The architecture of Ontario Place: reinvigorating the commons through adaptive-reuse and operative landscapes

Abstract

Ontario Place, located in Lake Ontario along Toronto’s shoreline, was always meant to be for the public. In its current conditions, the ongoing neglect by the Government of Ontario for the last several years, has led to the degradation and disrepair of many of the structures and landscape of the site. How can Ontario Place be reimagined as a commons for the city of Toronto and the province of Ontario to experience and celebrate the waterfront? The islands of Ontario Place are reimagined through the lens of nested scales of intervention ranging from the Great Lakes watershed, to the city of Toronto, the waterfront, and the five Pod buildings on the site. Historic-interpretive research was completed on the designers of Ontario Place, megastructure precedents, and site studies of the current conditions. The knowledge gained from the research and site analysis of Ontario Place influenced a series of architectural and environmental interventions to the site. The design interventions take into consideration both the landscape and architectural re-mediation and re-imagination of a new commons using sustainability, ecology, rewilding, and interactive play/ learning as key components of the design for a new operative landscape. A living breakwater off the shores of the islands, a data collection archipelago around the Great Lakes, wetland planting, water filtration and ruin demolition for replanting remediate the landscape of Ontario Place. An adaptive-reuse of the out-of-commission Pod megastructures, strips the current skin of the buildings to expose the structural frame underneath. This frame is loaded with plug n’ play containers that hold various public programs. These containers are plugged in and out seasonally, refreshing and molding to the needs of the community. Greater impacts of the project aim to generate more public green space along the Toronto waterfront for the community in the midst of COVID-19, create a pilot project for the health of the Great Lakes system and education of the public, as well as continuing the recent reclamation of the waterfront from industry to public space by Waterfront Toronto for all people to enjoy.