Wednesday, January 28, 2009

The Challenge of the week! The CN tower 1970s funky interior


CN tower in the 1970s VS 2009
Originally uploaded by Eric P + Concepteur + Designer + Graphiste

My friend-in-crimes Eve, a blogger from Montreal (Brick and Plastic), just challenged me to snap the interior of the CN Tower. I liked the idea SO MUCH that I'm opening the door to the "Challenge of the Week". Send me a picture of Toronto, and I'll try to capture a photo of it from now.

So she sent me the lovely picture of the interior of the CN Tower, in the 70s. An easy first challenge, the Tower is one of our client at my job! We are doing design from then...

The CN Tower is one icon that we canadians all know and recognize easily. For the amateur, it never changed... But even our dear tower, completed on February 22 - 1974, has been modified, following trends and current design ideas.

The left image shows what use to be the reception desk of the Tower restaurant - on the main street level. So these red lovely kiosks were where an hostess would welcome you, check your coat to the coat check (black rectangle behind). Before climbing the grand staircase, you could sit down and enjoy the view on the fountains that was just out there. A very nice ambiance overall!

Nowadays, there is not much left from this decor. The structure changed so much that I had a real hard time to find the exact same spot. Everything vanished - the coat check, the stairs, the kiosks, the lounge.... even the fountains outside were covered by concrete and a weird garden. The main purpose of that part of the tower is... main retail area and concourse.

Guess which photo I prefer!

4 comments:

  1. fantastic! You have won the challenge! :)

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  2. From what I can see, the red one almost looks on trend again..... Damn 70's!!!! I wonder what uniform they had to wear then. Why do I picture silver in my head?

    Oh, and congrats Eric, on winning the challenge!! :)

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  3. Being a designer myself, I think the 70's look would be cool TODAY, but imagine how dated that decor must have been in 1987!!! Design trends do come back, but some years are needed to create that nostalgic feeling.

    Who knows... in 20 years, we might fancy lazy-boys and melamine?!?!???

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  4. Thanks for the advice, I will store my lazy-boys and my melamine bookcase in my shed. See ya in 2028!

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