Casino Hotels · four

Île Notre-Dame was raised in the river and then planted, with soil brought in and trees, beds and lawns established right across it. Those plantings, and the basin and channels cut alongside them, were set out before the resort. The island's greenery is the older thing on the site.

Gardens lie around and beyond the buildings, on the island itself, and are reached on foot from the doors. Water is never far in any direction. The rowing basin, the channels and the planted banks all continue on past the resort's own ground into public parkland.

The resort took over pavilions left standing on the island and added rooms, restaurants and a stage to them. Its plan follows the paths and water already in place, so the buildings sit among the planting instead of clearing it away.

Rock and river did this work, not builders. Water has been cutting back into the escarpment for far longer than any settlement above it, and the cliff below the resort is the exposed edge of that retreat. No one made the gorge, and no one has dated it neatly.

The gorge runs directly below the ridge the resort stands on, with the falls upstream and the river continuing north between its walls. Streets and hotels crowd the rim above. From the higher floors it is the drop, rather than any building, that fills the window.

The resort was set along the rim to face the drop, with public rooms and restaurants turned that way and the theatre and spa placed behind them. Nothing was built out over the edge, so the buildings stop where the ground does.

Older than the land beside it, the river arm built that land in the first place. Silt carried down from the interior made the delta here, and the channel has shifted across the flat many times. Richmond sits on what the water left, which puts the river first.

The channel runs along the edge of the property, with a marina and a walking dyke between the buildings and the water. Flat delta ground continues inland behind them. Aircraft cross overhead on their way to the airport, built on the same silt further west.

The resort turned toward the water, putting its frontage, marina and terraces on the river side and its concert hall, restaurants and spa behind. The dyke was kept as a public path, so the built edge stops well short of the bank.

Lake Couchiching, its shoreline and the mixed forest above it were all here long before the resort. The land belongs to the Chippewas of Rama First Nation, and the shore and woods have been part of that territory across generations. Water and trees are the older things here.

The shore lies below the resort, with woodland between the buildings and the water and open lake beyond that. Roads reach the site through forest rather than through town. The golf ground and the surrounding bush share the same treeline that runs down to the bank.

Building was kept back from the water, with rooms, a concert hall, restaurants and spa grouped inland and parking behind them. Trees were left standing between the buildings and the shore, so the edge of the lake still reads as forest.