Toronto Ripley's Aquarium of Canada | 13.11m | 2s | Ripley Entertainment | B+H

Good luck with catching these guys - a photo I saw on Instagram last night

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I visited the entry pavilion today. A few observations. It is a nicely proportioned space. Oddly, several of the planters in the middle have little or no dirt in them, so the plantings sit well below the sides of the planters. The surfaces are good for sitting, not too high. The large salmon fountain is working again (finally). It would be nice if there was better access to this fountain from the new pavilion, perhaps a path put in. It is only really accessed from the road. Rogers should perhaps make an outdoor restaurant opposite the CN tower ticketing area. There is an expanse on concrete and sizeable overhang, not far from the new stairs, that could be something more exciting and draw hungry tower visitors. There is a bluejays apparel store there now, and a Rogers centre tours, both seem poor use of valuable frontage. Something could also be done with the terrace directly above this overhang. It could be a cafe/bar, at least in the warm months.
turning to the Aquarium itself, the south-eastern corner could have been designed to be a restaurant, cafe, bar, etc. It would have helped to animate this stretch, and taken little space from the aquarium itself. It would also have made the area more human scale.
 
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ponyboy said:
It would have helped to animate this stretch, and taken little space from the aquarium itself. It would also have made the area more human scale.
Click to expand...

I don't think human scale was something that they were going for when they decided to build this at the base of an 1800 foot tall concrete tower.
 
ponyboy said:
I visited the entry pavilion today. A few observations. It is a nicely proportioned space. Oddly, several of the planters in the middle have little or no dirt in them, so the plantings sit well below the sides of the planters. The surfaces are good for sitting, not too high. The large salmon fountain is working again (finally). It would be nice if there was better access to this fountain from the new pavilion, perhaps a path put in. It is only really accessed from the road. Rogers should perhaps make an outdoor restaurant opposite the CN tower ticketing area. There is an expanse on concrete and sizeable overhang, not far from the new stairs, that could be something more exciting and draw hungry tower visitors. There is a bluejays apparel store there now, and a Rogers centre tours, both seem poor use of valuable frontage. Something could also be done with the terrace directly above this overhang. It could be a cafe/bar, at least in the warm months.
turning to the Aquarium itself, the south-eastern corner could have been designed to be a restaurant, cafe, bar, etc. It would have helped to animate this stretch, and taken little space from the aquarium itself. It would also have made the area more human scale.
Click to expand...

When the retail pavilion is completed, it should bring an improvement to this area, hopefully with larger restaurant spaces. Wasn't there a McDonald's somewhere here before open to the outside, back when the SkyDome's concessions were called SkySnacks (or something like that) and served McDonald's fries?
 
ponyboy said:
It is only really accessed from the road. Rogers should perhaps make an outdoor restaurant opposite the CN tower ticketing area. There is an expanse on concrete and sizeable overhang, not far from the new stairs, that could be something more exciting and draw hungry tower visitors. There is a bluejays apparel store there now, and a Rogers centre tours, both seem poor use of valuable frontage.
Click to expand...


Hard for me to picture exactly the space you are speaking of here but if it is where I think it has to be kept open/sparse because of the nature of crowds arriving to events at SkyDome....the place gets jam packed and people have to be somewhere. Sorry if I have the space/area wrong that you are talking about.
 
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