Toronto’s Civic Square and the Eaton Centre

Late in 1965, a few months after the opening of Toronto’s new City Hall, the T. Eaton Company, the neighbour on the north and east of the old city hall, announced proposals for a 22 acre redevelopment scheme which would involve the destruction of the old city hall, the replacement of the existing Eaton’s store with a new building, the construction of several new office towers, a hotel, convention centre, and specialty shop area, and the creation of a network of underground pedestrian ways and parking areas. The Eaton Centre would, when developed, occupy the eastern side of Nathan Phillips Square, now framed, as Viljo Revell conceived it, by the west face of the old city hall; and Eaton’s has offered to purchase the old city hall from Metropolitan Toronto in order to commence its project. While the initial reactions of members of the Metropolitan Executive Committee and Council to the plan were, on the whole, enthusiastic, there were more critical responses from lay admirers of the old city hall, from a number of independent architects and planners, and from the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario. As Eaton’s conceptual scheme was further developed this spring, and as the members of the Metropolitan and City Councils prepared to make their decisions on the fate of the Eaton proposal, public discussion of the project continued. Two architects here present their comments on the plan and its implications for downtown Toronto.