CN Tower. Photo: Tom Arban
The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC), in partnership with The National Trust for Canada, has announced the Ontario Place Cinesphere and Pods and the CN Tower in Toronto as recipients of the 2017 Prix du XXe siècle ? recognized for their enduring excellence and national significance to Canada?s architectural legacy.
Ontario Place?s dramatic structures by Toronto architect Eberhard Zeidler made the waterfront park an instant landmark.  Completed in 1971, the Cinesphere (known as ?the Bubble?) is a 35-metre-wide dome made from steel and aluminum tubes that housed the world?s first permanent theatre for IMAX technology. A bridge-like suspension structure elevates the five inter-connected Pods over Lake Ontario. The Pods were first used to host a multimedia exhibition but were designed to be flexible and accommodate different functions. At the most basic level, each Pod is a three-storey box, encompassing 743 square metres. The jury, comprised of distinguished heritage conservation scholars and architects, noted that the Cinesphere and Pods emulated for Toronto the great architectural and social success of Expo ?67 in Montreal. ?While the Cinesphere and Pods no longer house the functions they were originally designed for, they still exhibit the strong design presence they did when first completed,? noted the jury. ?They realize, in tangible physical form, some of the most ambitious Utopian architectural ideas from Europe and the United...