beige in colour and in spirit
December 21, 2019 9:53 PM Subscribe
What is the Path? Where did it come from? What’s it like to work there? Daniel Vila:
'A classist dystopia'?: inside the world’s largest underground shopping complex
"Classist dystopia" is a bit overblown. Honestly, the metaphor that springs to mind is one of cheap old-school background animation. You know that thing where Fred Flinstone walks through his living room talking and he walks past a chair, then a table, then a window, then chair, then a table, then a window? Same deal in the PATH, save that wherever you go there is a bank and a coffee shop and a pharmacy and a food court.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 10:57 PM on December 21, 2019 [13 favorites]
posted by ricochet biscuit at 10:57 PM on December 21, 2019 [13 favorites]
And the author should have picked up that it is the PATH, not the Path. It has the form of an acronym, but it is not. Perhaps the all-caps is an indication that the word is meant to be shouted.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 11:00 PM on December 21, 2019 [5 favorites]
posted by ricochet biscuit at 11:00 PM on December 21, 2019 [5 favorites]
I almost never have cause to go down to the finance district but when I do the PATH gives me panic attacks. It's like a nightmare where you're trapped in a mall that never ends and reconfigures itself behind you so you can't retrace your steps and you'll never see the light of day again.
posted by rodlymight at 11:37 PM on December 21, 2019 [16 favorites]
posted by rodlymight at 11:37 PM on December 21, 2019 [16 favorites]
I hate this fuckin' place and always have.
posted by dobbs at 12:47 AM on December 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by dobbs at 12:47 AM on December 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
It's like a nightmare where you're trapped in a mall that never ends and reconfigures itself behind you so you can't retrace your steps and you'll never see the light of day again.brb shopping for the amulet of Yendor
posted by rodlymight
posted by DoctorFedora at 1:04 AM on December 22, 2019 [15 favorites]
The PATH is heavily promoted by Toronto's tourist organization. Meant to explore it this summer, but never got around to it.
I was interested to see the other underground malls they call out. Not sure Sydney's is complex enough to really merit the mention (it basically connects several shipping centers with Town Hall station). Helsinki's is interesting, because at first it seems like it's just connecting a couple of buildings to a station and then you suddenly realize you've walked past three different subway stops. Helsinki's seems livlier than the others I've experienced on this list.
posted by rednikki at 1:19 AM on December 22, 2019 [2 favorites]
I was interested to see the other underground malls they call out. Not sure Sydney's is complex enough to really merit the mention (it basically connects several shipping centers with Town Hall station). Helsinki's is interesting, because at first it seems like it's just connecting a couple of buildings to a station and then you suddenly realize you've walked past three different subway stops. Helsinki's seems livlier than the others I've experienced on this list.
posted by rednikki at 1:19 AM on December 22, 2019 [2 favorites]
If you want a classist dystopian hell scape, try Toronto Premium Outlets Mall in Halton Hills.
Also, the PATH is creepy on weekends because there are long, long, lonely stretches between open stores.
posted by bonobothegreat at 3:48 AM on December 22, 2019 [3 favorites]
Also, the PATH is creepy on weekends because there are long, long, lonely stretches between open stores.
posted by bonobothegreat at 3:48 AM on December 22, 2019 [3 favorites]
those who have traversed the path may find themselves waydowntown
posted by fairmettle at 3:48 AM on December 22, 2019 [7 favorites]
posted by fairmettle at 3:48 AM on December 22, 2019 [7 favorites]
I wonder if the dystopian feel is just from being underground. I remember reading something about the Albany NY downtown section where there is a lot of underground offices, and how people who have to spend their days without being able to see the sky, weather, etc. get depressed. The biggest one I'm familiar with is underneath Crystal City outside DC.
It strikes me as a good way to avoid bad weather, but I was always just passing through and did not have to spend the day (and every day) there.
Perhaps we all may have to live underground in the future, and we need to figure out how to make it bearable.
posted by MtDewd at 3:56 AM on December 22, 2019 [2 favorites]
It strikes me as a good way to avoid bad weather, but I was always just passing through and did not have to spend the day (and every day) there.
Perhaps we all may have to live underground in the future, and we need to figure out how to make it bearable.
posted by MtDewd at 3:56 AM on December 22, 2019 [2 favorites]
I was born in TO and lived there until my mid 30's and had no idea that the PATH was the world's largest anything except annoyance.
It's definitely Cube-like as rodlymight says. I worked down around there for a decade, wandered into the outskirts of the PATH for lunch on occasion, and somehow still had no idea that it was significant. It's just vaguely creepy and never looks the same way twice. Also, I mean, people clearly must go into those stores, since they stay in business (more or less), but I would never in a million years think of actually, you know, going shopping in the PATH. other than zipping into a drug store or something. The shops seem to be there to be wallpaper, not retail establishments.
So I....learned something.
posted by biscotti at 4:19 AM on December 22, 2019 [4 favorites]
It's definitely Cube-like as rodlymight says. I worked down around there for a decade, wandered into the outskirts of the PATH for lunch on occasion, and somehow still had no idea that it was significant. It's just vaguely creepy and never looks the same way twice. Also, I mean, people clearly must go into those stores, since they stay in business (more or less), but I would never in a million years think of actually, you know, going shopping in the PATH. other than zipping into a drug store or something. The shops seem to be there to be wallpaper, not retail establishments.
So I....learned something.
posted by biscotti at 4:19 AM on December 22, 2019 [4 favorites]
Charlotte has the Overstreet Mall, which features a whole lot of tunnels and underground food courts as well as the overstreet walkways. It's changed a lot since I was a kid, when it really was a mall connecting the major department stores, all of which fled from Uptown in the 1980s. Now it mostly connects the bank headquarters (so many bank headquarters...) and the large arts complex and, like the PATH, is much more aimed at the needs of the Uptown workers. It was always my mom's favorite mall, because she is not really a fan of conventional suburban malls and wanted to support the city center.
posted by hydropsyche at 4:30 AM on December 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by hydropsyche at 4:30 AM on December 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
And still Path expansion continues unabated: it now reaches south of the financial district, right up to the cusp of the waterfront, with plans to extend it further east along the lake.
And of course there is no way that can go wrong.
posted by TrishaU at 4:36 AM on December 22, 2019 [2 favorites]
And of course there is no way that can go wrong.
posted by TrishaU at 4:36 AM on December 22, 2019 [2 favorites]
Mr. Souvlaki?
posted by Thorzdad at 4:38 AM on December 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Thorzdad at 4:38 AM on December 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
I spent a week in Toronto this summer and I have to say I am a fan of the PATH. I don't think I shopped in it except for maybe David's Tea, but we came from DC to escape a heat wave and still had to face a milder version of the exhausting summer heat from which the PATH was our shelter. I think we walked nearly the whole system to hide from sunburn and heat exhaustion. And yes, we repeatedly got lost.
Slight side-eye to the article for enumerating the world's underground pedestrian tunnels without mentioning the Pedway of Chicago. It's weird and smelly and dark and kind of great. I once almost fell down the stairs into the Pedway because I was texting while walking; truly the Pedway is a teacher.
posted by capricorn at 5:10 AM on December 22, 2019 [3 favorites]
Slight side-eye to the article for enumerating the world's underground pedestrian tunnels without mentioning the Pedway of Chicago. It's weird and smelly and dark and kind of great. I once almost fell down the stairs into the Pedway because I was texting while walking; truly the Pedway is a teacher.
posted by capricorn at 5:10 AM on December 22, 2019 [3 favorites]
Also congratulations to Daniel Vila for getting the word "galaxy-brained" into the Guardian.
posted by capricorn at 5:13 AM on December 22, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by capricorn at 5:13 AM on December 22, 2019 [2 favorites]
Has there been a horror movie about the PATH? Because there should be a horror movie about the PATH.
posted by clawsoon at 5:16 AM on December 22, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by clawsoon at 5:16 AM on December 22, 2019 [4 favorites]
While there are a couple small-scale underground mall spaces like this in Tokyo (mostly around Tokyo Station, from which it is possible to walk several city blocks underground) and Shinjuku, the place for underground stuff (at least as far as I've seen) is Osaka, which has a solid network of underground passages around its major stations, with a lot of buildings connected having basement and sub-basement commercial spaces. It's kind of fun drinking in a bar in the second subbasement, and as far as terrible weather goes, the passages make it remarkably easy to get around. Fukuoka seemed to have a pretty nice underground in a part of the city, too.
posted by Ghidorah at 5:31 AM on December 22, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by Ghidorah at 5:31 AM on December 22, 2019 [4 favorites]
If you want a classist dystopian hell scape, try Toronto Premium Outlets Mall in Halton Hills.
Also, the PATH is creepy on weekends because there are long, long, lonely stretches between open stores.
Now I want thereto be a Fallout franchise game that takes place in the PATH and why not throw in the Diefenbunker while we're at it ? FALLOUT EH? you thought Cali was dystopian didja bud? waitill ya come out of the PATH for the first time in post-apocalypse Ontario in February! I don't know how you convey the feeling of all your nose hairs freezing at once thru a video game tho.
also there should be a miniquest to drive a car to the Olde Hide House in Acton, and when you get there of course your character will exclaim "it's worth the drive to Acton!"
posted by some loser at 5:36 AM on December 22, 2019 [11 favorites]
In these and other ways, the Path feels less Jane Jacobs – the champion of messy street-level urbanism who adopted Toronto as her home – than Robert Moses, her arch nemesis from New York, albeit minus the wanton bulldozing and mass displacement of minority communities.Maybe not technically for the PATH itself, but surely for some of the buildings above it?
posted by clawsoon at 5:38 AM on December 22, 2019
I read this, and I feel like the underground malls in Tokyo are larger. Like, I've walked from Kanda to Shimbashi completely underground, and there was way more mall I could have covered. Maybe it's just that there are more underground malls in Tokyo, but they aren't all connected.
Namba City Mall in Osaka also feels larger than the PATH.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 5:40 AM on December 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
Namba City Mall in Osaka also feels larger than the PATH.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 5:40 AM on December 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
Also, Mr. Souvlaki is a local Greek fast-food chain.
Weird to see Thirsty and Miserable, a really tiny bar in Kensington Market, get a shout-out here.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 5:47 AM on December 22, 2019 [2 favorites]
Weird to see Thirsty and Miserable, a really tiny bar in Kensington Market, get a shout-out here.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 5:47 AM on December 22, 2019 [2 favorites]
There was a Mr. Souvlaki under Metro Hall that was excellent in the early 90s. Just outstanding.
I love the Path but there's no denying it's a bunch of malls and connected semi-mall spaces with some hotels, transit, and other things. I think I love it because it is specifically Toronto's, and Toronto is a city that loathes anything unique about it. You see it when we endlessly go on about fucking food trucks, or try to ape various trends from NYC an Chicago because of the everpresent Canadian inferiority complex and the the fact that the wealthy who now pack the city centre are the products of international capitalism's gaudy trash culture. But I used the Path in the 90s to get to school, know it well, and love being alone in some odd corner on Sundays and evenings.
I hope Toronto never gets any cool food trucks, too.
posted by mobunited at 5:58 AM on December 22, 2019 [4 favorites]
I love the Path but there's no denying it's a bunch of malls and connected semi-mall spaces with some hotels, transit, and other things. I think I love it because it is specifically Toronto's, and Toronto is a city that loathes anything unique about it. You see it when we endlessly go on about fucking food trucks, or try to ape various trends from NYC an Chicago because of the everpresent Canadian inferiority complex and the the fact that the wealthy who now pack the city centre are the products of international capitalism's gaudy trash culture. But I used the Path in the 90s to get to school, know it well, and love being alone in some odd corner on Sundays and evenings.
I hope Toronto never gets any cool food trucks, too.
posted by mobunited at 5:58 AM on December 22, 2019 [4 favorites]
I had an idea once for a short horror story inspired by a similar (albeit smaller) shopping complex - a vampire who gets a job in one of the cheeseball Jamba Juice stalls or whatever on the fringes of one such complex, and that's how he finds his victims. It suits him just fine, because he is out of the sun all day, he blends in as a "normal human being" because people don't really pay attention to service workers, he makes money, and there's always a side alley or a service closet nearby where he can drag off his victims. (If anyone wants to take that idea and run with it, be my guest, I just had the idea but didn't want to write it further.)
That first picture from the article reminded me hauntingly of the underground complex in Us, also.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:58 AM on December 22, 2019 [7 favorites]
That first picture from the article reminded me hauntingly of the underground complex in Us, also.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:58 AM on December 22, 2019 [7 favorites]
The "along the waterfront" line on the PATH map appears to just be the Queens Quay LRT line, so we've got that going for us.
posted by clawsoon at 5:58 AM on December 22, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by clawsoon at 5:58 AM on December 22, 2019 [2 favorites]
I would have loved to explore this when I was up in Toronto, I wish that I'd known about it.
posted by octothorpe at 6:05 AM on December 22, 2019
posted by octothorpe at 6:05 AM on December 22, 2019
I do wish the PATH had more bars.
One of the things I love about Tokyo is ducking into a tiny bar in a side hallway of some underground mall somewhere.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 6:05 AM on December 22, 2019 [5 favorites]
One of the things I love about Tokyo is ducking into a tiny bar in a side hallway of some underground mall somewhere.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 6:05 AM on December 22, 2019 [5 favorites]
One thing I learned about the PATH while trying to get out-of-town family back to their hotel on a rainy day is that a critical portion of it closes completely when The Bay is closed.
posted by clawsoon at 6:12 AM on December 22, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by clawsoon at 6:12 AM on December 22, 2019 [3 favorites]
Sped-up walking video to give you a sense of it. Slow walk.
posted by clawsoon at 6:13 AM on December 22, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by clawsoon at 6:13 AM on December 22, 2019 [2 favorites]
Has there been a horror movie about the PATH? Because there should be a horror movie about the PATH.
Not exactly, but fairmettle alluded to the movie waydowntown, which is about Calgary's Plus 15 interconnected building system. Three Gen-Xers who make a bet who can go the longest without actually setting foot outside, leading each of them to have idiosyncratic mental breakdowns.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 6:35 AM on December 22, 2019 [4 favorites]
Not exactly, but fairmettle alluded to the movie waydowntown, which is about Calgary's Plus 15 interconnected building system. Three Gen-Xers who make a bet who can go the longest without actually setting foot outside, leading each of them to have idiosyncratic mental breakdowns.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 6:35 AM on December 22, 2019 [4 favorites]
I find the PATH confusing AF, like most people. But I've also never worked on it -- I assume that if you spend a fair bit of time there, you get used to it, or at least get used to the routes from your subway station to your office building to your favourite food court.
posted by jacquilynne at 6:47 AM on December 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by jacquilynne at 6:47 AM on December 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
also there should be a miniquest to drive a car to the Olde Hide House in Acton, and when you get there of course your character will exclaim "it's worth the drive to Acton!"
You win the Internet today. (I tried explaining "it's worth the drive to Acton"....it cannot be explained)
posted by biscotti at 7:32 AM on December 22, 2019 [5 favorites]
You win the Internet today. (I tried explaining "it's worth the drive to Acton"....it cannot be explained)
posted by biscotti at 7:32 AM on December 22, 2019 [5 favorites]
If you want a classist dystopian hell scape, try Toronto Premium Outlets Mall in Halton Hills.
I'm pretty sure that is pseudo-classist since the whole point of outlet malls is to reputation mine and sell luxury branded products without the actual luxury branded quality to people who can't afford the real deal. It is a strange shopping experience. You are surrounded by desperate shoppers in knock off and knock down brand name clothing who have all traveled well out their way to be there to try and get a slightly better deal on an overpriced Armani tshirt so they can advertise a social status that there just being at the outlet mall proves they don't actually have.
They do have a really cool parking garage though. It has indicators for available parking at the floor, aisle and individual spot level (red or green lights on the ceiling).
posted by srboisvert at 7:36 AM on December 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
I'm pretty sure that is pseudo-classist since the whole point of outlet malls is to reputation mine and sell luxury branded products without the actual luxury branded quality to people who can't afford the real deal. It is a strange shopping experience. You are surrounded by desperate shoppers in knock off and knock down brand name clothing who have all traveled well out their way to be there to try and get a slightly better deal on an overpriced Armani tshirt so they can advertise a social status that there just being at the outlet mall proves they don't actually have.
They do have a really cool parking garage though. It has indicators for available parking at the floor, aisle and individual spot level (red or green lights on the ceiling).
posted by srboisvert at 7:36 AM on December 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
(also maybe something with The Radman as an enemy)
posted by biscotti at 7:36 AM on December 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by biscotti at 7:36 AM on December 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
Not exactly, but fairmettle alluded to the movie waydowntown, which is about Calgary's Plus 15 interconnected building system. Three Gen-Xers who make a bet who can go the longest without actually setting foot outside, leading each of them to have idiosyncratic mental breakdowns.
The Last Days (2013) is a Spanish language film about an agoraphobic outbreak that results in people in Barcelona using sewers and subways. The post-apocalyptic chaos is not that dissimilar to the PATH system at lunch hour.
posted by srboisvert at 7:40 AM on December 22, 2019 [3 favorites]
The portion of PATH that leads to Union Station should be the subject of someone's thesis project.
posted by seanmpuckett at 7:43 AM on December 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by seanmpuckett at 7:43 AM on December 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
I have a vague memory of a movie (book?) from ~15 years ago about people who use the PATH to never go outside. Eventually it drove them mad, horror-movie hijinks ensued. I can't find any mention of this, did I imagine it?
edit: nevermind I think it's the Calgary one mentioned above
posted by ripley_ at 8:05 AM on December 22, 2019
edit: nevermind I think it's the Calgary one mentioned above
posted by ripley_ at 8:05 AM on December 22, 2019
Man who lives in PATH willing to guide topsider to Eaton Centre, for a price
posted by Extra-Strength Placebo at 8:16 AM on December 22, 2019 [14 favorites]
posted by Extra-Strength Placebo at 8:16 AM on December 22, 2019 [14 favorites]
Had heard of this and had a tech meeting in one of the office buildings, so went looking and couldn't find the amazing place, just hallways connecting stores, not even a real mall. Missed it, even though I was there.
posted by sammyo at 9:25 AM on December 22, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by sammyo at 9:25 AM on December 22, 2019 [2 favorites]
Metafilter: so they can advertise a social status that there just being at the outlet mall proves they don't actually have.
posted by sammyo at 9:29 AM on December 22, 2019
posted by sammyo at 9:29 AM on December 22, 2019
I really loved it as an ‘80s teen; it felt secret-ish and a bit D&D, despite the bright lighting and trashy food courts. Now, as an occasional visitor to my hometown, I find it mildly claustrophobic and annoyingly crowded, but quite handy when avoiding weather.
posted by mollymillions at 9:47 AM on December 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by mollymillions at 9:47 AM on December 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
Toronto is a lakefront city, built on a long shallow slope down to Lake Ontario. The incline is by and large imperceptible, save that sometimes you will walk into the ground floor of the north end of a building, walk to the south end, and bafflingly find yourself one floor up from street.
If there is anything dystopian about the PATH, it is that because the ground above it is constantly rising as one travels north, the underground pathways constantly ascend as well without ever reaching the surface. There are the occasional full-on escalators, but more often there will be a short ramp alongside four or six steps going up. If you descend one level from grade at Union Station and walk as far north as the Eaton Centre, you will have climbed ~100 steps, or circa eight floors, without ever coming back up above ground.
Maybe not "dsytopian" precisely. More like House of Leaves.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:53 AM on December 22, 2019 [9 favorites]
If there is anything dystopian about the PATH, it is that because the ground above it is constantly rising as one travels north, the underground pathways constantly ascend as well without ever reaching the surface. There are the occasional full-on escalators, but more often there will be a short ramp alongside four or six steps going up. If you descend one level from grade at Union Station and walk as far north as the Eaton Centre, you will have climbed ~100 steps, or circa eight floors, without ever coming back up above ground.
Maybe not "dsytopian" precisely. More like House of Leaves.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:53 AM on December 22, 2019 [9 favorites]
The cost-splitting was revoked in 1976 by a reformist city council, hostile to such megaprojects, but by then the flurry of financial district construction had rendered it moot: Commerce Court West, First Canadian Place (still Canada’s tallest office building) and the multitower Mies van der Rohe-designed Toronto-Dominion Centre each had its own underground shopping concourse, with further connections between buildings proliferating throughout the 1980s.
The Path as we know it today was unified in 1995 by a thoroughly ineffective wayfinding system – small grey signs that only directed you to the building immediately adjacent. The ineffectiveness was partially by design. Property managers worried that if certain routes were encouraged over others, non-artery retail would suffer and rents would fall. And so commenced the tension between the Path’s civic and commercial interests, between people trying to get from point A to point B and the property managers who wanted people shopping in their stores.
A new wayfinding system has improved matters somewhat, but just as Berlin superclub Berghain forgoes mirrors (or reflective surfaces of any kind), the Path still forgoes the concepts of north, south, east, and west. The signs never explicitly tell you which way you’re going, barring a few hard-to-find compasses on the ceiling. The psychic fencing has proved effective: show me a person who can effortlessly walk the two kilometres from the Toronto Coach Station to the waterfront and I will show you an obsessive.
Yeah, the PATH's main problem is that it's a twisted amalgam of public, private, and public-private spaces so there's never been a coherent and well-designed wayfinding system for it.
I find the PATH confusing AF, like most people. But I've also never worked on it -- I assume that if you spend a fair bit of time there, you get used to it, or at least get used to the routes from your subway station to your office building to your favourite food court.
I've guided hopelessly lost people out of it or to a destination within it despite the fact that I'm well-familiar with it and but still get turned around myself on the regular and just give up and go topside.
But the only way I've ever been able to help people is by saying, "Look, I've got a few minutes. Just...follow me." Because trying to give verbal directions to someone trying to navigate it is futile.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 10:18 AM on December 22, 2019 [3 favorites]
The Path as we know it today was unified in 1995 by a thoroughly ineffective wayfinding system – small grey signs that only directed you to the building immediately adjacent. The ineffectiveness was partially by design. Property managers worried that if certain routes were encouraged over others, non-artery retail would suffer and rents would fall. And so commenced the tension between the Path’s civic and commercial interests, between people trying to get from point A to point B and the property managers who wanted people shopping in their stores.
A new wayfinding system has improved matters somewhat, but just as Berlin superclub Berghain forgoes mirrors (or reflective surfaces of any kind), the Path still forgoes the concepts of north, south, east, and west. The signs never explicitly tell you which way you’re going, barring a few hard-to-find compasses on the ceiling. The psychic fencing has proved effective: show me a person who can effortlessly walk the two kilometres from the Toronto Coach Station to the waterfront and I will show you an obsessive.
Yeah, the PATH's main problem is that it's a twisted amalgam of public, private, and public-private spaces so there's never been a coherent and well-designed wayfinding system for it.
I find the PATH confusing AF, like most people. But I've also never worked on it -- I assume that if you spend a fair bit of time there, you get used to it, or at least get used to the routes from your subway station to your office building to your favourite food court.
I've guided hopelessly lost people out of it or to a destination within it despite the fact that I'm well-familiar with it and but still get turned around myself on the regular and just give up and go topside.
But the only way I've ever been able to help people is by saying, "Look, I've got a few minutes. Just...follow me." Because trying to give verbal directions to someone trying to navigate it is futile.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 10:18 AM on December 22, 2019 [3 favorites]
But my favourite time to be down there is during the weekends and late nights, when the place is still bizarrely open (I guess to allow subway passage?) but mostly a ghost town, with all the stores and restaurants closed and only the occasional drunk couple or late-shift worker to cross paths with.
The food courts also have a distinct after-hours smell because all of the fume hoods in the fast food joints have been shut down for the night/weekend.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 10:22 AM on December 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
The food courts also have a distinct after-hours smell because all of the fume hoods in the fast food joints have been shut down for the night/weekend.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 10:22 AM on December 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
Toronto's great Mies building had a signage system on it's own--it was rigorous and beautiful, and because of the PATH, it is now a cacophony of competing ugliness. I find this a metaphor.
posted by PinkMoose at 10:34 AM on December 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by PinkMoose at 10:34 AM on December 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
Some vintage PATH-walking action via Night Walk (1986).
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 10:51 AM on December 22, 2019 [7 favorites]
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 10:51 AM on December 22, 2019 [7 favorites]
Oh yeah Night Walk (and Ride), the OG slow tv! Such a great sleep aid.
posted by rodlymight at 11:24 AM on December 22, 2019
posted by rodlymight at 11:24 AM on December 22, 2019
Seems pretty similar to the Minneapolis Skyway system, except below ground instead of above street level.
posted by Ickster at 11:30 AM on December 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Ickster at 11:30 AM on December 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
The thing about the Minneapolis Skyway system is that being able to look out of windows doesn’t help you navigate. Most of them don’t seem to show views of Minneapolis, preferring to let the office workers glimpse places like Virconium and Carcosa....
posted by GenjiandProust at 11:59 AM on December 22, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by GenjiandProust at 11:59 AM on December 22, 2019 [2 favorites]
I never take the PATH if I can help it - it's so much easier to navigate at street level. One time we had a group split up - one took the underground route, we left a bit later and went at street level, then had to wait for 20 minutes at the other end for them to finish winding their way through.
posted by jb at 12:03 PM on December 22, 2019
posted by jb at 12:03 PM on December 22, 2019
Yeah, the PATH's main problem is that it's a twisted amalgam of public, private, and public-private spaces so there's never been a coherent and well-designed wayfinding system for it.
This really is a feature and not a bug, as alluded to in the linked article. Essentially the people who own this Rexall don’t want to take the chance that you will go buy your suntan lotion or cough syrup at the next Rexall. The owners of the buildings have no incentive to make the system easier to navigate.
Maybe I am uncannily skilled at navigating the depths beneath the city but in some thirty years of using it intermittently, I have only once found myself unable to find a way to a destination that was connected to the PATH. After a couple of blind alleys, I finally shrugged and ascended to the building across the street from the one I was trying to reach.
Some twenty years ago I was leading a walking tour in the downtown core. Toward the end we reached the base of the CN Tower so that those who wanted to visit there could do so without missing much, and the final fifteen minutes was a trip into Union Station’s Great Hall then a walk through the PATH back to the hostel. One particular day we re-emerged from the PATH at Yonge and Adelaide; this happened to be the day they were setting up for the night shoot of the final scene of Resident Evil, where Alice and whoever else stumble back out of the underground complex to find the zombie apocalypse has overtaken the city.
As we emerged and gazed on an Adelaide Street full of rubble, debris, burning cars, a bus lying on its side and the like, an Australian guest asked dubiously, “How long were we underground?”
posted by ricochet biscuit at 12:09 PM on December 22, 2019 [23 favorites]
This really is a feature and not a bug, as alluded to in the linked article. Essentially the people who own this Rexall don’t want to take the chance that you will go buy your suntan lotion or cough syrup at the next Rexall. The owners of the buildings have no incentive to make the system easier to navigate.
Maybe I am uncannily skilled at navigating the depths beneath the city but in some thirty years of using it intermittently, I have only once found myself unable to find a way to a destination that was connected to the PATH. After a couple of blind alleys, I finally shrugged and ascended to the building across the street from the one I was trying to reach.
Some twenty years ago I was leading a walking tour in the downtown core. Toward the end we reached the base of the CN Tower so that those who wanted to visit there could do so without missing much, and the final fifteen minutes was a trip into Union Station’s Great Hall then a walk through the PATH back to the hostel. One particular day we re-emerged from the PATH at Yonge and Adelaide; this happened to be the day they were setting up for the night shoot of the final scene of Resident Evil, where Alice and whoever else stumble back out of the underground complex to find the zombie apocalypse has overtaken the city.
As we emerged and gazed on an Adelaide Street full of rubble, debris, burning cars, a bus lying on its side and the like, an Australian guest asked dubiously, “How long were we underground?”
posted by ricochet biscuit at 12:09 PM on December 22, 2019 [23 favorites]
I never take the PATH if I can help it - it's so much easier to navigate at street level.
Well, yes. But underground is away from the freezing rain /extreme heat alert/ high UV index days. This is the appeal.
And I submit that navigation is much aided by a degree of situational awareness that is, alas, far from universal. Designers want to keep the branding on target. If you consider the blocks going straight north from Union, they are dominated by the limestone train station, the gaudy gold RBC building, the severe black steel TD Centre, then the white marble First Canadian Place. Walk north from Union and you will see the walls of the PATH framing all the Tim Hortons and print shops are grey limestone, then goldy gold, then black steel, then white marble. Armed with a decent aerial shot postcard, anyone could navigate it by matching the colours.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 12:19 PM on December 22, 2019 [2 favorites]
Well, yes. But underground is away from the freezing rain /extreme heat alert/ high UV index days. This is the appeal.
And I submit that navigation is much aided by a degree of situational awareness that is, alas, far from universal. Designers want to keep the branding on target. If you consider the blocks going straight north from Union, they are dominated by the limestone train station, the gaudy gold RBC building, the severe black steel TD Centre, then the white marble First Canadian Place. Walk north from Union and you will see the walls of the PATH framing all the Tim Hortons and print shops are grey limestone, then goldy gold, then black steel, then white marble. Armed with a decent aerial shot postcard, anyone could navigate it by matching the colours.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 12:19 PM on December 22, 2019 [2 favorites]
I've spent a good 20 minutes walking around within 100 meters or so of a gift basket store I was trying to find in the PATH, one which I had visited before. Or maybe it was 40 minutes. I saw signs mentioning the store. I asked people for directions to the store.
I did finally find the store.
posted by clawsoon at 12:20 PM on December 22, 2019 [2 favorites]
I did finally find the store.
posted by clawsoon at 12:20 PM on December 22, 2019 [2 favorites]
Perhaps the best way to understand the PATH is to become the PATH.
posted by Rora at 12:34 PM on December 22, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by Rora at 12:34 PM on December 22, 2019 [2 favorites]
One weekend, my sister was in the PATH with her friends heading to Union Station and encountered a young man with a backpack who was super glad to see them. "Thank God I ran into you guys! I thought I'd never find my way out!" A real RPG dungeon moment.
posted by airmail at 1:17 PM on December 22, 2019 [5 favorites]
posted by airmail at 1:17 PM on December 22, 2019 [5 favorites]
I would probably be happiest to reincarnated as a rat in a maze. These sorts of places fascinate me and I'm compelled to fully map them out. I used to spend most Christmases in Calgary visiting in-laws and I did a systematic exploration of Calgary's Plus 15. It's quite a bit smaller and, being at the mezzanine level rather than underground, less disorienting and claustrophobia-inducing. But, yeah, I traversed the whole damned thing.
Relatedly, I used to have a nearly infallible sense of location and direction. Spin me around blindfolded, etc. And then, suddenly... I didn't. I'm still absolutely confident I know where I am and how to navigate, but I am also quite often very very wrong. This is a source of amusement and consternation to my friends.
posted by sjswitzer at 1:47 PM on December 22, 2019 [2 favorites]
Relatedly, I used to have a nearly infallible sense of location and direction. Spin me around blindfolded, etc. And then, suddenly... I didn't. I'm still absolutely confident I know where I am and how to navigate, but I am also quite often very very wrong. This is a source of amusement and consternation to my friends.
posted by sjswitzer at 1:47 PM on December 22, 2019 [2 favorites]
Namba City Mall in Osaka also feels larger than the PATH.
That one and the other major station, Umeda. When I lived in Osaka I'd heard it said that the Umeda underground shopping mall was the largest in the world. Both of them are massive. The one under Tokyo (station) is also massive, but I think the ones in Osaka are even larger...and they may be even tenuously connected. The author somehow forgot Japan.
posted by zardoz at 2:27 PM on December 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
That one and the other major station, Umeda. When I lived in Osaka I'd heard it said that the Umeda underground shopping mall was the largest in the world. Both of them are massive. The one under Tokyo (station) is also massive, but I think the ones in Osaka are even larger...and they may be even tenuously connected. The author somehow forgot Japan.
posted by zardoz at 2:27 PM on December 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
The author somehow forgot Japan.
I thought so too, but according to the Japanese Wikipedia article on 地下街 (underground malls), all the Japanese ones are smaller than the PATH when measured in square meters of retail floor space.Not even summing all the underground malls around Shinjuku station could compete.
I couldn’t find any numbers on the total length of the malls in Japan, though. Maybe Japan comes out ahead on that measure. And I’m pretty sure Japan wins on depth :)
posted by AxelT at 3:56 PM on December 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
I thought so too, but according to the Japanese Wikipedia article on 地下街 (underground malls), all the Japanese ones are smaller than the PATH when measured in square meters of retail floor space.Not even summing all the underground malls around Shinjuku station could compete.
I couldn’t find any numbers on the total length of the malls in Japan, though. Maybe Japan comes out ahead on that measure. And I’m pretty sure Japan wins on depth :)
posted by AxelT at 3:56 PM on December 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
Yeah, Japan definitely has a lot of underground shopping areas overall. The ones in Osaka are substantial, but they're also split between Namba and Umeda, and even within a given area, they do not necessarily connect, so they are counted separately (e.g. Namba Walk vs. Crysta Nagahori). I'm fully willing to believe that the single largest one in the world might be elsewhere, even if Japan leads in aggregate.
posted by DoctorFedora at 7:32 PM on December 22, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by DoctorFedora at 7:32 PM on December 22, 2019 [2 favorites]
I'm pretty sure the area around Umeda Station in Osaka is the largest connected underground commercial zone in Japan. There are maybe half a dozen interconnected underground malls, all with different names, and these are also connected to the basement levels of several huge multi-story shopping malls. You can also explore the food-hall basements of several major department stores, each with dozens of individual shops and kiosks. And there are the basement restaurant floors of dozens of different office buildings.
Also connected to the maze are three massive office buildings in front of the station that each have two underground shopping levels, filled with everything from discount ticket sellers and stamp collector shops to trendy little cafes. There's even a yokocho - a little alleyway of tiny bars with ten seats each - squeezed alongside one of the major passageways.
It's a whole thriving city down there, and it's far from deserted on evenings and weekends. I once spent a week in Osaka during a spell of very bad weather and at one point I amused myself by trying to see how far I could get without emerging from underground. There are a couple of places where you have to walk through subway stations for twenty seconds between mall segments, but everything is definitely connected, and you can wander around down there for days if you want to.
posted by Umami Dearest at 10:05 PM on December 22, 2019 [6 favorites]
Also connected to the maze are three massive office buildings in front of the station that each have two underground shopping levels, filled with everything from discount ticket sellers and stamp collector shops to trendy little cafes. There's even a yokocho - a little alleyway of tiny bars with ten seats each - squeezed alongside one of the major passageways.
It's a whole thriving city down there, and it's far from deserted on evenings and weekends. I once spent a week in Osaka during a spell of very bad weather and at one point I amused myself by trying to see how far I could get without emerging from underground. There are a couple of places where you have to walk through subway stations for twenty seconds between mall segments, but everything is definitely connected, and you can wander around down there for days if you want to.
posted by Umami Dearest at 10:05 PM on December 22, 2019 [6 favorites]
I had 2 co-op jobs at the RBC building on Front and John, just off of the PATH, in 1999-2000. I spent a decent amount of time during my lunch hour and after work walking around and navigating it because it is pretty neat - the streetscape in the financial district isn't all that great to walk around so you may as well walk around in the climate-controlled PATH where you don't have to worry about getting hit by a car. By the end of it I could get wherever I wanted using the PATH and also knew when it made more sense to just go outside. I haven't really had a chance to wander the PATH since, just more purposeful getting from point A to B, so while I can still get around it I know there are more optimal routes out there. My favourite part is the corridor that goes across Roy Thompson Hall's pool/fountain. Just the way the light comes in and reflects off the water along with the strange dimensions of the corridor, wide with a relatively low ceiling and bright because one wall is entirely glass looking on to the pool, makes me feel like I'm somewhere alien or in a spaceship.
I spent a decent amount of time walking around Umeda and Namba between 2003-5. The path feels bigger than either of those, although that was before Namba Parks or JR Station Osaka came online which may have changed things. When I go back now my trips are much more purposeful so I can't wander as much. One thing that definitely feels different about Umeda's underground is that more of it is passageway or subway station as opposed to retail.
Probably the biggest difference between the PATH and the stuff in Japan is that for the most part the PATH is more interesting than what is above-ground so my preference would be to take the PATH as opposed to walking down King Street for example whereas I would only go underground in Japan because it is actually easier to navigate and get to whatever numbered exit you need to than going on the street - especially if you have to deal with those huge stairs for the intersections where they don't allow pedestrians to cross the road.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 10:16 AM on December 23, 2019 [1 favorite]
I spent a decent amount of time walking around Umeda and Namba between 2003-5. The path feels bigger than either of those, although that was before Namba Parks or JR Station Osaka came online which may have changed things. When I go back now my trips are much more purposeful so I can't wander as much. One thing that definitely feels different about Umeda's underground is that more of it is passageway or subway station as opposed to retail.
Probably the biggest difference between the PATH and the stuff in Japan is that for the most part the PATH is more interesting than what is above-ground so my preference would be to take the PATH as opposed to walking down King Street for example whereas I would only go underground in Japan because it is actually easier to navigate and get to whatever numbered exit you need to than going on the street - especially if you have to deal with those huge stairs for the intersections where they don't allow pedestrians to cross the road.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 10:16 AM on December 23, 2019 [1 favorite]
How reliable is GPS signal down there?
I know someone who walked (essentially) every street of downtown Vancouver and logged it via the GPS on their phone.
Anyone try something like that for PATH?
It tickles me that it might be technical possible to have an augmented reality "minimap" like in computer games with waypoints and mission objectives and minigame markers for underground complexes.
posted by porpoise at 8:46 PM on December 23, 2019 [2 favorites]
I know someone who walked (essentially) every street of downtown Vancouver and logged it via the GPS on their phone.
Anyone try something like that for PATH?
It tickles me that it might be technical possible to have an augmented reality "minimap" like in computer games with waypoints and mission objectives and minigame markers for underground complexes.
posted by porpoise at 8:46 PM on December 23, 2019 [2 favorites]
This reminded me of a story I read in the Star years ago. A journalist, Katie Daub, lived in the path for two weeks, and produced this weird little graphic novel that gives a snapshot of what the PATH is like. Found it again here.
posted by devonia at 8:19 AM on December 24, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by devonia at 8:19 AM on December 24, 2019 [3 favorites]
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I kind of secretly love the PATH. I went to university somewhere bitterly cold in the winter, and one of the small pleasures I took was trying to find a route from my dorm room to class that spent the longest time indoors. The campus, in hindsight, was built a little like the PATH: a bunch of separate buildings that at best considered how you might want to walk to a neighbouring building, that nevertheless managed to become a network of interconnected passageways that let me stay inside for entire city blocks. No wonder I took great joy in navigating the PATH the same way, once I began living downtown.
I know a lot of people that avoid the PATH; easy to get lost, they say. And yeah, I guess the signage isn't great and the maps that help you get your bearings are too few and far between (and sometimes not using PATH design guidelines, owing to the fact that the network is a patchwork of commercial buildings with different owners). But there's a certain appeal to that too, at least for me. If you don't need to get anywhere quickly, there's a certain fun in getting lost down there; there's all kinds of mundane but kinda neat stuff, like finding alternate paths to your destination or ways up to street level you didn't know about before. And if nothing else, you know that if you ever end up somewhere you definitely shouldn't be because you explored a bit too far into the innards of the PATH, you can always say you just got lost, and I bet you pretty much anyone who works down there will believe you.
Walking through the thing at rush hour is claustrophobic in a way, but it beats driving a hundred times over. And really it's more like a fast-flowing river of humanity than a crush; there's always a place you can stand aside from the flow. But my favourite time to be down there is during the weekends and late nights, when the place is still bizarrely open (I guess to allow subway passage?) but mostly a ghost town, with all the stores and restaurants closed and only the occasional drunk couple or late-shift worker to cross paths with. The first time I was down there that late I almost couldn't believe it was allowed. It felt like I'd hidden in a mall washroom until the place closed up for the night, and now I had free roam of the place.
posted by chrominance at 10:54 PM on December 21, 2019 [32 favorites]