Item - 2019.PB5.4

The Toronto Preservation Board recommends that:

1. City Council include the property at 955 Lake Shore Boulevard West, Ontario Place on the City of Toronto’s Heritage Register in accordance with the Statement of Significance (Reasons for Inclusion), attached as Attachment 4 to the report (April 12, 2019) from the Senior Manager, Heritage Preservation Services, Urban Design, City Planning.

This report recommends that City Council include the property at 955 Lake Shore Boulevard West, Ontario Place, on the City of Toronto's Heritage Register. The property is located on Toronto's western waterfront, on the south side of Lake Shore Boulevard West opposite Exhibition Place.

Ontario Place, opened in 1971, was conceived by the former Premier, the Honorable John Robarts, as a showplace for the province’s identity, culture and economic growth. Ontario Place was designed as an inclusive public entertainment, educational and recreational space and programmed to reflect the province’s people, culture and geography, as well as a vision for the province’s future.  It featured innovative new landforms and structures built on Toronto’s waterfront, reshaping the relationship between the urban landscape and Lake Ontario.

Ontario Place, a cultural heritage landscape, remains a rare and intact Modernist expression of integrated architecture, engineering and landscape architecture that honours and incorporates the natural setting of Lake Ontario. It was a remarkable and ambitious achievement of late twentieth century architecture, and holds an enduring influence in Toronto, the province and internationally. The recently completed Trillium Park and William G. Davis Trail have also been evaluated and included in the Statement of Significance.

The inclusion of 955 Lake Shore Boulevard West on the City's Heritage Register would identify the property's cultural heritage values and heritage attributes.  Properties on the Heritage Register will be conserved and maintained in accordance with the Official Plan Heritage Policies.