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

Tulse said:
It's like having a seafood restaurant on the Toronto waterfront, when none of the seafood served actually comes from Lake Ontario. It would be like putting penguins and polar bears next to each other at the zoo, since they both live in cold environments. I think it promotes de-contextualization and misunderstanding.
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I think you are way over-analyzing this. Of course there is a little 'theatre' involved by putting it lakeside but what a show it could be! Building an aquarium on the east island of Ontario Place would be visible from the downtown waterfront and would form a strong architectural and tourist-attraction anchor to Toronto harbour. If they'd finally link the CN Tower to the waterfront you could have water taxis connecting all three sites in the summer (the islands, the tower, the aquarium) with a pay-one price for all attractions kind of fare that truly could be a major draw for the city.
 
Tewder said:
I think you are way over-analyzing this. Of course there is a little 'theatre' involved by putting it lakeside but what a show it could be! Building an aquarium on the east island of Ontario Place would be visible from the downtown waterfront and would form a strong architectural and tourist-attraction anchor to Toronto harbour.
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I don't disagree with any of this -- I am not at all adverse to a little "theatre", and I would be delighted to see a well-designed aquarium on the lake. The point I was perhaps belabouring too much was simply that the only reason to site an aquarium on a lake is for the "theatre", that there isn't any actual practical operational benefit of an aquarium being next to a body of water.
 
On WNED this Sunday evening, Nature is all about the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I expect it will be very interesting to see how an excellent aquarium is operated, and should be required viewing for Ripley's execs (and those who want to talk more about what makes a good aquarium!).

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If it's a private venture, it's better to have one than none at all.

I actually visited my first aquarium last week while in Boston. The New England Aquarium was a little bit dated inside and actually smaller than the proposed Toronto aquarium by like 50,000ft but we really enjoyed ourselves. For around $20, they had 3 or 4 floors of stuff including penguins (from different parts of the world, though located side-by-side. No one seemed to care about geography), seals (which you could see outside without having to pay admission) and a massive cylindrical tank in the centre filled with reefs, tons of fish, sting rays, sharks, turtles and so on. on the perimeter of each floor were various small tanks devoted to specific species and whatnot. The place was PACKED and there was a big lineup for tickets.

After seeing the New England Aquarium, I'm pretty certain a Toronto aquarium can be successful, especially considering its ideal location beside the CN Tower. I think the content is way more important than the size. The penguins alone were a big enough attraction at the NEA to make the money worth it. For those of you wishing for a Georgia-esque aquarium, I don't think we need that. We already have a solid base of tourist attractions. This just provides depth (as I've repeated many times). For a place like Atlanta, the Georgia Aquarium is pretty much their CN Tower.
 
Tulse said:
I don't disagree with any of this -- I am not at all adverse to a little "theatre", and I would be delighted to see a well-designed aquarium on the lake. The point I was perhaps belabouring too much was simply that the only reason to site an aquarium on a lake is for the "theatre", that there isn't any actual practical operational benefit of an aquarium being next to a body of water.
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I understand where your going with this, however, these attractions are almost always influenced by the "show" aspect. I think we all agree that lake water would not be used. It's just the thought of having an aquarium next to a concrete monster, like the cn tower, in the middle of a downtown area does not seem the perfect fit.
With the redevelopment of Ontario Place, an aquarium could be the perfect starting point if done right.

"its better having no aquarium than a bad aquarium "

I truly believe it is better to have no aquarium than a bad one. What is it with this mentality that we can't do something great that is plaguing Toronto?
 
Thanos said:
I understand where your going with this, however, these attractions are almost always influenced by the "show" aspect. I think we all agree that lake water would not be used. It's just the thought of having an aquarium next to a concrete monster, like the cn tower, in the middle of a downtown area does not seem the perfect fit.
With the redevelopment of Ontario Place, an aquarium could be the perfect starting point if done right.

"its better having no aquarium than a bad aquarium "

I truly believe it is better to have no aquarium than a bad one. What is it with this mentality that we can't do something great that is plaguing Toronto?
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Let's be clear here "we" are not doing anything. A private company without any of our money is proposing a new attraction in town. We can either approve their plans or not......but we can't say"go to Ontario Place cause we think what you are proposing would make OP a year round attraction....of course if we are wrong, it is you who gets to lose the money." OP might be a better place for an aquarium, but if we want to find out we are going to have to foot all or part of the cost.
 
And, think of how much stronger our tourism product would be with a separate aquarium at the Cn Tower and a revitalized Ontario Place. That's an additional full days worth of stuff to do if Ontario Place is revitalized properly. One extra day means one more night in a hotel, meals in restaurants, etc.
 
Thanos said:
I truly believe it is better to have no aquarium than a bad one. What is it with this mentality that we can't do something great that is plaguing Toronto?
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The new renovations to the AGO and ROM and the CN Tower and Skydome say Hello.
 
Monterey Bay Aquarium on PBS WNED repeats on Tuesday the 27th at 11:30 PM. Pretty interesting!

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Automation Gallery said:
So what are you saying..its better having no aquarium than a bad aquarium or do we just wait a lifetime and see if someone will fall out of the sky, find the perfect location and invest 1/2 billion bucks on a world class venue. I dont understand :confused:
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That wasn't the question. Don't switch topics. The topic was can Ripley's build a top quality aquarium or could they use some advice from others. Did I say it was better to have no aquarium, than a bad one? Actually, I'm not sure. I want the best of everything for Toronto. The question is how much do you compromise. It's a tough question.

I'll tell you what I don't want, a cheap, Disney style aquarium that's for kids only. To be honest, I don't trust Ripley's. Every time I've gone to one of their attractions, I always wonder why I wasted my money. I hope that because this is their first time putting an aquarium, in a large city, they might make it better quality and more adult oriented. (Well, for children and adults) I hope it looks more sophisticated than what they have built so far. I'm just hoping for the best.
 
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