College Park is a shopping mall, residential and office complex on the southwest corner of Yonge and College streets in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
An Art Deco landmark, the building was initially known as Eaton's College Street. It was operated by Eaton's from 1930 to 1977. After being sold to new owners and adapted for new purposes, it was renamed as College Park.
Architecture
College Park was built for Eaton between 1928 and 1930, and was designed by Ross and Macdonald (in association with Henry Sproatt). The Montreal architectural firm was known for also designing the Royal York Hotel and Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, the Château Laurier Hotel in Ottawa, and the Montreal Eaton's store. Although the rest of a planned complex was not constructed, because of the Great Depression, the new Eaton store was considered a retail palace, the likes of which had never been seen in Toronto. It expressed the retail dominance of the Eaton's chain at that time. Tyndall limestone was used for the imposing exterior. Accentuating the Tyndall limestone was granite and a corrosion-resistant alloy of nickel and copper called monel metal.(Shoemaker, and Smith 22) The monel metal was used copiously on the building as trim and in panels along the window and door frames. In addition to this metal trim, cast stone and carvings were created for detailed decorative elements on the façade (Morawetz 5).
Marble was imported from Europe for the interior columns and colonnade. Lady Eaton arranged for two entire rooms to be removed from two manor houses in England and reassembled in the furniture department of the College Street store. The French architect Jacques Carlu (who later designed the Rainbow Room in New York City and Eaton's Ninth Floor (or the "9ième") in Montreal), was retained to design the interior of the Eaton's Seventh Floor, including the 1300-seat Eaton Auditorium and the elegant Round Room restaurant. The Eaton's Seventh Floor, considered an Art Moderne masterpiece, was at the heart of Toronto's cultural life for many years. The Auditorium hosted major performers of its day, including Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra, and the National Ballet of Canada. The noted Canadian pianist Glenn Gould, fond of the Auditorium's excellent acoustics, made a number of his recordings of music in this hall.
Classified specifically as a stripped classical art deco style, Eaton's College Street emphasized symmetry in the plan and rhythm in the arrangement of the fenestration, doors, and pilasters. A distinct repetitive pattern can be distinguished with the windows and pilasters, as well as with the arrangement of large entrances.
Three small windows are on the upper levels between each pilaster, and three large shop windows between each entrance. The original Eaton's College Street was designed with large shop windows on the floor level to attract window shoppers and pedestrians. The floor level has a large, distinctive base, another classical art deco characteristic. In addition to the oversized windows of the floor level, the base was made more prominent through the use of the granite and stone carvings framing it. On higher levels, the fenestration became long vertical strips separated by large pilasters, which highlighted the verticality of the structure as opposed to its mass (another distinguishing feature of art deco buildings) (Morawetz 46).
The pilasters of the upper levels have fluting and capitals of ionic composition and support a rather large entablature. Art Deco architecture, well known for its geometric patterns and ornamentation, is demonstrated in the detailed entablature, with a sculpted architrave, dentils on the cornice, and a monel metal trim along the top. Along the frieze are round ornamental metal pieces placed in a rhythmic order between the pilasters. Each entrance is flanked by a slightly protruding cast stone frame decorated with sculpted square shapes, and dentils, and bordered by a spiral, ribbon-shaped cast stone. The monel metal trim on the window frames represents the art deco style of having natural shapes such as flowers or sunbursts, as influenced from the Egyptian and Mayan styles (New York Architecture). As can be observed, the trim is a natural organic shape.
These features are present only on the Yonge and College street frontages. The back of the building, facing the park, while maintaining a rather symmetrical and repetitive fenestration pattern, is sparse on decoration. Entrances have been kept rather nondescript.
