{"id":591198,"date":"2026-04-08T22:51:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T22:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/591198\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T22:51:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T22:51:08","slug":"torontos-former-mclaughlin-planetarium-being-demolished","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/591198\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto’s former McLaughlin Planetarium being demolished"},"content":{"rendered":"

Work is underway to demolish a former downtown planetarium to make way for a six-storey building that will primarily house University of Toronto\u2019s School of Cities.<\/p>\n

Chopper 24 captured an excavator at the McLaughlin Planetarium, which is located just south of the Royal Ontario Museum on Queen\u2019s Park. <\/p>\n

A spokesperson for U of T confirmed on Wednesday that demolition is ongoing and is expected to be completed by the end of spring.<\/p>\n

The City of Toronto told CP24 that a permit was issued on Nov. 28 for the proposed demolition of the dome-shaped structure, excluding foundations.<\/p>\n

\"\"McLaughlin Planetarium A demolition of the former McLaughlin Planetarium is underway. (Chopper 24) <\/p>\n

The planetarium, which cost $2.25 million, opened on Nov. 2, 1968<\/a>, after two years of construction. It was a gift to the Royal Ontario Museum from Canadian businessman and automobile industry pioneer R.S. McLaughlin.<\/p>\n

It featured a dome, which was 75 feet in diameter, where the sun, moon, planets, stars, comets, and other wonders of the universe were shown using hundreds of projectors.<\/a><\/p>\n

The McLaughlin Planetarium closed in Nov. 1995, and the land it sits on was later sold to U of T.<\/p>\n

Last year, the university unveiled its plan for the site<\/a>, saying the new building will \u201cbecome a major centre for scholarship on urban issues, a hub for community engagement and a key gateway to the St. George campus.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to its School of Cities, the university said the building will have a world-class recital hall and spaces for its Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Faculty of Law, and Faculty of Music.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Work is underway to demolish a former downtown planetarium to make way for a six-storey building that will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":591199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[712,49,48,3302],"class_list":["post-591198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}