Toronto Ontario Place | ?m | ?s | Infrastructure ON

I wouldn't be surprised that, after the municipal election, the Ontario government makes a play to take over the grounds of Exhibition Place, under the guise of helping the city save a few bucks.
 
It is literally more a science museum than a science centre. It's more oriented towards artifacts than hands-on/interactive exhibits. To be fair, they also have a good amount of the former given the history of UK - I don't imagine we do; that's also why the original OSC was so groundbreaking for its' time.

AoD
From my anecdotal memory of it back in '79 (and at a risk of exposing my age again) the only charm it had was if you're a steampunk enthusiasts and not much else...

...not sure what it's like today though.
 
I wouldn't be surprised that, after the municipal election, the Ontario government makes a play to take over the grounds of Exhibition Place, under the guise of helping the city save a few bucks.
"Exhibition Place" used to be named "Exhibition Park". However, it is no longer a "park" and more a "parking lot" (& underground garage) and is now an all-year "place".
 
One thing of note re Ontario Science Centre: Martin Regg Cohn had a pro-OSC-move column in today's Star, where the most tell-tale passage referred to the OSC's "aptly-named Brutalist style". Don't be surprised if the pro-move/pro-demolition cohort seeks to opportunistically milk the "people hate Brutalism" trope for all it's worth: "it's old, it's dated, it's beyond repair, and oh, it's a carbuncle as well" (and such Brutal-bashing certainly seems like the cup of tea for the kinds of right-wing think-tank operatives that'd have Ford's ear).

 

based, its what ive been saying all along, Riverside, Osgoode hall, Don Valley, Its the same thing every single time

You’ll be told the Tories aren’t properly consulting Torontonians ― as if the previous consultations don’t count and must be replicated until critics get the results they want. You’ll hear that this is a back of the envelope plan pulled out of a hat.
 
Doug is motivated by three things: Benefitting his friends/benefactors, benefitting himself (through benefitting the friends), and benefitting Etobicoke.

This whole thing reeks of the back of his napkin. Developer friends get new land at Don Mills and Eglinton, Therme gets a free parking lot, Kinga gets a project on the Waterfront. The Science Centre is moved closer to Etobicoke and voila, a new destination is created on his side of town at Ontario Place. His comment about how he "loved taking the sail boat to Ontario Place like everyone else" (big LOL) was so telling.

I've said it before, but mark my words, we can expect to see an announcement in the next 3 years that the Ontario Line is being expanded west into Etobicoke. As long as he is Premier, it's all about them. The burying and expediting of the Eglinton West extension was just the start.
They will need to extend Ontario Line north on Don Mills to Seneca College before any western extension.... this is highly unlikely that Ford announces a west extension before funding is committed for the OL north one, sheppard extension funded, eglrt east, airport extension for egwlrt. etc...
 

based, its what ive been saying all along, Riverside, Osgoode hall, Don Valley, Its the same thing every single time
Can we get an eye roll emoticon on this forum?

I've already challenged you on this once before. When was anyone consulted on the fate of Osgoode Hall? When was anyone consulted on Ontario Place or the Ontario Science Centre? Show me the receipts.
 
No, the smaller 'twin' of Foresters. Later converted to residential, it was originally built as office:
View attachment 470710

O&Y had high hopes for this area. Never took off like they'd hoped (2-3M sf total) and ended up becoming the townhouses there today.

View attachment 470711
Can you explain why it became townhomes there? I assume u mean Ferrand Drive? also east on your pricture is the ICICI Building parking lot.. I assume that will be getting developed soon too?
 
Can someone link me to the Don mills and eglinton science centre redevelopment forum? I can't seem to find the link
 
Can someone link me to the Don mills and eglinton science centre redevelopment forum? I can't seem to find the link

There is no thread for that yet. Which is why you can't find it! LOL

This time its not UT's search engine.

There is a thread for the north parking lot which carries the same address as the OSC, 770 Don Mills Road:

https://urbantoronto.ca/forum/threa...s-153-7m-48s-createto-montgomery-sisam.28421/

There is also a thread on the state of the current building, here:


Right now, we don't have any known plan for the site, a proponent (other than the Ontario gov't in a general way); or much of anything to sink our teeth into. Speculation and opinions on what should or should not happen have thus far appeared in this thread.
 
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Can we get an eye roll emoticon on this forum?

I've already challenged you on this once before. When was anyone consulted on the fate of Osgoode Hall? When was anyone consulted on Ontario Place or the Ontario Science Centre? Show me the receipts.
And on top of that, if "public consultation" is what yields a Joe Blow dismissiveness t/w Brutalist architecture...
 
One thing of note re Ontario Science Centre: Martin Regg Cohn had a pro-OSC-move column in today's Star, where the most tell-tale passage referred to the OSC's "aptly-named Brutalist style". Don't be surprised if the pro-move/pro-demolition cohort seeks to opportunistically milk the "people hate Brutalism" trope for all it's worth: "it's old, it's dated, it's beyond repair, and oh, it's a carbuncle as well" (and such Brutal-bashing certainly seems like the cup of tea for the kinds of right-wing think-tank operatives that'd have Ford's ear).


Yeah, it's the negative associations with Brutalism and assuming that it's optimal to cluster tourist destinations ine one area that are driving these "arguments." There's a lot of mistakes/dumb stuff in that article, IMHO. But, yeah - a simple thing to consider is, assuming both are in disrepair, how would people react if they announced they were destroying Ontario Place and moving its facilities to the Science CEntre.

Yeah, I get this does not work perfectly but I think people would be way more upset about those pretty white buildings on the water getting demolished to be moved uptown than this concrete building uptown being demolished to be moved to the waterfront.
 
Yeah, it's the negative associations with Brutalism and assuming that it's optimal to cluster tourist destinations ine one area that are driving these "arguments." There's a lot of mistakes/dumb stuff in that article, IMHO. But, yeah - a simple thing to consider is, assuming both are in disrepair, how would people react if they announced they were destroying Ontario Place and moving its facilities to the Science CEntre.

Yeah, I get this does not work perfectly but I think people would be way more upset about those pretty white buildings on the water getting demolished to be moved uptown than this concrete building uptown being demolished to be moved to the waterfront.
Actually, it's less a matter of OSC *itself* inspiring architectural bad will in and of itself (which is a crock--though yes, the bottom building's basically a warehouse and the top building was monkeyed with in the 90s), as much as the champions of the move are implicitly or explicitly and opportunistically using hack anti-Brutalist sentiment in order to grease their anti-OSC argument. "Hey, folks: this is the same style as the Hudson's Bay Centre and all those other downtown bunkers you despise!"

Besides, if Ontario Place--the pods and sphere, I mean--were demolished, there really *aren't* presently any "facilities" to speak of that require moving uptown. And if there were, it'd probably involve effacing a good deal of the remaining original architectural integrity of OSC. So you'd be effed either way
 

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