Casino Hotels · 4

What holds the complex is a pavilion built for Expo 67. The structure was designed for the fair, not for its present tenant, and its form has been kept: stacked levels, tilted planes and a strong vertical mass rising from the island. The interior was fitted into that frame rather than replacing it.

The pavilion stands on Île Notre-Dame, an artificial island made in the middle of the Saint Lawrence for the 1967 exhibition. Around it lie the parkland and water channels left from the fair. The complex now includes restaurants and a live programme, and a hotel has been added; the older structure remains the part you recognise from the river.

It is on the island itself, reached by bridge from the city, standing clear of other buildings with the river on either side. The shape is read most clearly from the shore or from the road that crosses the island.

One side of the resort is glazed almost without interruption and turned toward the edge of the falls. The glass runs across the public levels in a single sweep, so the gorge is the surface the building faces. Everything on that side is arranged around the view rather than around the street.

The resort was built in the early 2000s on the escarpment above the Niagara gorge, on the Ontario side. It is large, set into the slope, and holds a theatre, a spa and restaurants as well as the hotel. From the river the massing reads as a stepped block standing well above the water and the older streets behind it.

The glazed front is on the gorge side of the building, on the upper public levels rather than at the entrance, which faces inland. The approach from the town brings you to the back of it first.

The resort has a marina of its own on the water beside it. Boats come alongside and guests step from the dock to the building, so the water side works as a second entrance rather than as scenery. The berths are part of the property, laid out along the bank.

The resort stands in Richmond, on the flat delta land near Vancouver, close to the river and the airport. It is a broad, low complex holding a concert venue, restaurants, a spa and the hotel, with parking spread around it. The setting is water on one side and open delta on the other, with mountains visible north beyond the city.

The marina is on the river side of the resort, behind the main block, with the dock running parallel to the bank. It is reached on foot from the hotel through the ground floor, and by water from the channel.

Land is the thing to look at. The resort stands on the territory of the Chippewas of Rama First Nation, in the lake country of central Ontario, and the site is shaped by water, low ground and woodland rather than by streets. The buildings follow that ground rather than a street plan.

The resort holds a concert hall, restaurants, a spa and a golf course alongside the hotel, spread out across the site rather than stacked. Because the land is open, the complex is seen at a distance across fields and water on the approach. The surroundings are rural, and the nearest towns are small, some way off along the lake roads.

The site lies near Orillia, between lakes, off the regional road that runs north from the city. The land it stands on is First Nation territory, and that is the ground the whole resort occupies.