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Location DB > Canada > Ontario > Toronto > Regal Constellation Hotel > Regal Trips One and Two

Story Info
Wed, May 5th, 2004
posted by manitou
Regal Trips One and Two

The Regal Constellation Hotel was one of the first hotels to be constructed in the area of Pearson Airport. Since its construction in 1958 it has served hundreds of thousands of guests in three and four star accommodations until its closing in 2003 when the owners went bankrupt. Since then this massive hotel has sat vacant with the exception of the occasional convention being held in is extensive convention facilities. It was at one of these conventions that I was able to explore the hotel.

I was at work at a trade show being held at the Constellation. My job with a company that provided the show with most of the necessary equipment allowed me unquestioned access to all convention halls and staging areas. At times when there was little to do, I would walk the back halls peering into rooms which mostly contained nothing more than tables and chairs. At the end of one hall though, I made a fascinating discovery: a wide open door to the hotel’s massive kitchen.
Still complete with all their equipment, the kitchens were eerily silent apart from the sound of air still being pulled through the vacuum hoods over the stoves. The kitchens were windowless but sufficient light was provided in most areas by still functioning fluorescent lights. I have worked in a number of professional kitchens in the past and my view of them has always been as brightly lit, loud and extremely busy. The site of these kitchens sitting silent, ovens cold, pans and trays unused was odd and strangely soothing.

My curiosity as to what lay beyond the kitchen was to remain though as I was totally unprepared to explore as I was without my camera or flashlight.

Once the work for the day was finished I returned to the Constellation armed with my camera, tripod and flashlight. I decided to start at the bottom where the pool and exercise rooms were. The pool at the Constellation is set up in a greenhouse-like area and is decorated with tropical plants, many of which are now dead of neglect. The pool itself is set up like a river and contains both and indoor and an outdoor portion. Adjacent to the pool are the exercise room and saunas. The exercise room is still equipped with a variety of equipment. A line of empty water bottles along one wall gave the appearance that the room had just been used. Off the exercise room are the change rooms and saunas. The saunas still retain their distinctive sauna smell of wet wood.

Walking through a large lobby area near one of the entrances to the hotel I came across a man who was walking around just as I was. I couldn’t tell whether he was an exhibitor at the convention upstairs or was a hotel employee and when he seemed to ask where the bathrooms were I was uncertain whether he was asking me or telling me. Had I been caught already? I turned around and headed in the direction of the bathrooms while he followed me fairly closely, as I neared the bathrooms the man thanked me and entered the bathroom. He had been an exhibitor who had gotten lost while looking for the bathrooms; maybe he thought he had been caught by me.

I returned to the kitchen which had sparked my interest earlier to photograph it. Walking along the rows of ovens and counters I came across a massive mixing machine, the largest I have ever seen. The machine sat outside what I would assume to have been the pastry kitchen. The size of the mixing machine provided silent testament to the sheer volume of food that was once produced in this kitchen. On the counter of the pastry kitchen sat pastry tools still coated in flour from their last use.

Leaving the pastry kitchen I walked by the row of refrigerators and storage rooms. Shining my light into one revealed a room full of pots, pans and trays, neatly stacked after being washed or “weshed” as a sign taped to the wall testified. While photographing this room I heard the sound of footsteps. I had been told that the hotel was completely vacant with the exception of the convention halls. Was there security or other hotel employees that still checked up on the hotel, or had another person at the convention simply decided to go exploring as well? I decided not to chance it and hid out of sight in the darkness of the storage room. Once the footsteps passed I walked back into the main kitchen; the smell of cigarette smoke lingered in the air. It had been an exhibitor that wanted to have a smoke without stepping outside into the rain.

Leaving the main kitchen I walked into the kitchen that was used by the hotel’s Chinese restaurant. This was clear as there were woks on the stoves and even a small shrine above the cupboards. The doors of this kitchen led to the dining room which was still fully furnished and some of the tables were even still set for service.

The dining room is adjacent to the main lobby of the hotel. It is in the lobby where there are clear signs of the hotel’s upcoming renovation. Cinder blocks, new marble tile and a great deal of furniture are stored in the lobby as is the hotel’s only occupant.

When I first stepped into the lobby the first sound I heard was a loud metallic clang. In the silence of the massive lobby this sound was an absolute cacophony. Scanning the lobby from my position partially hidden in a doorway I could see movement about 40 meters away. Was this the noise of a workman starting the renovations? Again I was almost certain that the hotel was empty, but this noise and movement seemed to indicate otherwise. I heard the noise and noticed the movement again and again. The possibilities as to its source ran through my mind. I decided it probably was not made by a person and walked towards it. As I neared the source I noticed a large cage and in it, what I assume to be a parakeet. Who the bird belonged to was a mystery, but clearly someone was staking care of it; its cage was clean and its food dish was full.

The cage rested on the main reception desks. On the desks there were still the computers, phones and stacks of keycards. Throughout most of the Constellation it looked as if all the employees and guests simply got up and left. Had I wanted to and been prepared to do the work of hundreds of people, I could very easily have opened up my own four star hotel simply by turning the computers back on and unlocking the front door.

As interesting as the first floors were, what I really wanted to see where the rooms themselves, especially the penthouses. I had found that a number of the elevators were inoperable. Running short of time, I decided to end my exploration here and return a few days later.

I returned three days later with Avatar X to explore the rest of the hotel. Again we started in the kitchen and headed for the main lobby. Seeing a hotel worker mopping the floor in the lobby we returned to the kitchen and found a staircase leading to the basement. The basement of the hotel turned out to be a labyrinth of hallways and was the cause of some confusion as to where we were going and where we had been.

Our first find in the basement was another kitchen; this one was securely locked though. Oddly enough though, the door to a nearby room holding a number of big screen TVs was unlocked.

The lounge for hotel staff, called “Munchies” is located in the basement. This is a very large room and attests to the large numbers of staff that once worked at the hotel. The lounge was furnished in drab, dated chairs and sofas. There was a snack bar where employees could buy their meals for only four dollars. A sign on the wall next to the exit read “smile, eye contact, pleasant conversation” next to it was a mirror for employees to check their uniforms before heading out into the hotel.

Exploring the basement further, we found ourselves in the hotel’s massive laundry room. Industrial sized dryers lined the wall along one side of the room, shelves piled high with linens and pillows lined the other. The middle of the room was occupied by what I assumed to be an industrial washing machine. The volume of laundry that came through this room on a daily basis must have been incredible with not only hotel linens from the 800 rooms, but also laundry of the guests being washed here.

After seeing most, if not all of the basement, we decided it was time to check out the towers. There were operational elevators running from the basement to the towers but we debated using them as the motion of an elevator, if noticed, could easily give away our presence and location. We took the stairs to the top floors of two of the hotel’s towers, the one immediately behind the main lobby and the newer one off Dixon Road. The rooms on the tower behind the lobby were still laid out as they would have been when the hotel was in business with the exception of the bed linen, everything was there, including hotel stationary and toiletries in the bathroom. The furnishings in the rooms of the new tower had been piled on the beds, probably to allow hotel staff to vacuum as much of the floor as possible. There was nothing noteworthy about these rooms. They were the standard hotel rooms that we have all seen many times. On the top floor of the new tower there was evidence of renovations as much of the paneling that once lined the walls had been stripped off and piled in the hallway. The highlight of the new tower was its easy roof access. An easily opened hatch behind a wide open door led us onto the roof with provided us a remarkable view of the surrounding area, including Person International Airport.

From the roof we were able to gain access to an elevator room which had a staircase that led back down to the top floor of the new tower. Descending once again to the main floor we decided to check out the older, original tower.

The main floors of the original tower have been converted into office and storage space. A door that was probably locked when the hotel was in use indicated that the original tower had not been used for some time but it was unclear exactly how long the tower had been closed.

Fortunately there was an elevator that was still in operation which made our ascension into this tower much easier than any of the previous ones. We took the elevator directly to the top floor and were amazed at what we saw. The old tower looked as if it had been untouched since the 1960s. We walked into an incredibly kitschy bar decorated in an Arabian theme. A mural behind the bar depicted the tale of Sinbad the Sailor. The walls were painted to look as if gold leaf had been applied for effect and an ornate red vinyl couch sat at one end of the room.

Stepping into this bar one must wonder what the architects and designers were thinking at the time. The absurdness of the oddly shaped, recessed windows becomes quite apparent once they are viewed from the inside.

Also occupying the top floor were a number of rooms that were named after various famous mountains. These rooms were largely devoid of any furnishings however the Mt. Everest room did contain a portrait of Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzig Norgay, the first people to summit the mountain and survive. At the far end of the hall was the Maharaja Suite, a large room still furnished with 60s style furniture and most notably, a large lamp with an unusually large green bulb.

Accessing the roof of the original tower was relatively easy. A ladder in a machinery room led to a hatch and only a loosely secured bolt held the latch closed. After removing the bolt we climbed out onto the roof. The backside of the large “Regal Constellation” sign could be easily seen. A large portion of the “E” in “Regal” was waving in the heavy winds and looked as it if would detach itself at any point. Unlike to roof of the newer tower, this roof contained a number of antenna arrays. While the view of the surrounding area was relatively the same, the fact that we were standing on the roof of the original tower resonated within my mind and it was here that I felt a supreme sense of achievement. We were standing on the roof of the original hotel on the airport strip. While descending the ladder back into the machinery room we heard what sounded like a radio. Fortunately the sound came from a repeater box which had been placed in the machinery room, which also explained some of the antennas on the roof, and not the radio of a police officer or security guard.

Leaving the roof we decided to check out the rooms on the floors below. Taking the elevator down to the 15th floor we once again stepped into a world of 60s’ design. The rooms here were still furnished and paintings still hung on the wall. A number of the rooms were decorated with rugs and replica tapestries on the wall. The highlight of the floor was the discovery of a room with a round bed sitting atop a raised platform, with curtains draping the wall behind the bed and chandeliers hanging on either side of it. Thanks to Avatar’s technical ability we were able to illuminate the floor with more than a maglite as he was able to return power to the rooms via a switchbox in the main hall.

After photographing the room I received a call on my cell phone informing me that the hotel will be locked up once again within an hour. Fortunately we had seen the majority of the hotel and certainly its most interesting parts. We returned to the basement via the stairs passing a sign indicating that there were once security patrols and camera surveillance in this area. The stairs took us to the basement where we decided to return to the kitchen through which we accessed the rest of the hotel. Walking through the halls we passed a room marked “Bell” Avatar tried the keypad on the door. Amazingly on his first attempt the door opened. Inside were a large number of antiquated phones and computer equipment. It was clear that there were a number of phone lines inside the hotel that were in use and calls were being made from them. The room also contained an unusual treasure: numerous tapes of hold music, each tape with a certain theme or a new promotion.
After making this find we made our way back to the main kitchen. Walking through a door into the kitchen we ran into one of the few remaining hotel staff. It was clear that he was as surprised to see us as we were to see him. I smiled at him and we walked on without any trouble.

The Regal Constellation contains on of the few examples of original 60s décor that I know of. The openness of the hotel allows for excellent exploration once one has gained access, which at most times I would imagine to be extremely difficult. We were lucky that a trade show being held in the occasionally used convention halls allowed us to walk in unquestioned. Unfortunately it will be some time before and exploration as extensive and risk free as this one was will be possible as the Constellation is once again locked up to all but the most determined to enter.

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