assigned the work being John Andrews, a Harvard-educated Australian.
During the years ahead, Andrews opened his own firm and won the contracts for the University of Toronto’s Scarborough Campus and the CN Tower.
I recall attending Boxing Day sales at Yorkdale during the 1970s; I visited early in the morning to avoid the enormous crowds, even though compared to today, they were considerably smaller.
Yorkdale was where I first experienced the frustration of losing my automobile in a parking lot. I soon learned to memorize the row or section number where it was located.
During the 1980s, I visited the mall to attend the Yorkdale Antique Market. It was usually held each February and continued consecutively for three or four years.
It was a large display, which fully occupied all of the “L”-shaped space. The mall also held fashion and automobile shows.
On frigid winter days, for exercise, I drove to the mall in the early morning to walk within the enclosed area. When the shops opened, I enjoyed a coffee and then drove home.
In 1984, Yorkdale was expanded by an additional 153,000 square feet, with 75 new stores, at a cost of $14 million.
In 1991, Sears Department store opened in the plaza. In 1999, the Rainforest Cafe began serving food in a tropical atmosphere (it closed in 2014).
In 2012, an addition was erected on the southwest side of Yorkdale. It included a relocated and expanded Holt Renfrew Store, situated where the Dominion store had been.
In 2015, the Sears Store on the west side of the plaza was demolished and replaced with the 70,000 square-foot Restoration Hardware, which opened in 2017. It resembled an impressive mansion with indoor and outdoor shops, a courtyard cafe and rooftop conservatory/park.
In 2016, another section was built on the east side, with a Nordtrom Department Store, Uniqlo, as well as 30 more retailers.
In 2017, the The Cheesecake Factory restaurant commenced operation. More expansions have continued since.
Visiting Yorkdale in recent times, I lament the loss of the fountains and the large trees, particularly the palm trees. However, I thought that the massive skylights in the ceilings of the new sections were amazing.
Creative in design, they allow plenteous daylight to enter the interior walking areas. In some instances, I felt I was strolling up the nave of a great cathedral.
Doug Taylor was a teacher, historian, author and artist who wrote extensively about Toronto history on tayloronhistory.com. This article first appeared on his site on February 21, 2018 and has been republished here with the permission of his estate. The article has been modified slightly.
The Running List Of Retail Store Closures And Bankruptcies In 2020
Over the past few years, Canada has seen some many once-beloved stores shutter locations or shut down business for good.
Just last year, we said goodbye to household names like Home Outfitters and Payless to name a couple. And the retail apocalypse has already claimed many victims in 2020. With the added hardships of COVID-19 on retailers, we’re seeing more shutter for good.
As we’ve done in past years, we are keeping a watchful eye on the retail store closures and bankruptcies that affect the Canadian market.
Below you’ll find a list of all the brands and retailers that have filed for bankruptcy or announced store closures in Canada in 2020.
Note: This article will be updated as more stores and brands announce filings and closures.
At the end of November 2019, home improvement chain Lowe’s Canada announced that it would be shuttering stores across Canada in order to improve overall performance. The closures will affect 34 underperforming Lowe’s and Rona stores, with all listed stores expected to close by the end of February 2020.
In January 2020, Bose announced that it would be shuttering all 119 locations across North America, Europe, Japan, and Australia. The electronics brand attributed the closures to a “dramatic shift to online shopping in specific markets.”
At the beginning of the year, a third-quarter fiscal report for Pier 1 Imports revealed that overall sales were down at the home retailer. The retailer announced that it would “reduce its store footprint by up to 450 locations” in North America in order to lower its expenses and to “better align its business with the current operating environment.” And just a month after the original statement, the retailer announced that all 67 Canadian Pier 1 stores will be closing.
Google Maps/Lucas King
Hudson’s Bay has found itself in trouble as the retailer continues to close stores around the country. In October, the iconic department store faced lawsuits over $3.5 million in unpaid rent from the landlords of five locations in Quebec. Unfortunately, two Hudson’s Bay locations were temporarily shut down by landlords, one in Vancouver, and one in Toronto at Centrepoint Mall. Hopefully this isn’t a glimpse of the future of Hudson’s Bay.
Back in October 2019, once-popular jeweller Links Of London began liquidating its American and U.K. stores, which later foreshadowed what would happen in Canada. In January 2020, the retailer announced that it planned on closing all five of its Canadian locations.
January saw many store closures in 2020. Carlton Cards & Papyrus will be closing all North American locations, totalling 78 Canadian locations and 178 locations in the U.S. With that being said, the closures aren’t all bad news — Carlton Cards and Papyrus will still be available at retail locations like Indigo, Sobey’s, and more.
Google Maps/Dorna Mahini
The iconic pink door shop, Pink Tartan has emptied its 3,500 square-foot store and closing its doors at the Yorkville flagship. Not only did the store sell its own Pink Tartan fashion pieces, but it also offered vintage luxury designer products as well. Unfortunately, the Yorkville space is following in the footsteps of the Pink Tartan Bayview Village location that closed several months ago. Luckily, you can still shop the brands pieces online or at the Niagara Outlet Collection.
After 74 years in business, fair trade retailer Ten Thousand Villages announced that it would be shuttering its Canadian operations, including its web store and the majority of its physical retail locations. There will 10 stores across Canada in total, and Canadians can expect retail operations to cease at the end of May 2020.
At the end of January 2020, Freemark Apparel Brands, the company that has the rights to sell Bench merchandise in Canada, announced that it would be closing all of its Bench stores to focus on e-commerce and wholesale clients. The closures are expected to affect all Canadian Bench locations, but the iconic U.K.-based brand will still be available in retailers like Hudson’s Bay, WINNERS, and more.
Victoria’s Secret has been on the decline for years. With a shift in the market towards body positivity, controversial comments, and increasing competition in the lingerie space, the brand has struggled to appeal to its once-loyal customer base. Since stores have been temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, L Brands noted that its first-quarter sales fell 37% to $1.65 billion from $2.63 billion a year ago. And while L Brands saw a bit of a boost in Victoria’s Secret’s e-commerce sales, it’s not enough to justify keeping stores open. L Brands will be closing 250 Victoria’s Secret stores across North America.
The retail biz is getting tougher and tougher with competition heating up and the current COVID-19 pandemic that forced stores to close. Quebec-based sporting goods retailer SAIL Outdoors Inc., which operates SAIL and Sportium has just filed for bankruptcy protection. The company filed for protection under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act and said that this will allow it to obtain support while it implements a restructuring plan. As of yet, no store closures have been announced.
In May 2020, Reitmans filed for creditor protection. Filing for protection under the CCAA is truly the hardest decision we have had to make as an organization in our almost 100 years of history, but this pandemic has left us no choice,” Chief Executive Officer Stephen Reitman said. “We believe that this is the only course of action to ensure we remain successful in the future.”
Montreal-based ALDO, the parent company of GLOBO, Aldo Shoes, and Call It Spring, obtained creditor protection in May 2020. In a press release, David Bensadoun, Chief Executive Officer of the company, said, “It is no secret that the retail industry has experienced rapid and significant change over the last several years. We were making strong progress with the transformation of our business to tackle these challenges; however, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has put too much pressure on our business and our cash flows.” The brand’s filings revealed that not all of its 850 North American stores would reopen after the temporary closures and some will stay closed for good.
In June, Addition Elle and Thyme Maternity announced that stores will permanently close in Canada. This news means that 77 Addition Elle and 54 Thyme Maternity locations will close as part of Reitmans’ restructuring plan since it filed for creditor protection. According to Retail-Insider, the main goal is to liquidate all inventory in anticipation of these permanent closures which are planned for July 18 for Thyme Maternity and August 15 for Addition Elle.
J.Crew filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in May 2020, marking one of the first major retailers to do so since the coronavirus outbreak. While J.Crew has filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, its online operations will remain open throughout the restructuring. The company also said that it anticipates that stores will reopen when it’s safe to do so, however, Canadian stores had already been dwindling prior to the government-mandated closures of non-essential businesses.
Henry’s, otherwise known as “Canada’s greatest camera store,” filed a Notice of Intention to Make a Proposal (NOI) pursuant to Section 50.4(1) of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act in May 2020. According to Insolvency Insider, Cranbrook Glen Enterprises Ltd., the company that operates camera and accessories retailer Henry’s, intends to shutter close to a third of its stores. With the temporary closure of all 30 Henry’s stores due to COVID-19, the retailer has seen a large impact on its sales. The company has not confirmed which locations will be closing.
The popular tea store announced that it’s planning to close 166 of its locations across Canada and 42 locations across the U.S. Fortunately, tea lovers will still be able to shop at 18 Canadian locations in British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick, as well as online.
The popular coffee chain plans to close 200 stores across Canada over the span of the next two years. However, Starbucks is also testing new pickup-only locations that you may see pop-up around your neighbourhood.
La Senza
La Senza will also be closing stores in Canada. As its parent company Regent plans to downsize the chain, La Senza will be closing 17 stores across the country.
Popular retail brand Gap has announced that they plan to close a number of stores across Canada to focus on its e-commerce store, as well as elevating the stores that remain open. The brand has not announced how many of the stores are going to be closed yet. During the pandemic, Gap announced that many of its stores would not reopen as temporary store closures lift.
Jewelry store Thomas Sabo is known for its cute charm bracelets. Sadly, the brand has decided that it will be closing all of its stores in Canada. With that being said, you can still shop the brand through its online store.
The technology giant has decided to close all seven of its stores in Canada, as well as most of its physical stores across the world. While four locations across the world will stay open as they are reimagined, the tech company will be primarily operating online.
Surprisingly, Muji U.S.A. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this year. The Japanese retailer, which specializes in home goods and organizational items, has taken a hit due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Even though Muji said that this U.S. filing won’t affect its stores in Canada, only time will tell.
L.A. based denim company Lucky Brand has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The brand plans to continue operations and allegedly has plans to sell the company to the owner of Aéropostale and Nautica. Global News reports that Lucky brand will close 13 of the 200 stores it operates, but that number could go up.
Another Canadian retailer Mendocino is closing its stores for good, as reported in July. The Toronto-based and family-owned company also runs M Boutique, which will likely be closing as well. According To An Insolvency Notice, The company is said to be closing “all or substantially all” of its stores. On a positive note, the company launched an online shopping platform, which did not exist before COVID-19.
Ascena Retail Group, the owner of Ann Taylor, officially filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July. In an effort to restructure, stores across the U.S, Canada, Puerto Rico, and Mexico will close. The filing came with news that the company allegedly had debts of over $12 billion. Notably, Ascena also owns Lane Bryant, LOFT, Lou & Grey, and Justice.
Groupe Dynamite, the Montreal-based company that owns Dynamite and Garage, filed for Creditor Protection in September. The company operated 400 stores in eight countries, with most of its locations in Canada. At the time of the announcement, there were no confirmed number of store closings.
Iconic Montreal retailer Le Chateau filed for bankruptcy in October, after 60 years in business. Although the brand enjoyed popularity in the 90s and early 2000s, they were allegedly unable to keep up with changing fashion and retail trends. Unfortunately, the bankruptcy means the closure of 123 stores across Canada.
Google Maps/Max Vo
After first opening in Canada in 2015 at Square One in Mississauga, NYX Cosmetics is officially closing all of its Canadians shops. The brand had already shuttered a handful of its brick and mortars earlier this year, and now the remaining 10 have fallen victim to the closing. Although you may no longer be able to check out the products in the company store, NYX Cosmetics will still be available on its website and Amazon, as well as Shoppers Drug Mart, Rexall, and London Drugs.
Google Maps/Gil P
The Gap has officially announced that its Canadian flagship in Toronto will be permanently closing in January 2021. The store which resides at 60 Bloor Street West has been in that same location for over 30 years now. This news follows the announcement that the Gap flagship in Chicago will also be closing in January 2021. It’s said that this is part of the brand’s strategy to adapt and grow its online presence.
Unfortunately, the Gap flagship plans to close in January 2021.
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Historicist: Yorkdale Mall and the Aesthetics of Commerce
culture Historicist: Yorkdale Mall and the Aesthetics of Commerce
Beloved by shoppers and blasted by critics, Yorkdale opened 48 years ago this week.
On February 26, 1964, shoppers dressed in their Sunday best walked through Yorkdale Shopping Centre for the first time. With over 1.2 million square feet of retail, restaurants, and services—although not all of them were yet leased on opening day—Yorkdale was briefly the largest indoor shopping mall in the world.
With three anchor stores—Simpsons at the west, Eaton’s at the east, and a Dominion at the south—Yorkdale was oriented in an L-shaped indoor shopping street. Shoppers could stroll in climate controlled comfort from one end to another, passing stores like Reitman’s, Collyer Shoes, Laura Secord, Toy World, and Eddie Black’s Camera Store along the way. There was a dual cinema, and Encore Noshery was the largest restaurant in a Canadian shopping centre. Until that point, many suburbanites had continued to conduct their shopping downtown. But Yorkdale represented a new feature of postwar life where the best-known stores of the core were installed on the periphery. “It’s Instant Downtown—even though it’s Uptown,” as one promotional article put it.
Not everyone was impressed, however. In the June 1964 issue of Canadian Architect, architect Ron Thom judged: “It is a gigantic compendium of follies, and it fails disastrously to answer up to the complex sociological conditions implicit in any such place, particularly one of this size.”
In 1953, about half of Metro Toronto’s 240 square miles had been urbanized, according to James T. Lemon’s Toronto Since 1918 (James Lorimer & Company, 1985). By 1965, Metro had sprawled to cover three-quarters of that terrain, giving rise to an increased emphasis on automobile travel in urban planning. By the late 1950s, Metro’s official plan called for a series of expressways skirting the city’s core, including the long proposed extension of Spadina Road from south of St. Clair Avenue to the north side of the 401. (Photo at right: exterior of Eaton’s at Yorkdale Shopping Centre, 1965, from the Archives of Ontario (F 229-308-0-553).)
In the mid-1950s, the T. Eaton Company bought a 40 hectare grassy meadow on the southwest side of the 401-Dufferin Street interchange as the site for a massive suburban department store. With an apparently ideal crossroads location, the plan was for no mere small-scale shopping plaza. In 1958, Simpsons, the rival Yonge Street department store, was invited to join the project. Simpsons agreed—the first time the two venerable retailers would occupy space in a single shopping centre—and bought eight hectares adjacent to the Eaton’s site.
Catering to the suburban, car-oriented community for whom a shopping trip downtown—with the difficulties of congestion and parking—was impractical, malls quickly became a feature of the postwar city. Initially built as outdoor plazas and then as enclosed buildings with a single anchor, the number of shopping centres in Metro Toronto increased rapidly: from 5 in 1953 to 227 in 1966, according to Lemon. At first, malls catered to the immediate neighbourhood, like the strip mall at Eglinton and Bayview—the first in Toronto—or were purpose-built to be regional centres at the heart of a new residential community, like Don Mills. But Yorkdale represented something new in Toronto: a regional centre, isolated but connected by roadways, and meant to supplant the downtown. Market research indicated that, with the 401 and secondary highways, the venture would attract shoppers from within a 28-minute drive—as far away as Brampton and Whitby—in addition to Torontonians north of Bloor Street. It was a potential market of 796,000 shoppers.
The plan for a major regional shopping centre was announced in 1958; local ratepayers organizations and North York’s council were enthusiastic. And, as was common for the time, the developers were able to negotiate ad hoc zoning modifications and approvals from municipal authorities eager for new assessment revenues.
John Graham Consultants was retained as architect for the mall, and John B. Parkin Associates for the Simpsons store. John Graham Jr. of Seattle had pursued a career in retail management before returning to his father’s architecture practice, giving him particular insight into the retail and commercial architecture that would raise the firm’s national profile. In addition to office towers, the Yale-educated architect was a pioneer at designing large-scale indoor shopping centres like Seattle’s Northgate Mall (1950), Milwaukee’s Capitol Court (1957), Wellington Square (1960) in London, Ontario, and almost 70 other malls in North America, Europe, and Australia.
Graham’s Eaton’s store at Yorkdale featured “an unusual exterior in off-white brick with a three dimensional pattern adding a strong vertical element,” as Michael Hugo-Brunt put it in the Journal of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (June 1964). The rest of the structure’s exterior, however, was unremarkable and, Hugo-Brunt added, seemed “conceived primarily to attract passers-by on 401.” In this, Yorkdale was much like Graham’s other works. “They were geared more to business than aesthetics,” architecture professor Meredith Clausen argues. “His primary concern was with speed and cost-effectiveness, not excellence in design.”
Yorkdale’s design emphasized innovative features, such as the underground truck tunnel for delivery of merchandise to the stores. And the enormous Dominion store, later dubbed a “jet-age supermarket” by journalists, featured an underground conveyor belt that carried a customer’s purchases to a pickup station in the south-west parking lot.
The Simpsons store’s primary designer at John B. Parkin Associates was John Andrews, a young, Harvard-educated Australian who’d joined the firm in 1958. Shortly after completing the Simpsons design, in 1962 Andrews struck out on his own and would gain acclaim as the architect of the University of Toronto’s Scarborough Campus and the CN Tower, among other high profile projects. John C. Parkin (no relation) is also listed in Canadian Architect (June 1964) as having done design work on the project. (At left: Yorkdale Shopping Centre, ca. 1965, from the City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 217, Series 249, File 196.)
Noting the influence of New Formalism, Robert Moffatt described Andrews’ work on the three-storey Simpsons: “Pairs of arched columns line the perimeter of the building, curving upward into deep parapets that gently flare outward at the top. The precast concrete cladding, when new, was a pristine white and glittered with Georgian quartz aggregate. Inset panels were Simpson’s blue.” The 83 porcelain-enamel steel panels were reversible to provide the opportunity to change the design scheme’s accent colours. Although taken alone the store was better regarded, Hugo-Brunt complained that viewed from the north, the two department stores “contrast unhappily with each other.”
Perhaps more important than the work of the architect, Howard Lesser wrote in Journal of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (June 1964), was the work of the Planning and Development Consultant. Lesser was the consultant who’d worked on the Yorkdale project; his role was determining the required square footage of selling area and storage for each category of merchandise, the number of shop units in each category, and their arrangement around the interior to ensure balanced competition at varying price levels across different retail categories.
Armed with market research and other information, the developers carefully selected which retailers would be invited to become tenants in order to appeal to a broad range of shoppers. While the department stores would carry some higher-end wares, a Kresge’s would cater to bargain shoppers. Similarly, in addition to a Birks, there would also be a Peoples Credit Jewellers. The King Street West men’s tailor, Beauchamp and Howe would be there, but so would Tip Top Tailors. Shop owners would pay rent of $5 per square foot while other plazas in Metro only charged $2.50 to $3.00. (By contrast, however, Yonge Street landlords commanded rents of $7 to $12.)
Such reliance on expertise at the conception and design stage of the project, however, would open Yorkdale to a common critique among its detractors: that the mall was more the product of market researchers, statisticians, and computer operators than of an architect. “I suspect,” Thom lamented, “that the final results are due as much as anything to the owners’ and developers’ decision to make the statisticians responsible for the architecture.”
Even as the architectural design was being finalized, construction had yet to begin even in earnest. While the Spadina Expressway was included in Metro’s Official Plan of 1959, it had not yet been formally approved for construction. The Eaton’s family endorsed Metro Chairman Frederick Gardiner’s scheme of expressways into and around Toronto, according to Chris Wattie in the National Post (December 29, 2007), having been lured to this particular site by the potential of a nearby expressway linked to downtown. They used their project—and its popularity with North York politicians and locals—as leverage, refusing to break ground unless Metro hastened the expressway’s approval. Meanwhile, Gardiner used the project as justification of the necessity of the expressway, using “predictions of traffic flow to and from this private project to help sell his own expressway project to politicians and the public,” according to Timothy J. Colton’s Big Daddy: Frederick G. Gardiner and the Building of Metropolitan Toronto (University of Toronto Press, 1980).
The Spadina Expressway was approved by Metro Council in 1961 for a cost of $74 million. And, with controversy beginning to build over the roadway, a route was finalized in 1962 to see the first phase stretch from Lawrence Avenue West to Wilson Avenue. In practice, however, when the expressway opened in 1964 it terminated at Yorkdale because the province needed another two years to finish construction of a 90-acre cloverleaf at the 401—which was being expanded to 12 lanes.
Yorkdale was developed by Trizec Corp. Ltd., the real estate firm founded when New York mogul William Zeckendorf Sr.’s Webb and Knapp ran out of money building Place Ville Marie in Montreal and Zeckendorf’s British lenders were brought in as partners to avoid foreclosure. Based in Montreal in the 1960s, Trizec would become one of North America’s largest real estate firms. Yorkdale, along with the Halifax Shopping Centre, and Burnaby’s Brentwood Shopping Centre, was among its earliest projects.
The site was cleared in the spring of 1962, and construction began shortly afterward with Taylor Woodrow (Canada) Ltd. as general contractor for the Eaton’s and mall portion, and E.G.M. Cape Co. (1956) Ltd. for the Simpsons store. By the time construction was finished, 500,000 cubic yards of earth had been moved, and 62,000 cubic yards of reinforced concrete and 6,000 tons of steel had been used, according to the Toronto Star (February 25, 1964). Employing 1,000 tradesmen and 100 subcontractors, the project took two years to complete.
Early Yorkdale ads and news articles emphasized how easy the mall was to reach by automobile from all directions. For its first few months of operation, however, drivers found the unfamiliar landscape and traffic flow of suburbia so confusing that Yorkdale hired 14 traffic wardens to help shoppers navigate the 6,500-space parking lot. (Map showing traffic routes to Yorkdale Shopping Centre from the Toronto Star (February 25, 1964). Note at right that the Spadina Expressway does not yet connect with the 401.)
Recalling a 1965 visit in The Short, Happy Walks of Max MacPherson (Macmillan of Canada, 1968), Harry Bruce likened the 54 acres of asphalt to a “wilderness” where traffic signs grew instead of trees—which, he noted ironically, could only be found inside the mall. In fact, the Star reported the lot featured 250 linden, elm, white birch, and maple trees as barriers to the roadways on the east and west sides. The northern side, bordering the 401, was left unprotected, resulting in a “vicious wind” as Bruce discovered. “The parking itself is laid out, one feels, more by a computer than by a planner concerned about people on foot and in cars,” Thom complained. Some said the intentional blandness of the landscaping was to more quickly hasten customers inside to shop.
The interior was airier and more spacious than malls of the time or since, with promenades 40 feet wide and 27 feet tall. Natural light funnelled in through glass panels above the storefronts. The novelty of an indoor mall required explanation by wide-eyed journalists. “Most store fronts are wide open,” one described. “There’s no door to open; you just move a step out of the main stream of the mall and you’re in a store.”
Each end of the mall and the elbow of the L were accented by broad courts with 40-foot ceilings. Overlooking the court outside Eaton’s, supported on mushroom-shaped columns, was a 300-seat restaurant with glass walls, flooding the courtyard with natural light and letting diners gaze out on a rooftop garden.
Outside the Simpsons, a court of pale grey terrazzo marble measuring 100 by 150 feet featured a vaulted ceiling with light fixtures hanging from each of 110 stalactites. “It is extremely dramatic, perhaps too much so for serenity,” Hugo-Brunt judged. While noting that the “fanciful plaster ceiling…appears as just that, to one who knows the secrets of building,” Thom praised it “as a joyous thing to the public at large who just go through.” In addition to a fountain and reflecting pool, the Simpsons court featured a striking circular staircase leading to a restaurant overlooking the mall beyond.
Looking back, Yorkdale evokes what Shawn Micallef called “utopian modernism” in Stroll: Psychogeographic Walking Tours of Toronto (Coach House Books, 2010). But at the time, architecture critics lambasted Yorkdale’s interior. “The shop frontages vary extensively,” Hugo-Brunt wrote, “and their elevational diversity reflects a lack of discipline or control.” Thom complained that the majority of the mall “resembles a group of separate parts, each designed by an angry individualist, determined not only to outdo, but to undo all the other parts around—a sort of architectural salad.” Although still critical, at least interior designer Allison Hymas acknowledged the limits of such critiques in the Journal of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (June 1964): “The design critic must bear in mind that this is essentially real estate and not architecture; that return on financial investment is the aim of the developers and not a concern for the creation of well ordered buildings in which buying and selling take place.”
“One is only saddened,” Thom concluded, “that most of those involved in creating Yorkdale were not more responsible in seeing that this great complex added to the culture and the quality of North Toronto in particular, and of the country in general.” In Canadian Architect, critic Donovan Pinker took this critique a step further, arguing that Yorkdale should have been at the centre of a rational scheme of urban planning. He wrote:
What could have happened, and what should have happened around Yorkdale, is that instead of clusters of unrelated piecemeal development with a three-level, twelve-lane expressway interchange in the middle, wise planning would have laid down a joint public-private, multi-use complex built atop a Spadina transit terminal, with expressways providing an outer automobile circulation system.
In the 1970s, a subway was indeed built in the median of the controversial expressway, which itself became the focal point of municipal politics and would never be extended beyond Eglinton.
In the fall of 1962, before the mall’s construction was even complete, there was already press speculation that Yorkdale would be expanded by 1970. Since its opening there have been plenty of renovations and remodellings as tenants have come and gone, and branded facades were erected on the exterior. Down-market stores like Kresge’s and the Dominion were replaced by higher-end stores like Holt Renfrew, as Micallef notes. Simpsons became the Bay; Eaton’s was replaced by Sears and, in 2005, entirely gutted and expanded for the arrival of Old Navy, Zara, and H&M.
Although the mall is no longer as bewilderingly novel, the centre remains popular with around 400,000 customers per week according to one estimate.
“Yorkdale revolutionized shopping in Ontario,” and became the template of shopping malls and suburban commercial development across the Golden Horseshoe and beyond.
Additional sources consulted: Anne Crawford in the Calgary Herald (August 6, 1994); Veronica Madonna, “Yorkdale Shopping Centre,” in Michael McClelland and Graeme Stewart, eds., Concrete Toronto (2007); James Rusk in the Globe and Mail (February 21, 2004); articles from the Globe and Mail (May 31 and November 24, 1962; February 26, 1964) and the Toronto Star (May 31 and November 24, 1962; February 25, 1964).
Every Saturday, Historicist looks back at the events, places, and characters that have shaped Toronto into the city we know today.