The long-awaited redevelopment of Ontario Place is slowly taking shape.

On February 7, Toronto landscape architects LANDinc announced that they and New York Design landscape architecture firm Martha Schwartz Partners have been awarded the commission by Infrastructure Ontario to work on the design and construction of the public realm of Ontario Place.  

The portion of the site will accommodate a range of activities across the site for play, rest and exploration through a blended landscape design with land art, culture and ecologically based strategies.

It will be a publicly accessible space that can be explored outside of programmed events and attractions, and that reinforces continuous public connectivity throughout the site and beyond – with uninterrupted access to the 30-kilometre Martin Goodman trail, Exhibition Place and the City of Toronto.

Key heritage and recreational features of the public space that the government has said must be retained and integrated into the redevelopment include the Cinesphere, the pod complex, the marina, Trillium Park and the William G. Davis Trail.

"Ontario Place holds a unique opportunity to create a global destination, and we look forward to leading this exciting legacy project with a multi-disciplinary award-winning team of experts," said Patrick Morello, Senior Principal, LANDinc.

The plan to re-design Ontario Place was launched by the province in 2019. The 155-acre site is a unique waterfront location near downtown Toronto, with access to residential neighbourhoods, the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, and some of the city’s major transportation hubs.

As part of its the 2019 Call for Development proposals, the province identified three partners to imagine the redevelopment of the park.

Selected were Therme Group, Écorécréo Group and Live Nation.

Theme Group proposes to build an all-season, family-friendly health and wellness experience that includes pools and waterslides, botanical spaces, and sports performance and recovery services.

Live Nation proposes to redevelop the existing amphitheatre into a modern, year-round indoor-outdoor live music and performance venue that will attract world-class artists and events. The proposed venue will have an expanded capacity of 20,000 in the summer and close to 9,000 in the winter.

Écorécréo Group, meanwhile, proposed to build an all-season, affordable, family-friendly adventure park. This attraction will include aerial obstacle courses, net-based aerial adventures, ziplines, climbing walls, escape rooms and other activities.