Casino Hotels · Four hotels

the moving part: River water moves around this address without stopping. The resort stands on Île Notre-Dame, made ground in the Saint Lawrence, and the current runs past every side of it. Inside the site, movement is on foot between the Expo pavilions that were rebuilt into the buildings standing here now.

what it joins: It joins the island to the river that holds it. Water on one side, made land on the other, and between them a bank that decides where people can walk. The pavilions, the restaurants and the rooms sit inside that outline, and the water sets the edge of all of it.

what rides on it: The river carries itself and whatever it has picked up upstream. On the island, people move between eating rooms, a live programme and their own floors, while staff and supplies cross the same ground. The gaming floor is not described here.

what never moves: The pavilions do not move. They were built for Expo and they still stand on the same made ground, keeping their shapes, while the island holds its outline against water that is always going past.

the moving part: Built into a slope above Niagara Falls, the resort moves people vertically. Long inclined lifts and walkways run inside the structure between the lower entrances and the floors above, so the hillside is climbed indoors. The lifts belong to the building and work within it through the day.

what it joins: It joins the low ground near the river to the upper level where the hotel, the theatre, the spa and the restaurants sit. Outside, that difference in height is a wooded bank; inside, it is a lit passage with a moving floor. The building takes the slope and makes it a corridor.

what rides on it: People ride up in coats, and staff ride down at the end of a shift. Trolleys of clean linen, kitchen deliveries and theatre equipment use the service side of the same climb, because everything above has to be brought up from below.

what never moves: The slope itself does not move. The building holds its position against it, the theatre stays on its level, and the falls below keep their line whether or not anyone inside is looking at them.

the moving part: This resort keeps a dock on an arm of the Fraser, and vessels come alongside it and then leave again. The water here is working water, with the river running past the moorings, and the landing is part of the property rather than a public quay used by the town around it.

what it joins: It joins the water to the ground floor of a resort holding a concert hall, restaurants and a spa. From the dock the buildings are a wall of glass; from the terraces the river is a moving strip with boats on it. The landing is the place where the two meet.

what rides on it: Boats ride the river and tie up. People step off with bags and step on again later, while crews handle lines and fuel. What arrives by water reaches the same doors as what arrives on foot from the rest of the site.

what never moves: The river keeps its channel and the resort keeps its footprint. The concert hall stays on its floor, the dock stays where the bank allows one, and the far shore is where it has always been.

the moving part: Shuttles work the ground of this resort, which stands on the lands of the Chippewas of Rama First Nation. Vehicles run between the buildings and the wider site through the day and come back to the doors they left from. Beyond the built ground, Lake Couchiching lies open.

what it joins: It joins the resort entrances to the rest of the site and, past that, to the lakeshore. On one side there are rooms, a concert hall, kitchens and a spa; on the other there is open land and then water. The shuttle keeps the far part of the property in use.

what rides on it: Guests ride to and from the buildings, and staff ride at the beginning and the end of a shift. Golf equipment, catering trolleys and stage cases move over the same ground, because the site is wider than any single building on it.

what never moves: The lake does not move away from its shore. The land it borders belongs to the First Nation whose name the place carries, the concert hall keeps its floor, and the shoreline holds its line.