The firm of the architect who designed the Ontario Science Centre says closing the building is not necessary and it is offering its services free of charge to the provincial government for roof repairs.
Ontario announced mid-day Friday that the science centre would permanently close in that location at the end of the day after the province received an engineering report on the state of the roof.
That report said that some roof panels are at risk of collapse and Infrastructure Minister Kinga Surma says the engineers told government officials that the roof should be replaced in its entirety, which would take two to five years.
But it is not the only option presented in the report, and the firm of the late architect Raymond Moriyama says in a statement today that the scale of repairs is manageable and it is offering its architectural services pro bono to help accomplish them.
Moriyama Teshima Architects says the decision to "abruptly, rashly and permanently" close the science centre was a shock.
Surma has explained the closure timing by saying that even though the engineers deemed the building safe until Oct. 31, when risk of the weight of snow on the roof starts, the employees need time to decommission the building and move all of the exhibits out before then.
Even before Friday's abrupt closure was announced, the government had plans to eventually move the science centre from its east Toronto location to a redeveloped Ontario Place on the city's waterfront.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 25, 2024.
