Plans to redevelop Ontario Place (here in Toronto) have been in the works for many years, even before it closed in 2012. Supposedly it was losing over $20 million a year at that time. It had obviously lost its relevance.

Back in 2010 (or thereabouts) I was actually part of a team that responded to an RFP to redevelop the waterfront lands. In fact, I was the human who physically submitted the proposal. I was still patiently waiting to hear back about whether or not we were selected, but based on today's news I'm going to assume we didn't get it.

This morning, the Ontario government announced the following vision (architecture by Diamond Schmitt):

The team also includes Austrian resort developer Therme, Quebec-based recreation firm Écorécréo, and US-based concert company Live Nation. The proposal itself includes a new outdoor "adventure park", an indoor spa and waterpark, and a year-round concert venue. Premier Ford has also made it clear that there will be no casino, no residential, and that none of the land will be sold to the private sector.

That's essentially all I know about the proposal.

Water features, palm trees, and a new beach all sound great to me. I just hope that (1) something actually happens and that (2) it is truly remarkable.

The OMA-designed Greenpoint Landing Towers in northern Brooklyn recently topped out. Photos and announcement over here. If you aren't familiar with the project, it's very OMA. What I mean by that is that there's a kind of simple rationality to it. (I just made up this architecture speak.) Big bold moves with a certain logic behind it. Here's the story and thinking behind Greenpoint Landing:

Supposedly this project is in a part of Brooklyn that stipulates a maximum tower floor plate size of 11,000 square feet. Following this rule, you get a two-tower design that looks something like image number one in the top left hand corner of the above diagram. The resulting tower separation would be 40 feet, or just over 12 meters. (Are you seeing these numbers, Toronto?)

What OMA did was taper one tower (diagram image #2) and then create an inverted ziggurat form for the second tower (diagram image #3). The effect is two towers that look like they were almost one giant tower that had been simply pulled apart. The resulting tower separation distance in this final scenario is 60 feet, or just over 18 meters.

I am assuming that there's some area loss in this design because of the increased tower separation, though maybe the larger podium makes it up. Either way, from what I can tell, there are two main benefits to this design: (1) you get a tower with stepbacks facing the water (so places for outdoor spaces) and (2) it breaks up the visual monotony of two equally extruded towers.

If any of you are more familiar with this project, I would welcome your thoughts in the comment section below.

Image: OMA

One of my favorite public spaces in the city is easily Sugar Beach at the foot of Jarvis Street. So I couldn't resist sharing this before and after tweet by Waterfront Toronto. Sugar Beach turns 10 years old next week. It's nearly a teenager.

For those of you who were around and paying attention a decade ago, there was a bit of controversy over the cost of this park -- specifically its pink umbrellas. The budget for the park was $14 million and each umbrella cost $11,000.

It's one of those things that's easy to single out and make a big deal out of -- if that's what you're trying to do. "How much? $11,000 for a candy pink beach umbrella? Come on."

But as Waterfront Toronto explained in this blog post from 2014, each umbrella was fabricated out of a solid piece of fiberglass and was designed to withstand hurricane winds, as well as a good old fashioned Toronto winter. They also serve as lighting for the beach at night.

Part of this is coming from lessons they learned on previous waterfront parks, where the umbrellas weren't as expensive and haven't been as resilient to the elements. So there is a whole life cycle cost analysis to be considered here.

Now I don't profess to be an expert on candy pink beach umbrellas, but I will say this: Sugar Beach wouldn't be Sugar beach without them. And ten years later, it's easy to argue for this being one of the most successful public spaces in the city.

P.S. If I could make one small request for Toronto's waterfront, it's that we need to better engage the lake. We need proper places to swim. Think of the Strandbad Tiefenbrunnen or the Seebad Enge in Zurich. We may need to tidy things up a little, but it'll be worth it.