Ontario Science Centre
The Ontario Science Centre, originally the Centennial Museum of Science and Technology, is a science museum and educational organization based in Toronto, Ontario.
Founded during Canada’s Centennial era, the OSC became known for its interactive exhibits, hands-on programming, and a facility designed to integrate architecture with the surrounding landscape. In the 2020s, the Centre became the subject of public debate after the Ontario government announced plans to relocate the institution. The subsequent closure of the original site and the opening of temporary exhibit spaces elsewhere in Toronto prompted political scrutiny and professional criticism.
Site
The original site was located near the Don Valley Parkway on Don Mills Road in the former city of North York, about northeast of Downtown Toronto. Built into the side of a ravine formed by a branch of the Don River, the museum comprised a series of buildings situated at different levels on a steep hill and connected by long escalators. Large windows provided views of the surrounding forest.In 2023, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced a government plan to replace the Ontario Science Centre with a smaller institution on the Toronto waterfront. The following year in 2024, the government announced that the Don Mills location would close permanently after an engineering report identified a high risk of roof collapse. These two announcements drew public opposition.
The original Don Mills Road site was closed by the Government of Ontario in June 2024., the museum operates a small display space in the Sherway Gardens mall in part of the former Nordstrom store and at Toronto's Harbourfront Centre.
History
Construction and opening
Planning for the Science Centre started in 1961 during Toronto's expansion in the late 1950s and 1960s. In August 1964, Ontario Premier John Robarts announced the creation of the Centennial Centre of Science and Technology as a Centennial Project.Toronto architect Raymond Moriyama was hired to design the site.
Construction started in 1966 with plans to open the Centennial Centre of Science and Technology as part of the Canadian Centennial celebrations in 1967.
However, construction was not completed by 1967, and the Science Centre did not open to the public until two years later, on September 26, 1969.
The official opening was held on the morning of September 27 and attended by a small group of invited guests, followed by an opening to a larger group of 30,000 invited guests in the early afternoon.
It opened to the general public on September 28, drawing 9,000 visitors. Its advertising slogan at launch was "Come see what would happen if Albert Einstein and Walt Disney had gotten together."
When it first opened in 1969, the Science Centre was known for its hands-on approach to science, along with San Francisco's Exploratorium and the Michigan Science Center in Detroit.
Exhibits included a simulation of the LEM landing on the Moon, a tic-tac-toe game played against a computer, and a simulated hot cell. The museum also had an outreach program which included touring vans that visited schools around the province.
The majority of the exhibits at the Science Centre were interactive, while others were live demonstrations such as metalworking. The Communications room contained many computerized displays, including a tic-tac-toe game, run on a PDP-11 minicomputer.
By 1974, the OSC hosted around 250,000 students on field trips annually.
Operations from 1990 to 2022
International contract (1990)
In 1990, the Ontario Science Centre announced a contract with Oman to design a children’s museum. At the time, the Centre had agreed to boycott Israeli goods and services while under contract. The agreement was later amended to specify that all goods sold to Oman would be produced in North America. The Centre’s director general, Mark Abbott, was subsequently dismissed for signing the original contract.In 1996 a redesigned entryway was opened, which contained an Omnimax theatre. Beginning in 2001, a redesign started, funded by a mix of public and private capital, which was completed in 2007.
Renewal: ''Agents of Change'' (2001–2007)
Beginning in 2001, the Science Centre launched a major renewal initiative known as Agents of Change, aimed at modernizing facilities and programming. The project renewed approximately 85 percent of the Centre’s public space and created seven new experience areas. Funding for the initiative totalled $47.5 million and included contributions from the Government of Ontario, private-sector companies, and individual donors.The Agents of Change transformation was completed in 2007, marked by the opening of the Weston Family Innovation Centre and the TELUSCAPE plaza.
COVID-19 outreach (2020)
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Science Centre received $500,000 from the Government of Canada to support efforts promoting COVID-19 vaccine uptake among children and their families.Facility decay, replacement plans, and closure
From 2023 until the Don Mills site's closure, a shuttle bus ran from the Science Centre's entrance to the main exhibit area on the museum's Level 6, due to structural decay in the pedestrian bridge that led to the exhibit area, located at the bottom of the Don River ravine.On April 18, 2023, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced the provincial government's plan to relocate the Science Centre to a new facility on the grounds of Ontario Place on the Toronto waterfront. This announcement was met with widespread public backlash due to concerns about potential downsizing and exhibit losses. Both the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario and the Toronto Society of Architects condemned the relocation plans, while the grassroots group Save Ontario's Science Centre organized rallies and campaigns to reverse the government's decision. Toronto City Council also sought to keep the Science Centre at its original location.
In December 2023, the Auditor General of Ontario concluded that the government's decision "was not fully informed and based on preliminary and incomplete costing information, and had proceeded without full consultation from key stakeholders or a clear plan for the existing site".
On June 21, 2024, the Ministry of Infrastructure announced the immediate and permanent closure of the Don Mills location, citing an engineering report revealing water damage affecting 2-6% of the building's roofs. The report estimated that repairs would cost at least $22 million and take two years to complete. Safety concerns about the roof material in question, reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete, had caused the temporary or permanent closure of hundreds of buildings in the United Kingdom in 2023. While roughly 400 public buildings in Ontario contain RAAC, the Science Centre is currently the only one in the province closed due to these concerns.
The Ford government expedited its plan to relocate the Science Centre to the waterfront, targeting a 2028 opening, with a temporary location slated for January 2026. This drew further criticism, including from Moriyama Teshima Architects, the firm founded by the Science Centre's original architect.
The architects offered to do pro bono design consulting services for the Government of Ontario to support immediate repairs to the roof, and called for other organizations to join the effort to facilitate repairs. Private donors, including Geoffrey Hinton, offered up to $1 million to fund repairs for the existing facility, but the province did not respond to these offers.
Temporary locations and original site uncertainty
By October 31, 2024, most of the exhibits had been moved to storage facilities in northern Toronto and Guelph, while the animals and plants had been transferred to the Toronto Zoo and The Village at Black Creek. Temporary pop-up exhibits have since opened at Sherway Gardens and Toronto's Harbourfront Centre.In December 2024, the Auditor General of Ontario questioned the financial prudence of the relocation. Contrary to the Ford government's business plan analysis, which projected $257 million in savings over 50 years, the AG found that relocation costs have already exceeded the anticipated savings, reaching approximately $400 million.
In May 2025, Canadian Architect magazine reported that draft versions of the structural engineering report by Rimkus Consulting that the Ontario government had relied on in deciding to close the centre, had originally recommended routine repairs and not closure, up until May 2024. This revelation was added to earlier reporting from Global News that Infrastructure Ontario had been in frequent communication with Rimkus in the leadup to the public release of the report in June 2024, and led the magazine to conclude that the language describing the consequences of not doing the routine repair that was later used to justify the closure had been inserted after political pressure.
, more than a year after the closure, the plans for a replacement facility have been further delayed until 2029, without any solid plans for a temporary location. Employees have also reported issues regarding rodent problems at the Science Centre's exhibit storage building as well as with the new mailing address, working from home concerns, and staff demoralization from the closure's ongoing effects., the area around the Science Centre is being developed for the upcoming Ontario Line, which will pass nearby in an overhead track. The station for the line and for Line 5 Eglinton that were originally to be known as "Science Centre station" have been renamed to "Don Valley Station". Security presence, as well as construction and repairs on the roof of the building have also been noticed, all still with no clear plan from the province for what will become of the building.