The design work and government approvals are apparently all in place and the contracts that will kick-off the construction of Ripley’s Aquarium Canada will be signed by this summer.
I have to say, although this project hasn’t been without it’s share of controversy, I am quite excited about it. It is actually one of the factors that I considered when making the decision to move to Toronto from Vancouver.
The construction of the Ripley’s Aquarium Canada will be the first new significant tourist attraction Toronto has seen in almost 20 years when the Hockey Hall of Fame opened. It will house tens of thousands of fish and other colorful marine animals; including jellyfish, rays and possibly sharks. Ripley’s has also stated that there will a significant amount of display dedicated to the life of the Great
Lakes and other areas of Canada. The aquarium will be spread out over about 150,000 square feet and will boast the longest underwater viewing tunnel in North America.
Located at the base of the CN Tower, the Aquarium will be poised to attract millions of visitors to downtown Toronto. And, the location will take advantage of the existing, efficient public transportation hub in the area.
The Aquarium is scheduled to open it’s doors to coincide with the Pan Am games in 2015. The lengthy construction period is required as public aquariums are incredibly complex to build. The process for building a facility that contains and circulates that amount of water has been akined to the construction of the cooling systems in a nuclear reactor.
