Oh I get how spectacular they can be (I recently toured the Shedd in Chicago)... but unless we're going to do something SPECTACULAR why bother?

Does the world need another aquarium? Is there nothing different or more original that we could come up with for the base of the CN Tower? Can't we raise the bar... just once?
 
casaguy said:
Oh I get how spectacular they can be (I recently toured the Shedd in Chicago)... but unless we're going to do something SPECTACULAR why bother?

Does the world need another aquarium? Is there nothing different or more original that we could come up with for the base of the CN Tower? Can't we raise the bar... just once?
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Nah.. those days are long over in Toronto.
 
casaguy said:
Oh I get how spectacular they can be (I recently toured the Shedd in Chicago)... but unless we're going to do something SPECTACULAR why bother?
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By your criteria nothing would ever get built.
Does the world need another aquarium? Is there nothing different or more original that we could come up with for the base of the CN Tower? Can't we raise the bar... just once?
Click to expand...

like what? you say the world doesn't need another aquarium, so what does the world need? more museums? nah. More monuments? nah. More amusement parks? nope. What does the world need? I'd be thrilled to hear it.

Fact is, this aquarium is not meant to be the jewel of our tourism sector. It will provide some additional depth and it will be a great addition to our tourism sector and provide people with a reason to spend a few more hours in our city, which is always the goal. Would it be cool if we or a private company had infinite money to build the world's greatest aquarium? Sure, but it'd also be great if we had the world's greatest EVERYTHING. Think about how great our tourism sector would be if we just utterly demoralized our competition because we've built the be all and end all of EVERYTHING. You can't set the bar everywhere. And besides, we already have the CN Tower which raised the bar considerably (pun intended). Did you forget about that one?
 
I saw this posted earlier in the thread. I think Ontario place would be a much more suitable location and might "breathe life" back into an attraction that hasn't been too popular recently. It would make Ontario Place a nice place to spend the day (with the Cinesphere and the Aquarium, etc) and I think the proximity to the lake makes the location also much more suitable... but then again Ontario Place is dead 6 or more months of the year.

Oh well, I guess this reminds me of how the Biodome is right beside the Olympic tower in Montreal. It's sort of a nice idea to be able to park in one place and visit a few different sites. This place will be packed with tourists in the summer...
 
"Mine's the biggest! Mine's the best!"

I really hate these dick measuring contests. They tell you absolutely nothing about anything. All the people who say that something's only worth being built if it's the "#1 in the whole wide world!", must really not appreciate many things in their lives. It almost makes me feel sorry of those people :(

I also find it odd that the people who say Toronto "deserves" the most, also are the first to jump at a moment to take shots at the city.
 
urbanboom said:
I also find it odd that the people who say Toronto "deserves" the most, also are the first to jump at a moment to take shots at the city.
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This bears repeating.

I'm tired of the constant comparisons to what other cities do or do not have. It doesn't matter in the end. We're not building it to prove something to the rest of the world. We're building it for our own enjoyment.
 
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Our own enjoyment? Just the fact that it's being built by Ripley's, and being placed beside the CN Tower, I think kind of says it's not being built for the city, but for tourists.

Also, I'd love nothing more than an aquarium in the GTA, and would for sure visit it. I however, am not as likely to visit it, just because it's a Ripley's. They do cheap entertainment.
 
^^No offense but that's one of the dummest posts I've read in a long time. That a city can't share in the enjoyment of it's attractions to boycotting it because it's by Ripley's.
 
He's right though. Ripley's doesn't have a great image. I certainly wouldn't bother going to a Ripley's anything in any town.
 
I'm not sure where this hatred for the Ripley's franchise is coming from.

There's been a Ripley's museum in Times Square since 1939. There's one in San Fran's historic Fisherman's Wharf. Hell, they just opened one in Piccadilly Circus in 2008. Apprently they're producing a film about the life of Robert Ripley to be released in 2011, directed by Tim Burton and starring Jim Carrey.

The franchise is cheesy, but it's no Chucky Cheese. It's a part of the spectacle and sensationalism that defined much of western culture in the early 20th century. The pretentiousness in this thread is staggering. The fact is that they did a good job in Gatlinburg, and I'm interested to see what they can do here with an even larger square footage.
 
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khristopher said:
I think kind of says it's not being built for the city, but for tourists.
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Im also sure that they are not building five new 5-star hotels here in Toronto for Torontonians.......Where would Toronto be without the 20 or so million yearly tourists.
 
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Taller, Better posted these shots on SSC:

IMGP9764.jpg


IMGP9765.jpg


Architecturally, it's no masterpiece, but it's disingenuous to claim that it will be as bad as the ones in Myrtle Beach and Gatlinburg. The Ripley's logo seems awkward, but I doubt that they'd change it given that it's been their logo since the 30's. My hope is that it won't be as large as rendered above.
 
Ramako said:
I'm not sure where this hatred for the Ripley's franchise is coming from.

It's a part of the spectacle and sensationalism that defined much of western culture in the early 20th century. The pretentiousness in this thread is staggering. The fact is that they did a good job in Gatlinburg, and I'm interested to see what they can do here with an even larger square footage.
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I agree Ramako, Ripley's will be a welcome addition to Toronto's entertainment scene.:)
 
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My question to those who claim this aquarium isn't big/good enough is: are you in support of, and confident in getting the taxpayers to injection several hundred million to build something at the level of Georgia Aquarium. Furthermore, are you prepared to personally support raising the taxes in order to so?

I have said before, and I have said it again - on just what planning basis are you going to get the city to reject this proposal, especially considering the fact that this is a private sector project?

AoD
 
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