Canadian Pavilion
The Canadian Pavilion at Expo 67 was designed by Toronto architects Rod Robbie, Dick Williams and Colin Vaughan. The pavilion featured an inverted pyramid structure as well as a walk through attraction called the "People Tree." The pavilion had its highest single-day attendance on Canada Day (July 1), 1967. [1]
The pavilion's large inverted pyramid was called Katimavik, which is the Inuit word for "Gathering Place". The pyramid was nine storeys tall and supported by four columns. The building at its base housed a rotating theatre, which used moving wedge-shaped chambers to bring audiences from one screening to the next, making a complete revolution every half-hour. Smaller linked pyramids at ground level housed the exhibits "The Land of Canada," "The Growth of Canada" and "The Challenge to Canadians and Canada and the World." The pavilion was located on a 30,285 sq metre lot near the southern end of Île Notre-Dame.[1][2] It cost $24 million to build.[3] The inverted pyramid was a 1000-ton structure, with a hollow steel frame. Open to the sky, its four inner sloping walls featured giant sculptures of a sun dial, hour glass, compass and Kyogen and Haida masks.[4]
People Tree
The People Tree in front of the pavilion was composed of images of Canadians printed on orange and red nylon sheets, with the colour representing a maple tree in autumn leaf color. [5] Sixty feet in height, the People Tree consisted of a thousand such "leaves," with half bearing silk screened images of Canadians at work and play. The tree was accessed via a spiral staircase.[4]
Other structures
To the northeast of the main pavilion, a Arts Centre featured a 500-seat theatre, a displays of art and handicrafts, and a reference library. The site also had a Children's Creative Centre, and a restaurant, La Toundra. [4]
References
- ^ a b "CBC Digital Archives". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
- ^ Comstock, Henry (1967). "Field Day for Engineers". Popular Mechanics. pp. 89–91. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ Miedema, Gary (19 December 2005). For Canada's Sake. McGill-Queen's University Press. p. 116. ISBN 9780773528772.
- ^ a b c For Canada's Sake, page 120
- ^ Peter Herrle & Erik Wegerhoff, ed. (31 August 2009). Architecture and Identity (Footnote #4). Lit Verlag. p. 262. ISBN 978-3825810887. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
 | This Montreal-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |