Executives at Austrian wellness brand Therme have gone back to the drawing board numerous times now to try and appease locals who are uneasy about the megaspa the group is building at Ontario Place, but despite recent changes to the proposed footprint, many residents remain vehemently opposed to the development.
The latest renderings of the facility released in July show yet another drastic shift in the approach to the spa’s design — one that has, to Therme’s dismay, been heavily criticized online in the days since.
Besides the multi-storey parking garage coming to the site, of particular concern to community members are the more than 15-metre-high glass “wall” that now appears to separate the private complex from public park space below, a feature which some are noting will block views of the lake, and others are calling “staggeringly ugly, like out of an apocalypse movie.”
And 50 ft. walls that block the lake. Maybe if I walk a few blocks I can see it… Damn. There’s a megagiant parking lot there.
— Marcus Ritchie (@MarcusRitchie) July 11, 2025
Adam Vaughan, former politician and the company’s newly-appointed senior advisor, attempted to address some of the negative comments and defend the plans on X, which included engaging in an especially tense back-and-forth with journalist and Spacing editor John Lorinc.
As Lorinc pointed out, “earlier responses to the Waterfront Toronto Design Review Panel sought to soften the visual and experiential transition between the open areas outside the spa building and the structure itself. Yet this configuration totally ignores that feedback, creating a cliff and privatizing the heritage views of the pods.”
In response, Vaughan said that he “respectfully disagreed,” calling the blueprints “a vast improvement over what is there now.”
This is a particularly hilarious point given that what is at Ontario Place now is barren expanse of dirt and rubble, with crews having levelled the once-lushly forested green space on the property’s West Island overnight in October, creating an eyesore and displacing tons of wildlife in the process.
Respectfully disagree. The vaulted glass pavilions and surrounding roof top park are wonderful additions to OntPlace. A vast improvement over what is there now. All told acres of asphalt, derelict fast food sheds & old amusement rides are being replaced with acres of new park/1 pic.twitter.com/NcXMlYQCOX
— Adam Vaughan (@TOAdamVaughan) July 10, 2025
Vaughan did seem to mean that the forthcoming wellness centre will also be preferable to the “acres of asphalt, derelict fast food sheds and old amusement rides” left over from the waterfront attraction’s defunct theme park, but even on that point, a number of people disagreed.
One person likened the comparison to “showing up to take pictures of Adam Vaughan’s recycling bins so that I can say replacing his house with a 241 Pizza would be a vast improvement over what is there now.”
More than one noted that what is on the property now is “a dirt patch because Therme cut down all the trees;” trees that formed a still-utilized public park that much of the community would rather still have over an imposing private spa.
Adam, that is a truly hideous design for Toronto’s waterfront, especially the massive wall and rooftop “park.” https://t.co/7O9lpGlQAE
— Keith Leslie (@QPnewsboy) July 10, 2025
While the Therme debacle has made international headlines, Premier Doug Ford — who has ignored public pushback and helped move the project ahead, sometimes by very questionable means — said at the end of June that he is “very satisfied” with the 95-year lease deal the Province made with Therme.
The same surely cannot be said of Ford’s constituents.
