. In 1930, the
Eaton's department store chain, at the time Canada's dominant retailer, opened "
Eaton's College Street", an imposing
Art moderne store at the intersection of
Yonge Street and
College Street. The matriarch of the
Eaton family,
Lady Eaton, was a member of Eaton's board of directors, and the Eaton's restaurants were one of her responsibilities. She retained the noted French architect
Jacques Carlu to design the seventh floor of the edifice, which was to contain the 1300-seat Eaton Auditorium, the Round Room restaurant, lounges and a private dining room. All of the facilities were to be connected by a long foyer, designed in the style of the ocean liners of the day. Between 1931 and 1965, the theatre was home to the
Eaton Operatic Society.
Broadcast centre The newly opened Auditorium was used for radio broadcasts on
CKGW during holidays and special events. During Christmastime, one could hear the
Cassavant organ being played by
Frederick C. Silvester or a May Day organ recital by Harold Frost. It also played motion pictures accompanied by organ music (again broadcast over CKGW), for example showing
Snow White in April 1931 with organ music by Kathleen Stokes.
Later history With the opening of the
Toronto Eaton Centre in 1977, Eaton's College Street was closed to make way for the new Eaton's flagship store at Yonge Street and
Dundas Street. The store was sold to new owners, and was rechristened
College Park. Although the new owners had originally agreed to preserve the Seventh Floor, they eventually determined that its preservation and restoration was not financially feasible, and they applied for a demolition permit to convert the entire floor to office space. After a lengthy court battle with the City of Toronto, the
Court of Appeal for Ontario ruled in 1986 that the 1975 designation of the building under the
Ontario Heritage Act protected the Seventh Floor from demolition. Despite several changes in building ownership, and the efforts of local heritage advocates, the Seventh Floor was sealed off for 27 years and allowed to deteriorate; although it was protected by law, there was no legal obligation to use or restore it. The Seventh Floor was eventually restored, after years of neglect, and was reopened in 2003 to much acclaim as "The Carlu" event venue. The restoration process began in 2001 with a $2,500,000 budget and no tenant. But later that year, new tenants Jeffry Roick and Mark Robert came into the picture with an increased budget. Scott Weir of ERA Architects and Hadi Khouzam of
WZMH Architects led the restoration of the space. The raked floors were removed from the auditorium to return the space's original movable seating. Other modifications had to be made to the auditorium so that modern acoustical equipment could be used. Even the original Lalique fountain, which had long been believed lost, was restored to its place at the centre of the Round Room. The large kitchen in the Carlu was replaced with two smaller ones in different areas of the seventh floor. This made room for a new entertainment space to be added, the Sky Room. The venue's new name was chosen to honour the architect that had originally designed the space. Upgrades were also needed in the
HVAC system. These updates were done without damaging or removing the original vents from the space. In 2008, The Clipper Rooms were re-envisioned and renovated by
HGTV designer
Sarah Richardson. Today, the space acts as a special events venue. Concerts, dinners, galas, weddings, fashion shows and the presentation of the annual
Polaris Music Prize are among the events that take place at the Carlu. ==The facility==