OverActive Media has recently revealed details of its new $500 million, 7,000-seat performance venue located in Toronto. The project, which includes a theatre-style entertainment venue and hotel complex, will be built in the heart of the historic CNE Grounds.
The facility will be positioned on four acres on the north side of Lakeshore Boulevard, across from the Ontario Place lands. Populous’s design is meant to reflect a modern expression of a new age of theatre for sports and entertainment.
"The design of the theatre was neither conceived as a sports arena nor an opera house, rather, a new typology that straddles the two – a state-of-the-art performance venue. The theatre architecture creates a merger of the old and the new," said Jonathan Mallie, Senior Principal and Lead Designer, Populous, in a release. "The old channeling the rhythmic repetition of historic landmark theatres, and the new, integrating the progressive forms of avant-garde twenty-first-century design. In combination, a symbiotic balance delivers a one-of-a-kind theatre experience, unique to Toronto and the world."
The purpose-built venue will host over 200 events per year with the majority of the events being music and entertainment bookings. The new venue will also be home to Toronto’s two professional eSports teams (Toronto Ultra of the Call of Duty League and Toronto Defiant of the Overwatch League), which are owned by OverActive Media. The new venue will be leveraged to position Toronto as a destination of choice for the global industry of gaming and eSports.
The venue, which has yet to be named, is slated for completion in 2025.
Related Stories
Events Facilities | May 9, 2016
Santiago Calatrava designs 'falcon in flight' pavilion for UAE at Dubai Expo
The 161,000-sf structure will be a centerpiece for the event, which is expected to draw more than 25 million visitors.
Events Facilities | Mar 15, 2016
Bjarke Ingels, Foster+Partners, and Grimshaw all winners in Expo 2020 pavilion design competition
BIG designed the Opportunity Pavilion, Foster+Partners submitted the winning Mobility Pavilion, and Grimshaw created the Sustainability Pavilion.
Events Facilities | Mar 7, 2016
Experts pessimistic on Chicago’s $650 million McCormick Place expansion
Developers and city officials envision $250 million of annual growth, but the figure assumes that a new arena will lure conventions and draw full houses for basketball games.
Architects | Jan 15, 2016
Best in Architecture: 18 projects named AIA Institute Honor Award winners
Morphosis' Perot Museum and Studio Gang's WMS Boathouse are among the projects to win AIA's highest honor for architecture.
| Jan 14, 2016
How to succeed with EIFS: exterior insulation and finish systems
This AIA CES Discovery course discusses the six elements of an EIFS wall assembly; common EIFS failures and how to prevent them; and EIFS and sustainability.
Events Facilities | Oct 2, 2015
Louisville convention center to undergo $180 million renovation, expansion
The facility, which reopens in the summer of 2018, has already booked events it wouldn’t have gotten as a smaller venue.
Giants 400 | Sep 17, 2015
CONVENTION CENTER SECTOR GIANTS: Gensler, AECOM, Turner top rankings of nation's largest convention/events sector AEC firms
BD+C's rankings of the nation's largest convention/events sector design and construction firms, as reported in the 2015 Giants 300 Report.
Office Buildings | Jul 31, 2015
Design unveiled for Apple HQ visitor center
A glass-walled single-story building alongside the main office building in Cupertino, Calif., will be used as a visitor center.
Events Facilities | Jun 19, 2015
4 ways convention centers are revamping for the 21st century
Today's convention centers require more flexible spaces, the ability to blend virtual and in-person events, and meaningful sustainability, writes Skanska's Tom Tingle.
Modular Building | Jun 10, 2015
London debuts business complex made from 50 shipping containers
London's newest business complex, Pop Brixton, will support local entrepreneurs, create jobs, and is made entirely of shipping containers.