Ontario Place
Ontario Place was an entertainment venue, event venue, and park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The venue is located on three artificial landscaped islands just off-shore in Lake Ontario, south of Exhibition Place, and southwest of Downtown Toronto. It opened on May 22, 1971, and operated as a theme park centred around Ontario themes and family attractions until 2012 when the Government of Ontario announced that it would close for redevelopment. It has since reopened as a park without an admission fee but without several of the old attractions. The Government of Ontario has made controversial plan to place the 145 acres on a 95-year lease with the Swiss mega-spa builder Therme Group without public consultation or environmental assessments.
Since the closure as a theme park, several of the venue's facilities have remained open, once reopened, and one section was redeveloped. The RBC Amphitheatre operates during the summer season. The Cinesphere, the original IMAX theatre, reopened with new projection equipment and shows films regularly; although it is currently closed for renovations. On the East Island, Trillium Park and the William G Davis Trail opened in 2017. A marina, sheltered by three sunken lake freighters operates seasonally at the site. The exhibit "pods", several pavilions suspended above a lagoon, have remained closed after the closure of the Atlantis event facility. While much of the West Island's facilities are permanently closed, some of the natural spaces are now being used for recreation. Occasionally special events are hosted in the west island village.
History
The Ontario Place theme park operated annually during the summer months from 1971 until 2011. Designed originally to promote the Province of Ontario through exhibits and entertainment, its focus changed over time to be that of a theme park for families with a water park, a children's play area, and amusement rides. Exhibits in the pods were discontinued and the pods became a venue for private events. [|The Forum] concert stage had long been a primary draw to Ontario Place in its early years as it offered free concerts by a wide variety of prominent artists, for free with the price of admission to the park. Structured as a true amphitheater with seating on all sides and a recessed stage that was round and revolved during concerts, all seats offered an equal view of the stage and were offered on a first come first served basis. In the 1990s, despite the vocal protests of Eb Zeidler, the architect of the park among others, the Forum was torn down and replaced by the Amphitheatre, in truth a static proscenium arch stage with banked ticketed seating. After a long period of declining attendance, the Government of Ontario closed the facility except for its music venue and marina after the 2011 season.Background
Built in 1926, the CNE Ontario Government Building displayed exhibits about Ontario at the annual Canadian National Exhibition. After the success of the Ontario Pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal, the Government of Ontario decided to replace the CNE building with a new state-of-the-art showcase. The government at first considered moving the Ontario Pavilion to a site on Toronto Island but instead decided at the instigation of Jim Ramsay, to build a facility elsewhere on the waterfront. Ontario Premier John Robarts announced the project at the opening of the CNE in August 1968.The park itself was originally conceived as an onshore exhibit, but this idea was discarded in favour of five large, architecturally unique, three-level pods in an aquatic setting somewhat similar in concept to Montreal's Expo 67 grounds. Each pod would be approximately in area, and suspended by steel cables from four large central pylons driven deep into the lake bed. These pods initially housed various Ontario-themed exhibits. The first model displayed to the government dismayed director Jim Ramsay:
The original plans were estimated to cost to construct. Plans for the facility grew to include the Forum outdoor amphitheater, marina, nine restaurants, nine snack bars, three land rides, pedal and tour boats and an additional of landfill.
Design and construction
The park was built by the Ontario Department of Trade and Development. The architects were Craig, Zeidler and Strong, the structural engineers were Gordon Dowdell Associates, the landscape architects were Hough, Stansbury and Associates, and the general contractor was Secant Construction. Construction started on March 17, 1969.During the design phase, a difficult design problem developed. The cost of the open-water pod foundations alone would consume almost the entire budget for the pods' construction. Architect Eb Zeidler was faced with a dilemma: how to construct the pods without the necessary budget. Zeidler developed an innovative solution: after a trip to the Caribbean, he realized that a "barrier reef" concept would cut down on wave action from the lake enough to reduce the cost of the pods' foundation to 1/10 of the original open-water estimate. After some quarrels with the Toronto Harbour Commission, the reef plan was modified to incorporate three artificial "barrier islands" made from city landfill.
The five steel and aluminum pavilion pods are square with sides. Each pod is supported by four pipe columns, rising above the lake. Tension cables support the short-span trusses. They sit on concrete filled caissons, driven into the lake's bedrock. Each of the pavilions is connected to one another and the land by glazed steel bridges. Ontario Place was designed to have a modular use and appearance. Zeidler says that the structures were designed to "give an illusion of dimensionless space, exploiting technology to shape the society of tomorrow".
The Forum, an outdoor concert venue, was featured on a central hub-island, while a children's village would occupy an eastern island. A commercial section overlooked the water, with modular construction for shops and restaurants to the west. All would be connected by an intricately planned set of walkways and bridges. In addition, each island would have a unique colour scheme, and the entire complex was later infused with the brilliant colours and graphic design that was typical of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The children's village was designed by Eric McMillan and cost $700,000.
The Forum theatre sat 3,000 and had additional grass 'seats'. The roof structure was a hyperbolic paraboloid positioned on cement bastions. It covered a revolving stage, giving near 360 degree sightlines. The roof was made out of tongue and groove plywood, covered by copper sheathing.
Landscape architect Michael Hough overlaid a scale model of the University of Toronto's walking paths onto the Ontario Place plans to check for appropriate walking distances. This ensured that comfortable rest areas were placed appropriately so that children and the elderly would not need to walk too far without a comfortable seat. Ontario Place operated a rubber-wheeled tractor train and a boat to take visitors between key points on the various islands.
Prevailing wind and wave conditions were also considered in the design, a scale model of which was tested in the University of Toronto's wind tunnel. Large earthwork berms planted with tall native Ontario trees were created to shelter walkways from the prevailing southwesterly winds. To the south, a cost-effective and theme-congruent plan to sink three large obsolete Great Lakes shipping vessels was implemented, which sheltered the artificial harbour from intense open-lake waves. The first phase of construction was the sinking of the ships onto a stone bed, then covered in concrete forming a long breakwater. Once the perimeter was finished, work began on the of the three artificial islands.
A marina was included in the project, holding up to 292 boats up to in length. There was originally some controversy about allowing a public facility to house an upscale boating dock within the new artificial harbour. Supporters of the plan believed that the dock's integration into Ontario Place would tie the location closer to the lake via boating activity, and improve the general ambience.
At Expo 70 in Osaka, Japan, the new IMAX movie technology was first exhibited. A great success, it was decided to build the first permanent IMAX installation at Ontario Place. The Cinesphere, an 800-seat theatre, was built. Its building is a 'spherical triodetic dome', with a outer radius, and a inner radius. The dome is supported by prefabricated steel aluminum alloy tubes.
The design of Ontario Place has won a long list of awards including ones from the International Committee for Documentation and Conservation of Buildings of the Modern Movement, the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, The National Trust — Prix du XXe Siècle, and the American Society of Landscape Architects. In 2014, the Ontario government's Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Sport declared Ontario Place to be a "cultural heritage landscape of provincial significance".
Opening
When Ontario Place opened on May 22, 1971, the eastern island's children's village was not yet built, postponed to July, and finally opened for the 1972 season. Initially estimated at, the final cost of construction of Ontario Place was after plans grew to encompass more features and attractions. Opening day attendance was 23,000 The park's initial size was, created by landfill. The first-year admission price: $1.00 for adults, $0.50 for students, $0.25 for children 6–12To commemorate the opening of the theme park and promote the province of Ontario, a multi-media exhibition was created and presented inside the pavilion. Dolores Claman wrote the music and Richard Morris wrote lyrics for the music to this presentation, entitled "Theme from Ontario Place". "Theme from Ontario Place" was subsequently released by the Ontario Department of Trade and Development as a double-sided 45RPM vinyl record. It was manufactured by Quality Records, side A containing a "Pop" version and Side B an "Easy Listening" recording. A photo of the still under construction Ontario Place was used on the cover. The purpose-built Imax theatre premiered a specially commissioned film North of Superior, an 18-minute film depicting life in Northern Ontario and its first season over 1.1 million people viewed the film.
In its first year, attendance was 2.5 million. The park had higher than expected costs and ran a deficit of $2.2 million. Winter screenings at Cinesphere were "financially successful". The Government of Ontario raised the admission from $1 to $1.50 for adults and 50 cents to 75 cents for youth. Manager James Ramsay was replaced and returned to the Ministry of Trade and Development. Two government-run restaurants that had lost money were leased to a private operator for the second season. During the first year, visitors to the CNE had to pay admission to enter Ontario Place. Starting in the second year, admission to the CNE included free admission to Ontario Place.