The Ontario Place-Therme Spa debate rages on, and just about every company associated with the project is being villainized on social media, including the architecture firm responsible for the massive building at the centre of the controversy.

Diamond Schmitt Architects has built up an illustrious portfolio of projects in Canada and abroad, specializing in institutional builds. But it's the firm's work on the enormously contentious Therme Spa proposed for Ontario Place that has placed it smack-dab in the middle of the project's associated media circus.

Seems you don’t need the MegaSpa business at Ontario Place. Why take part in the sell off of our public space for 95 years then! Trust us, this isn’t the right side of history. pic.twitter.com/skwNEgrba7

— Ontario Place for All © (@ONPlace4All) July 7, 2023

Since taking on the project, the firm's social media posts have been littered with comments from frustrated, and at times irate members of the public. One Twitter user called out the design firm's ethics for working with the province on a project many insist is not in the public's best interests.

Where are your ethics as an architect? Were you sold out to @fordnation for profits & disregarding your duties as an architect? Working for a farce of a client & with a joke of an environmental assessment makes you look like subpar firm. OAA really needs to look @ your ethics!

— rororoly (@rororoly_to) July 7, 2023

Even a completely unrelated tweet from the firm announcing the start of construction on a new community centre and library in Oakville was met with several comments about Diamond Schmitt's involvement with the Ontario Place project.

And now is the time to get out that corrupt mess that Ontario Place seems to have become or are you part of the corruption

— Gary (@GaryBlake) July 8, 2023

In fact, only one of the seven comments responding to the tweet actually mentioned the project referenced, and even then, it urged the City of Oakville to bail on the firm because….you guess it, Ontario Place.

Don’t do it #oakville Diamond Schittz are corrupt. They r disrespecting the wishes of Ontario and giving a public lakeside park to a foreign company

— flood, drought, pestilence or ben and jerrys (@2chevronsback) July 8, 2023

As some resort to name-calling, others are politely asking Diamond Schmitt to step away from the project, possibly in hopes that it will sideline the project and allow resistance more time to organize against the mega-spa.

Please reconsider your involvement in the Therme Ontario Place disaster.

— Alan Deschamps (@DechampsAlan) July 8, 2023

Diamond Schmitt co-founder and principal Don Schmitt has publicly defended the firm's involvement in the Therme project, arguing that they will be viewed "on the right side of history" by future generations.

This summer @TheAgenda explores 6 topics with 4 guests a week . From movies, food, money, cosmos -for architecture, we speak to Don Schmitt, who says his firm is on “the right side of history” in redevelopment of Ontario Place. This week, from book bans & more, the writer’s life. https://t.co/1tYZHf8oEg

— nam kiwanuka (@namshine) July 4, 2023

On its website, the firm ignores the controversy entirely, claiming that the project "honours and celebrates Ontario Place's history, including the Pods and Cinesphere," and promises to "create a year-round landmark waterfront destination reconnecting people to Lake Ontario."

Don Schmitt attempted to characterize the opposition behind the project as a "small group of opponents" in an email to blogTO.

He says that the firm is "proud to support a transformation to Ontario Place that restores its heritage," claiming the project "creates 60 acres of public park, shoreline resilience that will prevent flooding for future generations, year-round programming including indoor and outdoor uses provided by the public and private sectors."

Schmitt also takes issue with blogTO's use of the term "mega spa" a phrase also used by several other outlets including Global, CTV, CP24, the Toronto Star, and Spacing.