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World's Biggest Bookstore

1980 establishments in Ontario2014 disestablishments in OntarioBuildings and structures demolished in 2014Defunct retail companies of CanadaDemolished buildings and structures in Toronto
Indigo Books and MusicRetail companies disestablished in 2014Retail companies established in 1980Shops in TorontoUse mdy dates from April 2020
World's Biggest Bookstore
World's Biggest Bookstore

The World's Biggest Bookstore was a bookstore in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, at 20 Edward St, just north of the Toronto Eaton Centre and the Atrium on Bay. Operating from 1980 until 2014, the three-storey store covered 64,000 square feet and was noted for its bright lights and over 20 kilometres of bookshelves.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article World's Biggest Bookstore (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

World's Biggest Bookstore
Edward Street, Toronto

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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 43.657008 ° E -79.382355 °
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Address

Edward Street 26
M5B 1R7 Toronto
Ontario, Canada
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World's Biggest Bookstore
World's Biggest Bookstore
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Atrium on Bay
Atrium on Bay

Atrium (formally known as "Atrium on Bay") is a large 1,000,000-square-foot (93,000 m2) retail and office complex in Toronto, Ontario, 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, 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 south, across on Dundas Street. A now-closed underground tunnel connects the Atrium to the former Toronto Coach Terminal located west, across Bay Street. In 2011, H&R Real Estate Investment Trust purchased the property from Hines Interests Limited Partnership 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, as well as Long Tall Sally, Canada Post, Red Lobster and Rexall 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, and various arms of the Government of Ontario, including the Land Registry Office, and the Lottery Prize Claiming Centre for the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, 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 TV movie Overdrawn at the Memory Bank.

Thornton–Smith Building
Thornton–Smith Building

The Thornton–Smith Building, located at 340 Yonge Street, is a prominent heritage building in the heart of downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Since the completion of the building in the twenties, Yonge Street has seen many transformations and while tenants in the building have reflected these changes The Thornton–Smith Building itself has remained true to its original architecture. The building was designed in 1922 by John M. Lyle (1872-1945) for The Thornton–Smith Company, a British antique and interior design firm. Lyle, who was one of the pre-eminent architects in Canada at the time, was very vocal about the proliferation of false shopfronts and unregulated billboards on Yonge Street. Through The Thornton–Smith Building he was given the opportunity to inject an architectural gem amongst much less distinguished buildings in the increasingly crowded Yonge Street retail corridor. In 1926 his design received the first gold medal awarded by the Ontario Association of Architects, along with recognition in international architectural journals in London and New York. Today, Thornton–Smith is a very vibrant building and is occupied on the main floor by Champs Sports, an international retailer and on the second floor by Salad King, a Toronto “landmark” that has been serving Thai food in the neighbourhood for over 20 years. A new heritage event venue named the Aperture Room opened in April 2015 to bring some of the history back to this part of Yonge Street.

Sam the Record Man
Sam the Record Man

Sam the Record Man was a Canadian record store chain that, at one time, was Canada's largest music recording retailer. In 1982, its ads proclaimed that it had "140 locations, coast to coast".Its iconic flagship store was located at 259 Yonge Street in 1959 and moved to 347 Yonge Street two years later, remaining there from 1961 until it closed in 2007. Located at Yonge just north of Dundas, the store became part of a strip of music stores, nightclubs and taverns featuring live performance that produced the "Toronto Sound" and was the centre of Toronto's music scene in the 1960s. The Yonge Street store was the best known store in the Sam the Record Man chain of 140 locations across Canada, two blocks away from the Eaton Centre and Dundas Square. Sam's became a popular attraction, drawing people into its selection of LP records, and later cassettes and compact discs. It flourished in the Downtown Toronto area, quickly gaining notoriety and outselling the competition. What started as a single storefront had evolved into an entire block completely dedicated to the Sam the Record Man store. For several years, the store went into head-to-head competition with the popular A&A Records flagship store, just up the street, before the latter filed for bankruptcy in 1993. The building was demolished over a period of two years, from 2009 until 2011. It is part of the site on which the Ryerson University Student Learning Centre was built. The store's iconic neon sign has been restored and installed in a new location overlooking nearby Yonge-Dundas Square.The Information Age, competition with the HMV chain and other factors, forced Sam the Record Man into bankruptcy in 2001, but its flagship location remained in business until 2007. One independent franchise store, in Belleville, Ontario, continues to bear the Sam the Record Man name.

Toronto Metropolitan University Library
Toronto Metropolitan University Library

Toronto Metropolitan University Library is the library of Toronto Metropolitan University in Toronto, Canada. The library collection consists of over 500,000 books, and over CAD$3 million is spent annually to acquire electronic resources, including e-journals, e-books, databases and indexes, geospatial data, and catalogued websites or electronic documents. Most of the electronic resources can be accessed remotely by TMU community members with Internet access, although authentication of Toronto Metropolitan University Library registration is required for access to all commercial resources. The Library acquires materials to support the curriculum taught at the university and to support the research needs of faculty. All hard copy materials are housed in the Library building at Gould and Victoria Streets. In addition to library materials, the Library provides access to desktop computers, laptops, as well as research help and technology assistance. The 11-storey tower was built in 1974, and is an example of Brutalist architecture.On January 18, 2008, the university announced the acquisition of properties including the former site of Sam the Record Man, which allowed the expansion of the library to a prime Yonge Street location. The expansion was designed by architectural firms Zeidler Partnership Architects of Toronto and Snøhetta of Oslo, Norway. In February 2015, the library expansion opened its doors as the Student Learning Center (SLC).