Four Seasons Centre

History

In the 1980s the Canadian Opera Company and Financier Hal Jackman, president of the Ballet Opera House Corporation, had begun lobbying for a new building to replace the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts (earlier named the Hummingbird Centre and O'Keefe Centre). This building had housed the opera company for about 40 years. The company had also previously been housed in the Royal Alexandra Theatre on King Street and the Elgin Theatre on Yonge Street. Earlier in the city's history, the Grand Opera House stood at Bay and Adelaide until it was demolished in 1927.

Bay St proposal

In 1984, Ontario premier Bill Davis promised that a piece of provincial-owned land at Bay Street and Wellesley Street would be the home for the new opera house. The lot was estimated to be worth some $75 million.

A design competition was won by the postmodern project of Moshe Safdie. In 1988, the project was approved and the existing stores and government offices on the site were demolished.

After a new NDP provincial government under Bob Rae was elected in 1990, inheriting a large deficity because of a recession, the $311 million project was deemed excessively costly. The province was also dealing with the unexpectedly high $550 million cost of the SkyDome project. When the Opera House corporation refused to modify the design to lower costs, the government withdrew its funding commitment two months after the election. In 1992, the province cancelled the project and the land was sold to developers. Two towers in the "Opera Place" development have been built on Bay Street, but as of June 2011 the rest of the property remains vacant.

University Avenue project

In 1997, the province allocated a parking lot, which previously housed offices for the Supreme Court of Ontario at Queen and University, for the project. The lot was valued at C$31 million, and the federal and provincial governments also pledged funding for a new more modest project that would cost about $130 million. The original plan called for a 190 m (620 ft) tower of offices and condominiums to be built by Olympia and York which would help fund the project. It would be further supplemented by a $20 million donation by Christopher Ondaatje. However, both Olympia and York and Ondaatje developed concerns about the project and withdrew. More importantly, the municipal government of Mel Lastman refused to provide any municipal funding. The project collapsed again in 2000.

In 2002 the opera company under Richard Bradshaw issued an invitation in 2002 for designs. The company had secured a $20 million donation from the Four Seasons hotel chain in exchange for perpetual naming rights to the complex.

Ten architectural firms submitted proposals and the modernist design by Canadian company Diamond and Schmitt Architects, headed by Jack Diamond, was selected.

The complex took three years to construct at an estimated cost of $181 million. To provide wheelchair accessibilitym elevator access to the concourse level of Osgoode subway station was integrated into the construction of the Centre. The Centre had its grand opening on 14 June 2006, with regularly scheduled performances commencing on 12 September 2006 with the inaugural production in the new opera house being Richard Wagner's epic tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung). Governor General Michaëlle Jean and other prominent Canadians attended the event. Three complete Ring Cycles were performed in September 2006.

R. Fraser Elliott Hall design

The five-tiered, horseshoe-shaped auditorium was modelled after European opera houses. Collaborating with Diamond Schmitt, New York-based theatre planning and design specialists Fisher Dachs Associates arranged the room’s geometry and seating configuration to bring each of the 2,000 seats, including tiered balconies, as close to the stage as possible while maintaining an unobstructed view.

The acoustics were designed by Bob Essert of Sound Space Design and a team that included Aercoustics Engineering, Wilson Ihrig & Associates and Engineering Harmonics. The undulating back walls of the venue, which diffuse the sound throughout the auditorium by reflecting the sound waves back to the stage, account for about 90 percent of the audible sound for the audience. To prevent audience members from detecting specific sounds and vibrations including traffic noise, the rumble from the adjacent subway line and streetcar line, and even the sirens of the emergency vehicles rushing to the nearby hospitals, the theatre sits on 489 rubber insulating pads.

Other design elements reflect historic performance halls, including the Roman Amphitheatre.

Exterior

The hall was constructed on a limited budget, using contrasting materials. The City Room glass walls, curtain walls held by steel fixtures, look out on University Ave and Queen Street. The east, south and north sides are clad in dark brick. Windows on the north side have a view of Osgoode Hall, but the exterior on that side is unadorned.

On the west is the sidewalk extension City Room, which is transparent and which illuminates the street. The solid, massive eastern facade broken only by horizontal windows, in contrast, blends into its office building and brick surroundings, towards York Street. John Bentley Mays states in his 2006 Canadian Architect article that East wall is “unresponsive to the need of vitality on the street.” The southern, Richmond Street facade, also plain brick, is opposite the Hilton Hotel. Architect Diamond defends his rather plain design, stating, "You do not make a city out of iconic pieces".