I remember Chinook used to be so dark. Perhaps that was a common theme of designs from the 1980s, with the dark brick, but I recall both Chinook and Market Mall had these huge glass columns on the outside and yet you could barely see anything inside.
There was an Easy Street at the top of the escalators on the east side in the middle of Chinook, where I think the food court was, and it was as dark as Schanks is now.
Spoiler!
There used to be a bunch of blogs out there with great photos of label scars from Calgary shopping malls and strip malls, but they are all defunct links now.
There are a few solid YouTube channels focusing on dead malls, but I haven't seen any Calgary malls featured yet. The videos are a bit of a guilty pleasure.
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how is sunrise records still in business? H&m couldn't make it so they bought out all the stores and leases (after they had liquidated) and basically put up a carbon copy of h&m except with a few more vinyl bins out front.
hmv?
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I remember when Sunday shopping was a thing but only in the big cities. 12-5 seemed glorious when you were used to stores being closed altogether. Downside was on the weekends we were in Edmonton you had to wait until afternoon before you could do any shopping which made for an evening arrival at home and school/work the next day. And a long day.
Chinook (80s) - I believe this is the rectangular open section where the food court was on the 2nd floor (you can see the people seated in the photo). Was this on the end by the 2nd floor Bay Entrance or was it more to the north?
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I remember Chinook used to be so dark. Perhaps that was a common theme of designs from the 1980s, with the dark brick, but I recall both Chinook and Market Mall had these huge glass columns on the outside and yet you could barely see anything inside.
There was an Easy Street at the top of the escalators on the east side in the middle of Chinook, where I think the food court was, and it was as dark as Schanks is now.
I think that was more a design aesthetic from the 70s (like how everyone's appliances were those awful yellow, green, and orange colours). The 80s was much more white/off-white and pastel colours. The 80s also saw them putting in higher ceilings and skylights to let in more natural light.
Easy Street replaced the theatre that was originally there. Now, that's where Sport Chek is. The original Chinook food court was right beside it and was so small and sad.
The one food court I remember being even worse was the original one at Southcentre. It was small and dark and the way it was set up, was confusing. From what I remember, the food stands weren't all lined up against the edge with seating in the middle, like most food courts, but they were kind of all stand-alone with the seating scattered around in between, so it was a bit of a maze. Thankfully, that didn't last long and was replaced when they renovated in the mid-80s.
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Chinook (80s) - I believe this is the rectangular open section where the food court was on the 2nd floor (you can see the people seated in the photo). Was this on the end by the 2nd floor Bay Entrance or was it more to the north?
Yes, that's exactly where it was.
There was a set of escalators right about where the Gap is now on the main floor. At the top of the escalators, if you went right, you'd go into the theatre (later Easy Street). If you went to the left, you'd go into the second floor entrance to Woodward's (later The Bay). If you walked straight ahead, you'd come to the seating area for the food court and that open space to look down to the first floor. From the escalators, if you went ahead and to the right, you'd go into the main food court area. If you went forward and left, you could access the elevators to the Professional Building. The white area on the right side of that photo is where you accessed the Professional Building elevators.
Today, the second floor entrance to The Bay is where that escalator used to be. Sport Chek is where the theatre was. The elevators for the Professional Building are in the same location as they always have been. The food court now is many times larger than the original one, but is in roughly the same location.
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They also had this old brochure with a complete store listing; it had a couple of photos including the old fountain (looks a lot smaller than I remember it as a kid):
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Amazing finds. Thank you! I think this has made my day.
Kresge -- that must've turned into a KMart? I don't seem to remember it.
I recall the Bretton's. While I don't remember if it was two floors, it was on the west side of the mall where Saks is now and was fairly high end.
And I think the Bretton's was close to the Marks & Spencer
There are more fountains than I remember, too. The one that stands out in my mind was in the south area, where Hudson's Bay is now, in front of the Safeway and I think there was a Flames fanatic type store across the way.
Does anyone else think that the Sears location at North Hill mall would be a perfect place to build a big new residential tower? A developer wants to build a massive complex at the old Grace Hospital site just down the hill, to the displeasure of many NIMBYs (who I think have a valid POV).
Sears site is very close (but not too close) to LRT, SAIT, and would have some of the nicest views in the city. It's also already designed to handle the traffic...
Does anyone have pictures of the movie theatre at North Hill mall? I remember it being a super cool theatre but it was demolished when I was just a youngster. I miss when every mall had a theatre even small malls like Northland had a theatre. Northland is such a dead mall I used to go to the Best Buy, Walmart and Futureshop every boxing day for movie deals but now Futureshop is gone and that Best Buy just shrunk their movie section to less than half of what it was.
Does anyone else think that the Sears location at North Hill mall would be a perfect place to build a big new residential tower? A developer wants to build a massive complex at the old Grace Hospital site just down the hill, to the displeasure of many NIMBYs (who I think have a valid POV).
Sears site is very close (but not too close) to LRT, SAIT, and would have some of the nicest views in the city. It's also already designed to handle the traffic...
There's already some towers there.
Problem is there's a lot of empty apartment condos right now.
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Does anyone else think that the Sears location at North Hill mall would be a perfect place to build a big new residential tower? A developer wants to build a massive complex at the old Grace Hospital site just down the hill, to the displeasure of many NIMBYs (who I think have a valid POV).
Sears site is very close (but not too close) to LRT, SAIT, and would have some of the nicest views in the city. It's also already designed to handle the traffic...
I believe that section was purchased a few years ago buy one of the big condo developers with rumours of eventually putting at least 4 towers there but I can't recall exactly which one at the moment.
Edit: It was Concord Pacific in 2015.
Here's a comment from Grant Murray VP of sales for Concord Pacific last year at the end of a Globe article about the Eau Claire Concord building. "Mr. Murray says Concord Pacific will continue to play to niche markets as it works through the design phase of it's second Calgary development, a 12-acre master planned community on the site of a Sears store, with adjoining parking lots, at North Hills shopping mall in the Northwest."
Last edited by topfiverecords; 08-10-2018 at 11:15 AM.
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