Even torrential rain and blasting winds couldn’t dampen the spirits of Canadian Film Centre CEO Slawko Klymkiw on Tuesday, as he gallantly whipped off his tie to replace the rained-out red ribbon for the opening of the centre’s new Northern Dancer Pavilion.

In an unfortunate bit of timing, the festivities to commemorate the new pavilion’s opening coincided directly with the arrival of Tuesday’s near-tornado-force weather, causing the garden-party-attired guests to run for cover as speeches were about to begin.

The grand opening celebration was in honour of the new addition to the CFC’s Bayview Avenue campus, which the final phase of the centre’s $12 million Windfields Campus Improvement Project. The new pavilion, designed by architect Ken Fukushima and named after the legendary Canadian racehorse, expands the CFC’s studio and rehearsal space and provides it with another venue for its increasingly busy event roster.

On hand to celebrate the pavilion’s opening were representatives from the various bodies that funded the expansion, including Government of Canada ($3.25 million), the Government of Ontario ($3.25 million), the City of Toronto ($1.5 million), the Ontario Trillium Foundation ($500,000), and private sector companies and individuals ($3.5 million).

The CFC operates and holds stewardship of Windfields Estate, the Bayview Avenue property once home to Canadian businessman and racehorse breeder E.P. Taylor, whose stable bred Northern Dancer.  The new Pavilion lies at the foot of the garden behind the CFC’s main administrative building and was designed to organically integrate into, and complement, the existing property with glass walls allowing a view into the orchard beyond.

“[The Pavilion] is designed to respectfully integrate into CFC’s magnificent campus and hopefully, like its namesake, the pavilion will be part of programs that produce unprecedented generations of talent,” Fukushima said in a statement.

Drummond Hassan, Record Architect of the Northern Dancer Pavilion, with Donald Ross, Lead Individual Donor, and Ken Fukushima, Design Architect of the Northern Dancer Pavilion.