3Dementia
Senior Member
The OSC theatre is actually OmniMAX (even more immersive than IMAX). The OmniMAX projected images can fill nearly 90% of the surrounding dome theatre... absolutely worth saving!!I think that there is still merit in keeping at least some of the structures- the IMAX theatre + auditorium/planetarium are definitely assets, and I think that the Main and the Mid-level buildings could be kept and repurposed (perhaps a new institution through philanthropy?). While the OSC going is unfortunate, there could be some excitement to be seen in the potential birth of a new Toronto-owned institution on this site.
And while we're at it (speaking of film), if the Science Centre can't be saved... I'd repurpose the main building into a History of Cinema Museum, with tons of Canadian content such as celebrating the remarkable legacy of the National Film Board (incl. the 70 films of Norman McLaren) and the largest publicly attended film festival in the world (TIFF)... and Canada’s overall impact of the history of cinema:
Link
Actors - from Oscar-winning Mary Pickford in 1929 and Norma Shearer to Raymond Massey to Geneviève Bujold to John Candy, Dan Akroyd, Jim Carrey, Michael J. Fox... to the world’s favourite 2 Ryans etc.
Directors - Norman Jewison, Arthur Hiller, Don Shebib, Claude Jutra, Michael Snow to Ivan Reitman, Atom Egoyan and David Cronenberg to Denis Villeneuve, Sarah Polley, Deepa Mehta and of course James Cameron etc.
Producers/Studios - from Mack Sennett & the Keystone Kops (1912), Jack Warner who started Warner Brothers Studios and Louis B. Mayer (born in Russia, grew up in New Brunswick) was the head Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) Studios, to Lorne Michaels (2 dozen film including “Wayne’s World”) etc.
Writers, animators, special effects… etc. etc, you name it. A programmed space with guest speakers, new exhibits through out the year... I'm sure you get my drift.
I can see lots of private and public sector (not to mention streaming companies busy here) folks chipping in to make it happen.
Everybody loves movie stuff and we could so much more than just a Walk of Fame.