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A Toronto Life–less Ordinary
At top: “10 Dundas East”‘s new logo. At bottom: the old logo on a map still located inside. Photos by Kasandra Bracken/Torontoist.
What do you get when you put together three four-year-olds, a box of crayons, and a white sheet of paper? The new signage inside of Toronto Life Square.
Well, what used to be Toronto Life Square. The location’s new name is, well, exactly that—its location. And after the magazine fought desperately to get its name off the project, it looks like management looked no further than across the street to Yonge-Dundas Square to snag inspiration for their new naming technique (instead of reverting to their pre-corporate, pre-opening title Metropolis). The next time you pop into the AMC for a movie, or go upstairs for a bite in the food court, you’ve stepped into—wait for it—10 Dundas East.
But whoever’s behind the name seems hesitant to lock it down, and the multi-storey complex today is a building in limbo. While the LCD screens inside flashed the new logo (as also captured by BlogTO), the more permanent posters throughout (like its maps, and ads for spaces for lease) still boast the location’s old alias, as does the familiarly formatted website. And while the tenants of the building seem to be performing well—according to the Globe and Mail, it houses one of Future Shop’s best-performing national outlets, and we know from experience the food court and fourth-floor patios are permanently packed—the development itself is something of a financial disaster, having entered into receivership in July with debts of a few hundred million dollars. Unlike Future Shop, Toronto Life has been eager to get out, and it seems they’re finally starting to.
Hat tip to Jonathan Goldsbie’s Twitter for pointing us to yesterday’s Urban Toronto thread on the change.