Parkdale Villager
The following are the recommendations outlined by the Minister’s Advisory Panel, which included:
1. The new Ontario Place must be committed to design excellence in building, landscape and planning, as well as to creative sustainable principles – this means ensuring a small ecological footprint in all that is developed.
2. Any new development must respect and enhance the natural beauty of the surroundings by improving and protecting sightlines to the water, creating easy public access to the waterfront.
3. Ontario Place should use a small portion of its 155 landwater lot property (10 to 15 per cent) for residential development with buildings that demonstrate design excellence, sustainability principles and are sized appropriately. Ontario Place should also consider the feasibility of a hotel or resort.
4. Ontario Place must be a place for people to work – not just visit or live. From corporate headquarters to cafes and shops, the redevelopment should include space for commerce and business.
5. Ontario Place should have a venue – similar to the original Forum – for a range of cultural activities, from concerts and theatre, to performances, festivals and community events. The new venue should be designed to operate year round.
6. Ontario Place should look at a range of entertainment and cultural activities to infuse the community with vibrancy – and generate revenue to offset the operating costs of the new public space.
7. Ontario Place should position itself as an ideal site for a research or education centre for excellence and work diligently to secure an institutional anchor tenant with international repute.
8. Ontario Place and its waterfront must be accessible – an open door – and completely barrier-free to all who visit.
9. Ontario Place needs to be open year round, offering compelling activities to draw a range of audiences throughout the different seasons.
10. Ontario Place needs to be flexible and better able to adapt to changing times. It can do this through creative programming that engages with visitors in fresh, new ways; and new technologies that create connections with a tech-savvy generation of visitors.
11. Ontario Place must demonstrate leadership in environmental sustainability and design excellence.
12. Ontario Place should respect and celebrate the natural landscape as well as the historical connections with the site.
13. Future designs for Ontario Place should explore ways to feasibly include the iconic Cinesphere and pods.
14. Ontario Place and Exhibition Place should explore the potential for joint master planning, shared access and transportation planning – to enrich the experience of visitors to both sites and to expand the blueprint of a unique destination.
15. To achieve its full potential, Ontario Place must become a more flexible model based on strong private-public partnerships. It can become an inspiring and exemplary new model for future revitalization projects.
16. Ontario Place should explore the potential for individual donors and corporate sponsors to help invest in a shared legacy project along the water of Lake Ontario.
17. The many assets in Ontario’s arts, culture and sporting sectors should be leveraged at Ontario Place – to offer a venue that showcases Ontario’s cultural diversity.
18. Working with the private sector and provincial and municipal partners, Ontario Place should explore new public transit opportunities to better access the western lakeshore area.