Atrium (formally known as "Atrium on Bay") is a large retail and office complex in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...
,
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...
, Canada. Atrium is located adjacent to
Yonge-Dundas Square, and was built upon the former site of the former
Ford Hotel Toronto, on the north side of
Dundas Street West
Dundas Street is a major historic arterial road in Ontario, Canada. The road connects the city of Toronto with its western suburbs and several cities in southwestern Ontario. Three provincial highways— 2, 5, and 99—followed long sections ...
, extending from Yonge Street to Bay Street. The mixed-use building was constructed in 1981 with parking on the second and third underground levels and retail space street and concourse levels topped by an eight-storey office block that rises to 14 floors on the east end of the site and 13 on the west. As part of downtown Toronto's
PATH network, Atrium's Concourse Level is directly connected underground to the
Dundas subway station, the
Toronto Eaton Centre
The Toronto Eaton Centre (corporately styled as the CF Toronto Eaton Centre since September 2015, and commonly referred to simply as the Eaton Centre) is a shopping mall and office complex in the downtown core of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is ...
south, across on Dundas Street. A now-closed underground tunnel connects the Atrium to the former
Toronto Coach Terminal
The Toronto Coach Terminal is a decommissioned bus station for intercity bus services in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The building was the central intercity bus station in Toronto until mid-2021, when it was replaced by the Union Station Bus Termin ...
located west, across Bay Street.
In 2011, H&R Real Estate Investment Trust purchased the property from
Hines Interests Limited Partnership
Hines Interests Limited Partnership is a privately held company that invests in and develops real estate.
The company has developed, redeveloped or acquired 1,450 properties, comprising over 485 million square feet. The company currently manage ...
who acquired it in 2007 from a joint venture of
Brookfield Properties and The Ellman Companies.
In January 2014, H&R received a zoning variance from the Toronto City Council which would allow it to add five floors to each of the office towers, expand the ground level to enclose areas now filled by a covered arcade, planters and seating areas and create additional retail space and to redesign a media tower at the southwest corner of the structure.
The Atrium houses the first Canadian location of
Muji
(), or is a Japanese retail company which sells a wide variety of household and consumer goods. Muji's design philosophy is minimalist, and it places an emphasis on recycling, reducing production and packaging waste, and a no-logo or "no-bran ...
, as well as
Long Tall Sally
"Long Tall Sally", also known as "Long Tall Sally (The Thing)", is a rock and roll song written by Robert "Bumps" Blackwell, Enotris Johnson, and Little Richard. Richard recorded it for Specialty Records, which released it as a single in March ...
,
Canada Post
Canada Post Corporation (french: Société canadienne des postes), trading as Canada Post (french: Postes Canada), is a Crown corporation that functions as the primary postal operator in Canada. Originally known as Royal Mail Canada (the opera ...
,
Red Lobster
Red Lobster Hospitality LLC is an American casual dining restaurant chain headquartered in Orlando, Florida. The company has operations across most of the United States (including Puerto Rico, Guam) and Canada, as well as in China, Ecuador, Ho ...
and
Rexall
Rexall was a chain of American drugstores, and the name of their store-branded products. The stores, having roots in the federation of United Drug Stores starting in 1903, licensed the Rexall brand name to as many as 12,000 drug stores across th ...
among other shops.
The building features a variety of sit-down restaurants and a food court on the Concourse Level.
Major office tenants include the
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce
The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC; french: Banque canadienne impériale de commerce) is a Canadian multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered at CIBC Square in the Financial District of Toronto, Ontario. ...
, and various arms of the
Government of Ontario
The government of Ontario (french: Gouvernement de l'Ontario) is the body responsible for the administration of the Canadian province of Ontario. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown—represented in the province by the lieutenant governorâ ...
, including the Land Registry Office, and the Lottery Prize Claiming Centre for the
Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation
Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, known for corporate branding purposes simply as OLG since 2006, is a Crown corporation owned by the Government of Ontario, Canada. It is responsible for the province's lotteries, charity and Aboriginal ...
, located on ground level.
Atrium was filmed and used as a set for scenes in a shopping mall in the Canadian drama ''
Flashpoint'' on the
CTV Television Network. The interior was also used in the 1983
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
TV movie ''
Overdrawn at the Memory Bank''.
File:Atrium_on_Bay_Exterior_Corner_with_Street.jpg , Southeast view to the Edward and Bay Street façades
File:Atrium Exterior Rear View.jpg , Looking southwest across Yonge Street
File:Atrium on Bay interior 2021.jpg, Interior of the atrium
References
External links
Atrium Toronto Official SiteAtrium Toronto at ''Urbandb''
{{Shopping Malls in the Golden Horseshoe
Buildings and structures in Toronto
Shopping malls in Toronto
PATH (Toronto)
Hines Interests Limited Partnership
Commercial buildings completed in 1981
Office buildings in Canada