Ontario Place is a provincially owned waterfront park on man-made islands off Lake Shore Boulevard West, just west of downtown Toronto. It opened in 1971 as a showcase of the province, designed by the architecture firm Craig Zeidler Strong under Eberhard Zeidler, and it is known for its five pods on stilts and the Cinesphere, which housed the first permanent IMAX cinema. The province recognized the site in 2014 as a cultural heritage landscape of provincial significance, and its future has been under debate since the main attractions closed in 2012.
Origins: a response to Expo 67
Ontario Place grew out of the Ontario Pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal. A City of Toronto heritage report states that the park was a response to that temporary pavilion and was conceived by Premier John Robarts as a showplace for the province’s identity, culture, and economic growth. Robarts announced the project in 1968. The same report links it to provincial investments in public institutions of the period, such as the Ontario Science Centre and Fort William Historical Park.
Premier William G. Davis opened Ontario Place in 1971. Wikipedia gives the date as May 22, 1971; the City report says only 1971, so the day is shown here as secondary.
The design
The provincial Statement of Cultural Heritage Value, reproduced in the City report, credits architect Eberhard Zeidler, landscape architect Michael Hough, and play structure designer Eric McMillan, together with civil servant Jim Ramsay. The City report describes the original complex as five diamond-shaped pods suspended on pylons over Lake Ontario, connected by glazed bridges, and surrounded by artificial islands. It also lists a triodetic dome holding the first permanent IMAX cinema, an open-air forum with a hyperbolic paraboloid roof, a children’s play area, and a marina.
The provincial description gives the property as 63 hectares (156 acres), made up of 28 hectares of land and 35 hectares of water, extending 330 metres (1,080 feet) west into the lake from the edge of the islands. It calls Ontario Place a rare and intact Modernist expression of integrated architecture, engineering, and landscape.
| Year | Event | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1968 | Premier Robarts announces the project | City of Toronto heritage report |
| 1971 | Ontario Place opens | City of Toronto heritage report |
| 1994 | Listed by DOCOMOMO International; the 3,000-seat Forum is demolished in the 1994 to 1995 period | City of Toronto heritage report |
| 2012 | Province closes most of the park | City of Toronto heritage report |
| 2014 | Provincial recognition as a cultural heritage landscape | City of Toronto heritage report |
| 2017 | Trillium Park, the William G. Davis Trail, and the renovated Cinesphere open | City of Toronto heritage report |
| 2019 | Province announces a call for redevelopment ideas; City adds the site to its Heritage Register | City of Toronto heritage report; Wikipedia |
| 2021 | Therme Canada and Live Nation selected as anchor tenants | Government of Ontario |
| 2024 | Auditor General reports on the redevelopment process | CTV News |
Awards and international recognition
The City report lists a string of design awards: a Canadian Architect award for the design stage in 1969, an American Iron and Steel Institute citation in 1973, and American landscape and interior design awards in 1975. DOCOMOMO International, the body that documents Modern Movement buildings, put Ontario Place on its international inventory in 1994. In 1999 the Ontario Association of Architects gave the Cinesphere and the pods its 25 Year Award, and in 2017 the National Trust for Canada and the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada gave the Cinesphere and pods the Prix du XXe Siecle.
Changes before the closure
The park was altered several times. A group of northern Ontario pavilions was added in 1980. In 1994 and 1995 the Forum was demolished despite local opposition and replaced by a 16,000-seat amphitheatre, first called the Molson Amphitheatre and renamed Budweiser Stage by 2017. The children’s play area gave way to the first water park in Ontario. A smaller open-air venue, Echo Beach, with 5,000 seats, was built in 2011. In 2010 the Ontario Place Corporation began remediation work that included upgrades to the Cinesphere.
Attendance fell over the years. Press and reference accounts give a figure of a little over 560,000 visitors for 2011, though the City report itself says only that visitor numbers had declined.
The 2012 closure and Trillium Park
In 2012 the provincial government announced that Ontario Place would close pending a strategy for revitalization. Only the amphitheatre, the marina, the parking lot, and the Atlantis events facility in the pods stayed open, and Atlantis closed in 2016. Heritage Canada listed the site on its Top 10 Endangered Places in 2012. In 2014 a new provincial government stated that the Cinesphere, the pods, and the marina would be kept and that condominiums would not be part of the plan.
The east island was the first part rebuilt. Trillium Park and the William G. Davis Trail, designed by LANDinc with West 8, occupy a former staff parking lot and opened to the public in June 2017. The Cinesphere reopened in 2017 with a new sound system and dual-projection technology. In 2018 the park and trail won an award of excellence from the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects.
Heritage status
In 2014 the Province of Ontario placed Ontario Place on its List of Provincial Heritage Properties under Part III.1 of the Ontario Heritage Act. That listing also made the Ontario Place Corporation subject to the provincial Standards and Guidelines for the Conservation of Provincial Heritage Properties. The City of Toronto cannot designate the provincial lands under the Act, but a 2019 staff report recommended adding the whole property, including Trillium Park, to the City’s Heritage Register. The report was before City Council on May 14, 2019. Wikipedia, citing CBC News, says the vote was 25 to 0 and that the listing carries no legal protection of its own.
Redevelopment since 2019
In January 2019 the province announced it would seek development ideas for the site. News coverage of the parameters, including Global News and Canadian Architect, reported that proposals could not include residential uses, a casino, a land sale, or provincial operating grants. Heritage groups objected that the guidelines did not require keeping the pods or the Cinesphere.
The Government of Ontario’s Ontario Place page says that Therme Canada and Live Nation were chosen in 2021 through the call for development, that environmental assessment engagement ended in November 2023, and that the province keeps ownership of the land. It describes Therme’s plan for a health and wellness complex with about 16 acres (6.5 hectares) of free outdoor space on the West Island, a year-round concert venue run by Live Nation, and a move of the Ontario Science Centre to the site using the Cinesphere and the pod complex. The page was last updated on February 26, 2026.
The project has drawn criticism. A December 2024 report by the Auditor General of Ontario, as described by CTV News, concluded that the process used to award the long lease was not fair, transparent, or accountable to all participants and that projected costs had risen sharply. The provincial government attributed part of the rise to inflation. Plans and schedules have kept changing, so the Ontario Place and Government of Ontario pages are the places to check current access and construction.
Frequently asked questions
When did Ontario Place open?
It opened in 1971. Wikipedia gives May 22, 1971, and the City of Toronto heritage report gives the year and names Premier William G. Davis as the person who opened it.
Who designed Ontario Place?
The architecture firm Craig Zeidler Strong, led by Eberhard Zeidler, designed the buildings. Michael Hough led the landscape design and Eric McMillan designed the play structures.
Was the Cinesphere the first permanent IMAX theatre?
Yes. The City report describes it as the first permanent IMAX cinema. It is a white triodetic dome.
Who owns Ontario Place?
The Government of Ontario. A substantial portion of the property is provincially owned, as the City report notes, and the province’s own page says it will keep ownership of the land under the current plan.
Is Ontario Place a heritage property?
Yes. The province recognized it in 2014 as a cultural heritage landscape of provincial significance, and the City of Toronto moved to add it to its Heritage Register in 2019.
Last verified: October 2026
Sources
- City of Toronto, report for action “Inclusion on the City of Toronto’s Heritage Register, 955 Lake Shore Boulevard West (Ontario Place),” April 2019, including the 2014 provincial Statement of Cultural Heritage Value
- Government of Ontario, Ontario Place (project page)
- CTV News, report on the Auditor General’s Ontario Place findings, December 2024
- Global News and Canadian Architect, coverage of the 2019 call for development
- Wikipedia, “Ontario Place” and “Cinesphere” (secondary; used only where marked)
Related reading
- The Canadian National Exhibition next door
- Toronto’s harbour and waterfront
- Toronto Music Garden
- Modern landmarks: Rogers Centre and the PATH
- Overview of Toronto’s history
Cite this page
APA: History of Toronto. (2026, October 23). Ontario Place: History of the Lakefront Park, 1971 to Today. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/ontario-place-history
MLA: “Ontario Place: History of the Lakefront Park, 1971 to Today.” History of Toronto, 23 Oct. 2026, https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/ontario-place-history. Accessed .
Chicago: History of Toronto. “Ontario Place: History of the Lakefront Park, 1971 to Today.” Last modified October 23, 2026. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/ontario-place-history.
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