Architecture firm behind Ontario Science Centre slams closure

The firm of the late architect who designed the Ontario Science Centre says the province's decision to immediately close its doors over a problem with the roof was "absurd" and motivated by politics rather than safety concerns.

Brian Rudy, a partner with Moriyama Teshima Architects, said news of the science centre's abrupt closure last week left them "dumbfounded."

"It's absurd to think that the whole building needs to be immediately shut down," Rudy told The Canadian Press. "It's so obviously a political move."

Raymond Moriyama, who died last year, designed the science centre that opened in 1969 on a ravine near the west branch of the Don River in Toronto's east end.

At a hastily called news conference last Friday, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Infrastructure Ontario announced the science centre would close by 4 p.m. due to health and safety concerns over the roof.

The closure sparked outrage from local residents, science lovers and opposition politicians. Many have called on the government to reverse course.

The province blamed failing roof panels made with a material called reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete, a lightweight form of concrete that was popular in the 1960s and '70s.

The government said it acted fast after receiving an engineer's report earlier in the week that laid out problems with the roof. The science centre's board decided to close the institution.

The report, written by the engineering firm Rimkus Consulting, did not recommend an immediate closure.

Some roof panels are at risk of collapse and Infrastructure Minister Kinga Surma said the engineers told government officials that the roof should be replaced in its entirety. That would take two to five years and cost upwards of $40 million.

Surma said it was a health-and-safety matter and that she was not "going to risk the safety of workers and children."

But Rudy said the roof panel problem should not have come as a surprise to the government.

"It needn't have been because it has been known for years," Rudy said. "This has been an issue identified decades ago."

Several reports over the years painted a sad story of the science centre's state of disrepair. Successive governments, from Progressive Conservatives to Liberals to New Democrats, deferred maintenance.