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

In this Star story on the OSC's current site and the potential, we get some very curious language...

www.thestar.com

Doug Ford says Science Centre site will get school or community centre

The government is under fire for the planned move of the Ontario Science Centre and the repurposing of the site to build housing.
www.thestar.com www.thestar.com

From the above:

1682438840984.png


A new community centre eh? You mean like the 80M++ one that's being built literally across Eglinton right now?

A new school? Is this the same school already proposed to go under a tower on the north parking lot? Which the City can compel to be built, because its the City's land......?

Hmmm. Odd promises those.
 
Last edited:
Yeah, good news - his rhetoric is shifting from definitive to wishy washy.
Bad news, it implies he has no fricking clue what he's doing and is making it all up as he goes along.
In a matter of days from definitely demolishing a significant building to "well, maybe we won't, if the City wants to do something else with it."

It's sure hard to be optimistic but I'll take some solace in the notion that the backlash seems to be forcing them to reconsider at least some aspects of what they're doing.
 
TJ O'Pootertoot said:
Yeah, good news - his rhetoric is shifting from definitive to wishy washy.
Bad news, it implies he has no fricking clue what he's doing and is making it all up as he goes along.
In a matter of days from definitely demolishing a significant building to "well, maybe we won't, if the City wants to do something else with it."

It's sure hard to be optimistic but I'll take some solace in the notion that the backlash seems to be forcing them to reconsider at least some aspects of what they're doing.
Click to expand...

I wonder if Kinga Surma found the numbers a from the business case yet? /s Not too late to sign up for a ChatGPT account.

AoD
 
Last edited:
AlvinofDiaspar said:
I wonder if Kinga Surma found the numbers a from the business case yet? /s Not too late to sign up for a ChatGPT account.

AoD
Click to expand...

If we knew how long it took to check and then double-check them in the first place we could calculate how long the triple-check would take.
But without that information, we're just taking a shot in the dark, alas.
 
TJ O'Pootertoot said:
Yeah, good news - his rhetoric is shifting from definitive to wishy washy.
Bad news, it implies he has no fricking clue what he's doing and is making it all up as he goes along.
In a matter of days from definitely demolishing a significant building to "well, maybe we won't, if the City wants to do something else with it."

It's sure hard to be optimistic but I'll take some solace in the notion that the backlash seems to be forcing them to reconsider at least some aspects of what they're doing.
Click to expand...
Well, it happened with Ontario Place, too, relative to the Ford Govt's early attempts to kick all acknowledgment of OP's architectural importance or heritage attributes under the table or into internet-archive heaven.
 
The reason that Ontario Place went downhill was the moving the old Exhibition Loop from south of the Coliseum to under the Gardiner Expressway.

People face this looking to the north of Princes' Blvd to the Exhibition Loop.
1682465625741.png


And this facing to the south towards Ontario Place.
1682465702400.png

From link.


Who wants to safari across that asphalt desert?

At least have a tree lined promenade and gardens, with benches and little mobile shops (not corporate chains or franchisees).
offset_917358.jpg

From link.

France-Saint-Raphael-Tree-lined-Promenade-954x1440.jpg

From link.

Instead of catering to the automobiles.
 
Pulled out an interesting bit....For those who listened to the announcement, this has been planned for 3 years according to the premier.
 
W. K. Lis said:
The reason that Ontario Place went downhill was the moving the old Exhibition Loop from south of the Coliseum to under the Gardiner Expressway.

Who wants to safari across that asphalt desert?
Click to expand...
Though it isn't like there wasn't much less asphalt desert in the days of the old Exhibition Loop--or rather, it wasn't the moving of the loop in and of itself, but the demolition of such things as the Bulova Tower and the Flyer and Exhibition Stadium that *really* generated the desert as we know it today.

In any event, those arriving by way of the Dufferin Loop get (and got) the better deal.
 
Coolibop said:
Pulled out an interesting bit....For those who listened to the announcement, this has been planned for 3 years according to the premier.
Click to expand...
The science center "partnership" was always a factor, it took a few years for them to do a business case on which one works best

- move science center like we have currently
- build secondary science center and keep current one

I really do wonder what the "business case" will say. Will it go into heritage concerns? I reserve judgement until then
 
generalcanada said:
The science center "partnership" was always a factor, it took a few years for them to do a business case on which one works best

- move science center like we have currently
- build secondary science center and keep current one

I really do wonder what the "business case" will say. Will it go into heritage concerns? I reserve judgement until then
Click to expand...
I think that, in the Fordspace's boneheadedness, they weren't *foreseeing* heritage concerns--but are in the process of being backed into it.

To them, it was just "infrastructure": little different from something like, say, the former Ontario Archives building on Grenville St. Or like some people even within this forum, they never really processed their youthful/formative visits in terms of anything meaningfully, enduringly "architectural", and that disconnect stuck. Like a trip to OSC being like a trip to Canada's Wonderland or to Ripley's in Niagara Falls--or to a mall, which typically requires regular "refreshing" and even selective or total demolition when something's "had its day". And needless to say, a lot of those who are in cahoots w/Ford are themselves "business people" who view the world in matter-of-fact "mall terms". Plus, they know that the optics of demolition on behalf of a "clean slate" are preferable to the optics of white-elephant abandonment; thus, tearing it down is preferable to letting it all sit there like the silos of the OP West Island.
(And y'know something--I've read that the logistics of repairing the bridge are complicated by supposed TRCA concerns: the necessity of allowing construction vehicles et al in an environmentally sensitive valley. But, wouldn't such concerns also complicate demolition? In a way, the presently-fashionable "green" arguments against demolition in general--embodied energy and waste and all of that--here intersect with a different form of "green concerns"; that is, you'd be unnecessarily wrecking a designated natural zone in order to wreck a significant building.)
 
Northern Light said:
A new school? Is this the same school already proposed to go under a tower on the north parking lot? Which the City can compel to be built, because its the City's land......?
Click to expand...
Y'know, something rather "I can see DoFo doing this" comes to mind. Remembering that Charles McVety's Canada Christian College used to be not far away on Wynford before they moved to Whitby, I'm wondering if Dougie's got some notion of luring them back to...here?
 
adma said:
To them, it was just "infrastructure": little different from something like, say, the former Ontario Archives building on Grenville St. Or like some people even within this forum, they never really processed their youthful/formative visits in terms of anything meaningfully, enduringly "architectural", and that disconnect stuck....
(And y'know something--I've read that the logistics of repairing the bridge are complicated by supposed TRCA concerns: the necessity of allowing construction vehicles et al in an environmentally sensitive valley. But, wouldn't such concerns also complicate demolition? In a way, the presently-fashionable "green" arguments against demolition in general--embodied energy and waste and all of that--here intersect with a different form of "green concerns"; that is, you'd be unnecessarily wrecking a designated natural zone in order to wreck a significant building.)
Click to expand...

On the one hand, this seems like precisely the sort of thing they would under-estimate. On the other hand, Ford got pretty burned on the MZO he did for the Foundry site in Toronto and I find it hard to iamgine the Infrastructre Ministry wouldn't have been aware of/considered the heritage issues. (As I understand it, unlike Ontario Place and the Foundry, the OSC is not designated. Nothing stopping Toronto Council from doing that now...)

I also saw that thing about the TRCA and the bridge. I would think, in the scheme of things, they would do everything int heir power to make clear that, "Hey, if we're the main hold-up with the bridge, let's figure that out ASAP,"" since they are very clearly more interested in retaining the OSC building than seeing it redeveloped. Maybe they needed this kick in the pants.
 
adma said:
Y'know, something rather "I can see DoFo doing this" comes to mind. Remembering that Charles McVety's Canada Christian College used to be not far away on Wynford before they moved to Whitby, I'm wondering if Dougie's got some notion of luring them back to...here?
Click to expand...
I doubt it as I think that ship has fortunately sailed and it would be an odd choice for North America’s largest concentration of Muslims. Better the University of Guelph which is looking for a GTA campus.
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top