Toronto’s downtown has a serious disconnect from the beauty and vastness of Lake Ontario because of the separation created by the Toronto Islands, the Leslie Street Spit, and Ontario Place. Of these three sites, Ontario Place’s proximity to downtown, its multiple pedestrian connections to the mainland, and its current neglected state provides the best opportunity as a location to celebrate Toronto’s lakefront. The original mandate for Ontario Place was to promote the province’s arts, culture, and innovation in a fun, family friendly setting. I am proposing a redevelopment of the site in this original spirit, but with a key difference; the variety and beauty of the province’s landscapes will also be showcased, using the feature of Lake Ontario as a backdrop. These landscapes, arrayed around the edge of Lake Ontario, build upon the success of Trillium Park. The new fabricated landscapes evoking, for example, Algonquin Park or Georgian Bay, will be designed using abstractions of the natural setting they suggest. Within these landscapes, new pavilions will be placed, designed based from the natural qualities present in the landscapes in which they are situated, as well as the distinct forms of the existing Ontario Place context. As with the original programming of the site, these new pavilions will help promote culture and innovation, but the topics will be specific to the landscapes in which they are evoking; helping bridge the disconnect between Toronto’s urban population and the further rural communities of Ontario.

 

Graphic style inspired by the artwork of Marie-Laure Cruschi.