bobbob911 said:
Putting aside whether or not you consider this a luxury spa or a family water park, or whether or not it should be there in the first place, two things strike me:

1) they are estimating 15000 visitors per day - Canada’s Wonderland is like 25000 visitors per day, with 15X the size. Can you imagine how crowed and busy that will be? The experience will be miserable.

2) The “park space” is clearly primarily situated on the roof - does this imply primarily concrete walkways with planters of trees? Or will this truly be a green roof with lawn and dirt under your feet?
Click to expand...

If you look carefully, there are exactly zero (0) trees on the roof in the latest iteration.

In the version that was released to appease the Ontario Place for All people (who would never be appeased but I digress), Therme went from a giant greenhouse to a green roof with some greenhouse glazing popping out. The green roof was intentionally made difficult to make out in renderings, though you could see some trees.

The current—said to be final—version has no trees. Even the paths seem intentionally out of the way so that no one will want to use them anyway. The first green roof had a logical path from the entrance to points of interest. Now they're just zigzags up a hill with nowhere to go. Mark my words: the roof garden will not be maintained and will inevitably be closed and return to being just a roof.

I despise Doug Ford with the heat of a thousand suns but I was on board with the version of Therme embedded into a landscape to appear as a park, but the latest version has essentially given up on that and it's back to being a huge honking building in place of the park with some green shrubs added to say it's not a concrete and glass white elephant.

This is why groups like Ontario Place for All are not only ineffective, their non-participatory NIMBYism is leading to making the end result worse. They needed to be pragmatic. Doug Ford is the Premier, he's going to get what he wants. Blanket rejection is going to just get him to do what he wants without any compromise. Had the group accepted the last iteration and worked with the province to improve it and take it to conclusion we would have had something that resembled a park with a tree canopy and the spa embedded within the landscape. Because of their blanket rejections, we're back to where we started.
 
What I am curious about is the lack of illustrative renderings showing the walk along the perimeter of the non-lake facing facades of the building. They have a real possibility of looking like your suburban industrial park edged by landscaping.

AoD
 
nightstreak said:
If you look carefully, there are exactly zero (0) trees on the roof in the latest iteration.

In the version that was released to appease the Ontario Place for All people (who would never be appeased but I digress), Therme went from a giant greenhouse to a green roof with some greenhouse glazing popping out. The green roof was intentionally made difficult to make out in renderings, though you could see some trees.

The current—said to be final—version has no trees. Even the paths seem intentionally out of the way so that no one will want to use them anyway. The first green roof had a logical path from the entrance to points of interest. Now they're just zigzags up a hill with nowhere to go. Mark my words: the roof garden will not be maintained and will inevitably be closed and return to being just a roof.

I despise Doug Ford with the heat of a thousand suns but I was on board with the version of Therme embedded into a landscape to appear as a park, but the latest version has essentially given up on that and it's back to being a huge honking building in place of the park with some green shrubs added to say it's not a concrete and glass white elephant.

This is why groups like Ontario Place for All are not only ineffective, their non-participatory NIMBYism is leading to making the end result worse. They needed to be pragmatic. Doug Ford is the Premier, he's going to get what he wants. Blanket rejection is going to just get him to do what he wants without any compromise. Had the group accepted the last iteration and worked with the province to improve it and take it to conclusion we would have had something that resembled a park with a tree canopy and the spa embedded within the landscape. Because of their blanket rejections, we're back to where we started.
Click to expand...
I largely agree with you, but I think a good legal case could be made that hardscape with greenery is not “park space”.

I like the High Line in NYC but no one is suggesting it’s a park
 
"Trees will be replaced on a 6:1 basis"

Screenshot 2025-07-08 at 13.26.25.png


27747-96392.png
Screenshot 2025-07-08 at 13.26.07.png


This does not look like a 1:1 let alone 6:1 tree replacement. You mean to tell me that Therme and Doug Ford's government are lying????
 
Thaboss said:
... I also see some detailed drawing by the eng. Firm of the project and they plan to break ground next year, so while value engineering is certainly still possible I think you're being a bit too pessimistic that we're aren't seeing the real plans.
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Having drawings and computer images means it's definitely going to happen? We're still waiting for that esports/entertainment venue that had a lot of nice images and was supposed to have been open by now just across the road at Exhibition Place.
As pointed out already in this thread multiple times, the pessimism comes from this Therme (as opposed to the larger one they were pretending to be) not having the money to actually build this -- which is kind of overridingly important as the only thing that really matters in the end.
https://archive.ph/S4T5d
... as it pitched its vision for Toronto, Therme’s finances appeared to be shaky. Auditors found it was losing money and had less than 1 million euros (about $1.1 million) in equity...
The company has yet to secure outside investment for its Toronto project.
Click to expand...
 
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DSCToronto said:
More renderings...SEE: https://www.cp24.com/photos/2025/07/08/therme-unveils-latest-designs-for-ontario-place/

If it actually looks like this I will be amazed...

View attachment 664657
Click to expand...

You missed the whole discussion on these renderings starting a page back and right up to before your post.

SubHuman said:
Another redesign? It seems as though they're not taking this seriously, almost like to them it's just a game of coming up with new computer images for something they know they're not really going to build.
www.cp24.com

Ontario Place designs released by Therme

Therme Canada unveils the latest designs for its new waterpark and spa, as well as public space on the West Island of Ontario Place.
www.cp24.com www.cp24.com
Click to expand...
 
...I mean, it looks a bit nicer and more refined. Still not sold how this all came together though. And to put that mildly.
 
artemperederii said:
Don’t like the new design, what are the new materials? Looks 100 times cheaper, the previous looks more wooden, more vibrant. Maybe it’s just renderings 🙁View attachment 664704View attachment 664705
Click to expand...

Yup. I was sold on the spa embedded in the landscape design. Wooden textures, trees on the roof, that worked for me. Now, it's just a building with a green roof with some shrubs and with what looks like industrial shed siding 50feet high.
 
robmausser said:
why would people want a rocky beach?
Click to expand...
generalcanada said:
they liked the previous iteration before the closure. still not sure why
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spacing.ca

Protecting Ontario Place's pebble beaches - Spacing Toronto

Downtown Toronto’s only beaches adjoin Ontario Place, where we swim year-round, even in winter. The most magical of these is Teachbeach, a sandless (sandfree) pebble beach with crystal-clear waters where we swim, conduct scientific research, and make underwater music videos that celebrate the...
spacing.ca
 
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