Clad in white panels resembling sails and with floor-to-ceiling windows, the new waterfront Science Centre will have sweeping views over Lake Ontario.
A beaming Premier Doug Ford unveiled design renderings of the multi-storey building on the Ontario Place lagoon, featuring a covered catwalk leading west to the iconic pods, a grand staircase curving up from the lobby and a green roof.
Ford called the design “iconic.”
“This is stunning,” Ford said Thursday at a chilly work site overlooking the construction area.
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“When they first showed me the architectural designs, I was like, ‘Wow, this is going to be world class,'” he added. “I am pumped.”
The new building will cover 400,000 square feet and was designed by Hariri Pontarini Architects, a firm that is also leading the redevelopment of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection.
A $1.04-billion contract has been awarded to Ontario Science Partners to design, build, finance and maintain the new Science Centre while the interim centre remains open at the Harbourfront Centre. About 5,700 jobs are expected to be created during construction, the government said, and up to six million visitors a year are expected when it opens.
“I’m looking forward to getting shovels in the ground this spring,” Ford told reporters.
While the province had already announced the Ontario Science Centre would be moved from Don Mills to Ontario Place, the 1969 building designed by the late Raymond Moriyama was abruptly shuttered in June 2024 after an engineering report found the roof was in danger of collapsing.
Despite the warning it would no longer be structurally sound, critics have pointed out the original Science Centre building is still standing even though Toronto has had two consecutive winters of heavy snowfall.
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Ford’s announcement is the latest chapter in the ongoing saga surrounding the controversial redevelopment of Ontario Place, the provincially owned lakefront park closed by former Liberal premier Dalton McGuinty in 2012 after declining attendance and massive financial losses.
Last summer, the Progressive Conservatives, who hope to reopen Ontario Place in 2029, unveiled a $400 million, five-story parking structure towering over Lake Shore Boulevard, obstructing waterfront views and earning the derisive nickname “garage Mahal.”
Ontario Place’s iconic Cinesphere geodesic dome, dating to its 1971 opening, remains a key feature though a Therme waterpark spa on the West Island will be the dominant attraction. Austria-based Therme signed a secretive 95-year lease with the province in a process that was criticized by the auditor general.
There will also be public beaches, interactive fountains, event spaces, free trails, a playground, a one-acre splash fountain, expanded green spaces, including a 50-acre park, an updated marina and a larger Live Nation concert venue.
Opponents of the Ontario Place redevelopment having taken their case to the Supreme Court of Canada in hopes of thwarting it.
Lawyers for a group called Ontario Place Protectors have challenged the constitutionality of legislation used by the Ford government to fast-track the development and exempt it from an environmental assessment. As part of site preparation for the spa, a thicket was cleared in the fall.
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The top court granted leave to appeal two weeks ago, just over a year after an Ontario Superior Court judge rejected that argument. A hearing is expected later this year.
Business Is the Ontario Science Centre’s roof safe or not? Ford government’s rationale for closure questioned after record snowfall
One of the worst snowstorms in Toronto’s history has reignited debate over the premier’s
Ford recently dismissed the opponents as “a bunch of crazy lefties that want to protect one or two trees or three birds.”
The New Democrats said the government’s Ontario Place ads touting the redevelopment project cost at least $1.7 million last year.
Citing documents obtained through a freedom of information request, MPP Chris Glover (Spadina — Fort York) said the tally is a “callous use of taxpayer dollars.”
“Nobody asked for a multibillion-dollar, taxpayer-funded luxury spa project in downtown Toronto,” he added in a statement, calling the agreement with Therme a “sweetheart deal.”
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