Changing Trends in the Canadian “Mallscape” of the 1950S and 1960S1

e ssaY | essai Changing Trends in The Canadian “mallsCape” of The 1950s and 1960s1 M Arie-JOSÉe TherrieN is an associate professor > Marie-JoSée at the Faculty of Liberal Studies, Ontario College therrien of Art and design University. She is an active researcher in the field of architectural and design history in both english- and French-speaking circles and has published on the architecture of Canadian he almost total absence of stud- embassies (Au-delà des frontières, l’architecture Ties on Canadian shopping malls by des ambassades canadiennes, Quebec, Presses architectural historians can partly be explained by the perceived lack of aes- de l’Université Laval, 2005) and on shopping malls thetic value of such buildings. With the in Ontario (“Shopping Malls in Postwar Ontario,” notable exception of Claude Bergeron, d OCOMOMO international Journal, March 2008). who contended in 1981 that “suburban in her recent research, she is focussing on the and regional cent[re]s have been almost emergence of “ethnic” shopping malls in the totally ignored by architectural historians suburbs of large Canadian cities as attempts to who have been more concerned with articulate new secular identities in the realm of styles than with planning,”2 Canadian our consumerist society. shopping centres have, to this day, not yet attracted the attention they deserve.3 Their reputation, in part tarnished by the fact that they have been perceived as major contributors to the erosion of the modern public space, does not help either. Judged before being analyzed for what they really are, shopping centres have been depicted on many occasions as the necessary evils of our consumer society. Even among the commentators who are sympathetic to the genre, there seems to be an urge to warn the reader of the “conspicuous weaknesses” of such buildings. While acknowledging the import- ance of shopping centres in Canada, Ian Chodikoff, current chief editor of Canadian Architect, does not hesitate to define the type in unflattering terms, as illustrated in the following excerpt: Shopping centres define themselves through their own global spaces while pro- moting a subset of mismatched interiors competing with one another—the individual stores. in a sense, the shopping centre is filled with hypocrisies: it presents itself as a public space, yet it isn’t one, it attempts to create dynamic streetscape, but this is nullified when one stops to take note of the surrounding sea of parking lots and toxic FIG. 1. Hanks and irwin, view oF tHornCrest pLaza, 1955. | City oF toronto arCHives, Fonds 213, serie, 1464, FiLe 1, item 16. JSSAC | JSÉAC 36 > No 2 > 2011 > 13-26 13 Marie-JoSée therrien > essaY | essai car-laden landscapes. it even attempts professional architectural journals of the of the Canadian metropolitan commun- to introduce the spontaneity of street life day, the Journal of the Royal Architectural ities.”7 He provided a series of standards through kiosks, but the effect is broken Institute of Canada (JRAIC) and The that served as guidelines in determining down by dispassionate vendors leaning up Canadian Architect (that later became the sizes and types of future shopping against racks of sunglasses, keychains, simply Canadian Architect (CA)—which is centres.8 The location of these buildings or cellphones waiting to be purchased by the name used here, regardless of publica- within a network of “shopping nuclei” repetitive consumers. Our winters have tion dates). I then examine a series of arti- constituted an important aspect of his forced us to refine the concept of not only cles published in 1958 in CA, in a special study. As a planner, Faludi might not the atrium, but all varieties of interior shop- issue on shopping centres. Then, through have given much thought to the actual ping spaces. At the same time, the mall is the analysis of the Yorkdale Shopping types of stores and the layout of shopping not usually a pure, formal composition but, Centre (John B. Parkin, Victor Gruen centres—these being the jobs of develop- rather, a series of accretions—the results Associates, John Graham Consultants ers—but it seems he had anticipated that of serial renovations. Often only commercial Ltd., 1964), I concentrate more specific- some of the commercial buildings of his motivations are resolved.4 ally on the divergent opinions expressed “shopping nuclei” would be more than by professionals, representing some of utilitarian retail destinations. In a study Chodikoff’s assessment echoes some the trades involved in the construction for Metropolitan Toronto, Faludi drew a of the criticisms expressed by Canadian of such commercial facilities. In that last map of the shopping nuclei for new resi- observers from the same professional section, I rely on articles published in local dential areas of the Canadian financial journal who, in 1964, explored and media, the two journals of architecture metropolis. His hope was to replace the inspected the new retail environment cited above, and Canadian Interior (CI, a scattered clusters of stores by planned of the Yorkdale Shopping Centre. If the magazine that published its first issue the and controlled shopping areas, served novelty of this enclosed mall seemed to same year the Yorkdale Centre opened). by adequate parking space. To support have pleased the crowds, gained media The conclusion juxtaposes the contrast- his vision, he established a hierarchy of approval, and attracted many European ing opinions of the journalists, the critics, shopping centres whose numbers and mall developers for a few years after its and other experts and casts light on the categories of stores were determined by inauguration,5 professionals of the built complexity of the new retail practices in demographic and economic factors, while environment were divided. the changing Canadian mallscape of the their location depended on geographic 1950s and 1960s. factors (including circulation routes), By exploring how postwar Ontario shop- and their built forms on topographical ping centres and shopping malls were a shopping centre features. depicted by various proponents, I seek for everY neighbourhood to provide a fresh perspective on the Thorncrest Plaza (fig. 1) in Etobicoke reception of these commercial buildings, Shopping centres have not always been (a suburb of Toronto) is a mid-1950s whose construction entailed the develop- portrayed negatively. In fact, they were example of what Faludi identified as a ment of new retail practices, the profes- welcome suburban constructions that “nucleation, clustering of retail uses, sionalization of the interior designer, and received the support of the first postwar assuming a structural unity at a street the fast-paced growth of suburban div- generation of planners. Hungarian-born intersection of adjacent to it.”9 Well isions.6 The discussion of these themes is architect and engineer Eugene G. Faludi integrated in the “self-contained com- divided into three sections. First I examine advocated the integration of shopping munity” of Thorncrest Village, which the context that led to the construction centres in the new residential areas that according to local sources was modelled of two neighbourhood shopping cen- were then being developed. In 1949, he after the Kansas City Country Club,10 tres, the Thorncrest Plaza in Etobicoke wrote “The Trend in Shopping Centres” the unusual fan-shape Thorncrest plaza (Hanks and Irwin, 1955) and the Don for the JRAIC. The content of that essay (fig. 2) represents a departure from Mills Centre (John B. Parkin Associates, was largely inspired by similar American earlier commercial facilities and con- 1955), focusing particularly on their links studies published during the interwar per- temporary L-shaped strip malls whose to broader considerations of suburban iod and in the late 1940s. Faludi described configurations followed the more com- planning and, in the case of Don Mills, the shopping centre as an essential com- mon linear grid of less pastoral residen- on its reception in the two Canadian ponent in the “decentralization process tial settlements. While accommodating 14 JSSAC | JSÉAC 36 > No 2 > 2011 Marie-JoSée therrien > essaY | essai FIG.a 2. eriaL view oF tHornCrest pLaza, 1955. | googLe eartH. © europa teCHnoLogies 20011. FIG.v 3. iew oF tHe FieLdstones and gLass FaCade oF tHornCrest pLaza, © 2011 googLe, image © digitaL gLoBe, retrieved deCemBer 14, 2011. 1955. | marie-Josée tHerrien, 2008. pedestrians who live in the immedi- Shopping centres continued to receive What these two authors do not discuss ate neighbourhood, Thorncrest Plaza positive coverage in the national archi- however is the notion that the spatial is just as much a shopping destination tectural journals during the 1950s and arrangement of a shopping centre could for vehicular traffic, as evidenced by early 1960s. In a 1953 article on sub- contribute on its own to the betterment the space allocated for parking at the urb development, an anonymous JRAIC of suburban civic life. Such a notion, front and back of the building. In Faludi’s author presented the shopping centre as which began to gain popularity among nomenclature, this commercial cluster is an essential element of a neighbourhood. American shopping centre developers in a “small neighbourhood shopping cen- Echoing Faludi, the author contended the early 19050s, had not yet permeated tre,” itself part of a broader network of that shopping centres—like schools, the Canadian mallscape. Faludi’s and the shopping facilities in the greater suburb churches, and community buildings— anonymous author’s remarks are more in of Etobicoke all geared toward provid- “provide the real core and structure of tune with the work of Clarence Perry, an ing goods for everyday needs. With its a neighbourhood” and help “create a interwar American planner and the chief grocery, drugstore, and a small mix of focal point in each residential area.”12 This proponent behind the movement of the tenants, it was designed as the focal ser- author further argued that all these com- Neighbourhood Units.13 For these two vice point of that new residential area.

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