New details are emerging in the controversial plan to redevelop Toronto’s mostly decommissioned Ontario Place after the exclusive Toronto International Film Festival unveiled further plans for a partnership with Therme Group, the Austrian entity behind the proposed $350 million project. 

Local website blogTO has more details on the community’s negative response to the partnership, which will “promote the role of art and film in creating more human cities” through a series of talks spread over a ten-year period. 

The online responses are only the latest thorn in the side of the provincial Ontario government and Premier Doug Ford following last summer’s harsh responses that eventually yielded a revised plan which reclassified a mere 12-acre segment of beachfront property for public use while retaining the original plan to have more than one-third of the site be developed privately.

Writing in the Globe and Mail last week, architecture critic Alex Bozikovic outlined some aesthetic reasoning in support of heritage and environmentalist detractors of the plan, which he labeled a “disaster.” 

“If constructed, the waterpark will be the worst building in Toronto. Aesthetically, it is a monster. It will dramatically change a place with strong heritage value. It privatizes public land. And it consumes half a billion dollars in public money,” he explained, adding, “You do not share space with a structure that big; you cower before it.” He also likened the main spa component (which comes along with a massive $450 million parking garage designed by BDP Quadrangle) to the Death Star.

Now up to $650 million in corporate welfare so we can pay to go to a private spa at Ontario Place! How’s that for corporate welfare! Say no to this theft of taxpayer money for a private spa! #topoli #onpoli https://t.co/v94j5z2FVu
— Norm Di Pasquale (@normsworld) January 2, 2023

“Diamond Schmitt has tried to sculpt the buildings into one curvy whole: an entry building on the mainland, bridge, and spa,” Bozikovic added. “The solid surfaces in the drawings look like aluminum panel, in a champagne hue that was fashionable a few years ago. Even in the fantastical drawings, the structures seem chunky and poorly proportioned. Mr. Zeidler’s five white-painted Pods and the Cinesphere look like toys in comparison. The late architect must be rolling in his grave.”

His critique was joined by a Toronto Star staff op-ed calling the plan a “disgrace [that] should be stopped.” The proposal is still in the process of moving through the bureaucratic rigamarole. As was previously reported, Toronto's planning division is expected to make its final recommendations to the city council by the end of the year.