Architecture | The Dark Room

Back in 2003 the McGill library completed an ambitious digitization project that brought the full text 22-volume journal Canadian Architect and Builder online with a fully searchable index including all of the illustrations and advertisements.

A quick search for Toronto Union Station brought up over 689 records including these early imaginings from architects Strickland & Symons of the original Union Station that used to be just west of the current location.

Plan of Main Floor. Union Station, Toronto by by architects Strickland & Symons. From The Canadian Architect and Builder, Volume 7 (1894), Issue 9, Plate 1

Architectural sketch Union Station, Toronto by architects Strickland & Symons. From The Canadian Architect and Builder, Volume 7 (1894), Issue 9, Plates 2a and 2b

If you are not familiar the Canadian Architect and Builder (CAB) was published between 1888 and 1908 and is the only professional architectural journal published in Canada before World War I. These journals are a part of the Blackader-Lauterman Collection.

On Tuesday Heritage Montreal announced that they were putting Le 9e Eaton’s famed but long shuttered 9th floor restaurant “under observation” due to the uncertain future of the building it calls home at 700 Sainte-Catherine street west.

While the restaurant has been closed since 1999 you can see from the postcards below that it’s grand interior was an Art Deco gem back in 1931. The restaurant was designed by the famous French architect Jacques Carlu and his wife Natacha Carlu created the mural featured prominent in the back.

A postcard with a photograph of the Eatons’ Restaurant on the 9th floor, ca.1931.

A postcard with a view of the Eaton’s department store, ca. 1931. Designed by Ross and Macdonald architects, the Montreal store was the first of many Eaton’s stores designed by this firm.

You can read more about it in Ingrid Peritz Globe and Mail article, Future uncertain for famed Montreal Art Deco restaurant.

The Dark Room

The McGill Library digitization team

Tag Archives: Architecture

Toronto’s Old Union Station in Canadian Architect and Builder

Eaton’s 9th floor Art Deco restaurant