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Ontario Science Centre

CTV report following a Freedom of Information Request, concerning a City Inspector's notes on the day the province announced the emergency shutdown of the complex.

toronto.ctvnews.ca

Ontario Science Centre: City inspectors scrambled to respond to shutdown, documents show

On the day that the Ontario Science Centre was abruptly shuttered this summer, a city of Toronto staffer rushed to the building to inspect it – but didn’t mark down any immediate hazards, according to documents obtained by CTV News through a freedom of information request.
toronto.ctvnews.ca toronto.ctvnews.ca

From the above:

1725477461064.png
 
New article casting doubt on the move, but also including some details I wasn't previously aware of:
www.canadianarchitect.com

What would a Science Centre at Ontario Place look like?

Fewer exhibitions, missing feature zones, decimated education areas: a new science centre at Ontario Place would be a shadow of the current Ontario Science Centre.
www.canadianarchitect.com www.canadianarchitect.com
 
picard102 said:
Shored as in temporarily fixed until it can be replaced, or shored as in finished fixing the issue?
Click to expand...

I haven't read his original filing, but I would read shored in this context to mean 'supported', generally the use of the term refers to an interim measure.
 
It looks like JLL may have been retained by the Ontario Government / Infrastructure Ontario to conduct the search for an interim site / possibly longer term site for replacement of the Science Centre.

There was an ad in the Globe & Mail yesterday (Thursday, September 5), bottom right corner of Page B3. Placed by JLL, the ad is seeking office space within the City on behalf of Infrastructure Ontario.

Bullet points (mandatory requirements) from the ad:
  • Located within the City of Toronto
  • Minimum of 200,000 rentable square feet of office space
  • Less than a 10-minute/850m walk to subway or 10-minute/7km drive to a major highway
  • Viable opportunity for owner-occupancy - 60% of office space within 5 years & 100% within 10 years
  • Estimated current market value of $500 per square foot or less
Any other feasible interpretations?
 
I really dislike the proposed Ontario Place location. It suffers from the same issues, if not worse, as the current Science Centre which is the long disconnect between point A (entrance) and point B (the actual facility). The lake, while amazing in its own right is such a waste of space in the context of the Science Centre. I wish it could have been on CNE grounds proper instead (or better yet, just remained where it is now and undergone a proper buildout to remove the weird connection).
 
Saw a post on IG just now about exhibits being set up at Harbourfront Centre and Sherway (new designs for tall buildings?!) Will look but coming soon.
 
rdaner said:
Saw a post on IG just now about exhibits being set up at Harbourfront Centre and Sherway (new designs for tall buildings?!) Will look but coming soon.
Click to expand...
https://archive.is/MnPYH
Ontario Science Centre moving to temporary locations at Harbourfront, Sherway Gardens
The Sherway location will open in November and Harbourfront in December.
Click to expand...
 
I guess repairs are tied into the province's land lease deal with the city having to keep the OSC in good condition? Which makes this more apparent that the roof issue was ultimately an excuse to close down the centre (which I think is ultimately tied to the Ontario Place redevelopment plans).

I think the OSC saga is done for now, but there is still an opportunity if the city were to take control over the buildings to open a new institution inside of them.

Workers say goodbye to an almost-empty Ontario Science Centre as repairs get underway​

By Liam Casey The Canadian Press
Posted November 14, 2024 6:14 am
Click to expand...
He pointed to ongoing repair work as the source of that hope. There is scaffolding in the great hall and the auditorium that allows access to the roof, where engineers had identified panels in danger of collapsing.

The heating in Building B, which housed many exhibits, theatres and the great hall, has been fixed.

“We do appreciate that the building is being repaired, but, of course, everybody wonders, what for? What is it going to be?” Fischer said.

“So, I haven’t given up hope that we can return.”
Click to expand...
The province is looking for an interim location for the science centre with its permanent new space set to open in 2028 at the earliest.

The production team, which makes exhibits for science centres around the world, does not have a new home yet. The shop’s machines and production materials are stored away in Huntsville, Ont., a three-hour drive north of Toronto, Fischer said.

“That work is on hold because we don’t have a location,” he said.

Other items are stored in facilities in Guelph, Ont., northern Toronto and at Sherway Gardens, a mall in western Toronto where a science centre pop-up location just opened. There is also a pop-up coming to Harbourfront Centre in downtown Toronto.
Click to expand...
As things wound down this October, Kennedy helped dismantle the radio equipment and send it off to storage.

“There are no plans in the future to install a new amateur radio station at a new Ontario Science Centre,” he said.

He listed off more of the items that are gone now, sent away to places across the province.

The Toronto Bee Collective came and took the dozen or so bee hives that are now set up at Black Creek Pioneer Village, he said.

Gone too are the iconic Canadarm and the fin whale skeleton, which he said were especially difficult to take down.
Click to expand...
But Kennedy said staff left a few big-ticket items behind, and he isn’t sure why. There’s a ship’s propeller, and the cross-section of a massive Sitka spruce tree trunk.

“There’s a whole crapload of stuff that’s still left,” he said.
Click to expand...
globalnews.ca

Workers say goodbye to an almost-empty Ontario Science Centre as repairs get underway | Globalnews.ca

As the sun shone on an unusually warm day at the end of October, Emma Meadley Dunphy took one final, emotional stroll through the Ontario Science Centre.
globalnews.ca globalnews.ca
 
Last edited:
From Global News today
Ford government spent more than a week planning ‘end-of-day’ science centre closure
The science centre was fenced off from the public and closed just hours after an announcement on Friday, June 21. The rush, the government said at the time, was due to the urgent safety issues plaguing the building.

Internal emails obtained through freedom of information laws, however, reveal that the province began working on the plan to close the structure and sell its key message to the public at least 10 days before the announcement was made.

A trove of emails between government communication staff and senior Infrastructure Ontario officials show that a news release announcing the sudden closure was being prepared as early as June 11, while a plan to fence off the building was greenlit on June 17.
Click to expand...
 
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