An artist rendering of the new Ontario Science Centre planned for the Toronto waterfront.Supplied
Ontario Premier Doug Ford unveiled the winning designs for the relocated Ontario Science Centre planned for Toronto’s waterfront on Thursday, charging ahead despite critics and community activists opposing the abrupt shuttering of the facility’s longtime home.
Mr. Ford said the total cost for the new building is about $1-billion, a figure that includes a 30-year maintenance contract.
The new science centre is to take shape next to the future home of Therme, the massive Austrian-owned spa and waterpark selected to anchor the province’s revitalization of its Ontario Place site.
Both projects have prompted fierce opposition, as the province spends hundreds of millions to revive the site of its defunct amusement park – a space some local advocates have said should be entirely converted into parkland instead.
Ontario Science Partners, a collaboration that includes Hariri Pontarini Architects, won the provincial government contract to design, build, finance and maintain the new facility.Supplied
The winning science centre designs, selected after a competitive bidding process that wrapped up in the fall, envision a structure of white sail-like panels and glass.
The designs also include the renovation and reuse of some of Ontario Place’s existing structures that jut into Lake Ontario, including the golf-ball-like Cinesphere and the so-called Pods. The government says it will be ready “as early as 2029.”
Opinion: Doug Ford shrinks Ontario Science Centre to fit in temporary home at Toronto Harbourfront
“This is stunning. This is world class,” a beaming Premier told reporters, standing in front of poster-sized renderings at a press conference at the Ontario Place site and comparing the building to the iconic Sydney Opera House.
The province angered critics when it suddenly closed the existing half-century-old Ontario Science Centre in the midtown Toronto area of Flemingdon Park in June, 2024, citing an engineering report that found the facility’s roof could collapse after a snowfall.
Critics say the report did not justify the closing, as the roof – which has not collapsed –could have been repaired.