Toronto’s ambulatory commuters could call themselves Skywalkers for the last quarter century but that may soon come to an end. This past summer the Toronto Preservation Board recommended that City Council approve the demolition of much of the Skywalk, the grand pedestrian concourse that opened in 1989 and connected Union Station with the then brand-new SkyDome. In its place, a proposed 48-storey tower with office and retail space called Union Centre will rise, and though an east-west connection is still planned, the familiar long greenhouse-like space will mostly disappear.

Few people linger in the Skywalk, but many pass through, like cars on a highway. Visit during off hours and you might be the only one there, but it’s busy during rush hour or when there’s a game on. Often disappointed Leafs or Jays fans shuffle through on their way home from either the Dome or the ACC, sheepish in their respective jerseys. The Skywalk is Toronto’s Highway of Unrequited Victory.

Twenty-five years isn’t much time for a building to exist, and in bricks and mortar years it’s still a kid: seen occasionally but not yet taken seriously. Built at the height of postmodernism, the long arched glass roof over the Skywalk echoes not only older European shopping arcades and passageways but also our own Eaton Centre, itself inspired by the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II shopping arcade in Milan.

However, unlike those two places, the Skywalk didn’t ever take off as a place to shop and the retail units along the south side languished unoccupied for years.

Still, the view of the cavernous space from the top of the staircase at the western end remains impressive, though construction for the Union-Pearson Express platform has obscured some of it with scaffolding. Here too find an old PATH map that hasn’t been updated which clearly marks the “SkyDome” rather than the Rogers Centre. The Skywalk itself derived its name from the stadium as much as its sky view, but these ghost traces referring to the SkyDome are getting harder to find.

The Skywalk is the first truly aboveground segment of the PATH, one that has much in common with Calgary’s +15 system of interconnected, above-ground walkways. Connecting downtown buildings is the Canadian way, letting people in many of our cities hide from winter chills or summer smog.

The Skywalk extends south over the railway corridor at Simcoe St. and is a good place to watch the GO and VIA trains pass underneath and see a panorama of Union Station construction. It’s Toronto’s most steampunk of views, though looking west, the old rail and diesel technology is contrasted with the 1970s and ’80s space-age look of the CN Tower and Metro Toronto Convention Centre, causing a friend to remark that it looks like the Death Star “trench” in the penultimate scene in Star Wars.

The Skywalk is truly a Toronto structure as it’s a mishmash of new and old pieces and styles. The 1989 concourse passes through the 2nd and 3rd floors of the former Canadian Express Building at York St. built in 1929 in the Beaux-Arts style (which will be preserved) and overtop what remains of the Canadian Express shed.

The PATH has been an ever-expanding network since it began in earnest in the 1960s, though there are earlier tunnels that have been incorporated into the network, like the late 1920s connection between Union Station and the Royal York. The latest aboveground expansion has occurred south of the railway, from the ACC west through new office towers. A walkway over Simcoe St. that is now under construction will soon connect to the existing Skywalk at the convention centre, forming a loop that ends outdoors by the CN Tower.

Give the current Skywalk one last 1989 vintage walk before it’s remixed into something else again.

Shawn Micallef writes every Friday about where and how we live in the GTA. Wander the streets with him on Twitter @shawnmicallef

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