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I wasn’t planning to have a post for you today but then I spent yesterday afternoon at a conference hosted at glam event space, Carlu. Luckily for me, I took what I thought was a short-cut out of the men’s room and ended up in the sublime Round Room, above. The space was not being used for the function so it was utterly empty, which added to the trapped-in-time feeling.

Opened in 1931, the seventh floor of what was originally the Eaton’s department store, was designed by French architect Jacques Carlu, famous for his work on classic Art Moderne ocean liners, The Ille de France and The Normandie. The fountain at the centre of the space is by Lalique and the deco-style mural wrapping the room in warm, golden tones is by Carlu’s wife Natacha.

A 38-storey office tower was to have risen above the department store but the Great Depression put the kibosh on that idea. The Round Room is said to have inspired the Rainbow Room in Rockefeller Centre, which was designed and constructed after this Toronto masterpiece. The venue’s 45,000 square feet include a 1,200-seat concert hall that hosted performances by the biggest names of the era including Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra and Glenn Gould.

College Park’s famed seventh floor fell into a sad state following the closing of the department store in 1976. A group, dubbed the Friends of the Eaton Auditorium, rallied to have the space designated a National Historic Site, a mission they accomplished in 1982. But it was only thanks to the vision and deep pockets of the venue’s current owners, Jeffry Roick and Mark Robert, that the costly restoration was successfully undertaken.

Carlu’s website provides a splendid look at the building’s history replete with period photographs.