Ontario Place: Water Wonderland

All images from the July-August 1971 edition of Architectural Forum.

Given its creative architecture, it’s not surprising that Ontario Place received plenty of international press when it opened in May 1971, including the eight-page spread in Architectural Forum featured in this post.

Architectural Forum began in 1892 as The Bricklayer, a journal dedicated to the American brick industry. Over time the publication broadened its scope, until it adopted its longest-lasting name in 1917. it was owned by Time Inc. from 1932 to 1964, suspended publication for nearly a year, then carried on under several owners until dying for good in 1974. Though an American magazine, Architectural Forum published many features on projects north of the border, some of which I’ll use as sources for future posts. USModernist has posted most issues as part of its extensive collection of architectural publications.

Though most of the feature is included here, I didn’t post a map of the park, which reproduced poorly – any newspaper from the era will provide you with a cleaner version.

Let’s start exploring…

The original caption for this photo: “Located just off the shore of downtown Toronto, adjoining the Canadian National Exhibition grounds (far left), Ontario Place includes a variety of exhibition and recreation facilities, shops, and dining places, built on 96 acres of water and landfill.”

If you’re interested in learning more about the opening of Ontario Place, check out my 50th anniversary feature published by TVO and its accompanying bonus material.

Bonus Features: Ontario Place’s Opening Weekend

Before diving into the post, read my TVO story on the opening of Ontario Place in May 1971.

Globe and Mail, March 11, 1969.

Coverage of the press conference which introduced “Ontario Showcase” (as it was originally known) to the world.

Toronto Star, March 11, 1969. Click on image for larger version.

A four-page preview from the October 1970 edition of Architectural Forum. Click on the images to view larger versions.

Architecture Canada, August 10, 1970.

Globe and Mail, May 21, 1971.

Toronto Star, May 21, 1971.

The Telegram, May 22, 1971.

The caption: “Ontario Place carpenter Jim Rimmer discovers he has a secret admirer as he takes a coffee break during the final cleanup in Pod 5. The lady to the left is part of a display that Rimmer is working on.”

Globe and Mail, May 22, 1971.

Thoughts from architect Eb Zeidler, Canadian Architect, June 1971.

Canadian Architect, June 1971.

Windsor Star, May 25, 1971.

From the opening ceremony, Premier William Davis speaking in front of guards from Fort York.

Globe and Mail, May 24, 1971.

The Telegram, May 24, 1971.

The Telegram, May 24, 1971. Click on image for larger version.

Toronto Star, May 24, 1971.

Windsor Star, May 26, 1971. Click on image for larger version.

Surveying the Sam’s Sign

Originally published on Torontoist on November 16, 2013.

The first thing we noticed while gazing upon the Sam the Record Man sign for the first time in half a decade was the neat organization of its components. Around 1,000 segments of the former Yonge Street icon are labelled with brown tags, outlining where each piece will fit whenever (if ever?) the sign is reassembled, right down to row and sector numbers.

The tags indicate where these neon tubes would be placed when the sign was remounted.

“It’s our responsibility to Ryerson and the people to make sure that it’s not being mishandled and treated wrongly,” notes David Grose, the national sales manager of Gregory Signs. His firm supervised the dismantling of the sign following the 2008 edition of Nuit Blanche, and periodically checks in at its current home in a nondescript industrial park north of the city.

The general storage area looked slightly less ramshackle than Sam’s itself used to be. The plastic store nameplates line the walls, and custom-built racks hold the neon tubes, which are mounted onto sliding backboards. Because the original specifications of the north disc no longer exist, an engineer climbed behind the sign while it was still mounted to measure and photograph its rear structure.

A collection of transformers. The white-coloured ones were installed when the sign was turned back on during Nuit Blanche in 2008.

Since its disappearance from public view, the sign’s fate has been mired in controversy. Ryerson showed little eagerness to remount it on the Student Learning Centre rising on the Sam’s original site, suggesting alternate sites like the school library. In August, council considered a proposal to permit the university to create a substitute set of interpretative materials, including plaques and a replica of the sign embedded in the sidewalk—a proposal that was rejected. Public outcry has manifested itself in a Facebook group; meetings between sign preservationists, Ryerson, and the City; and calls from musicians ranging from Feist to Gordon Lightfoot to remount the sign. Rumours that the sign had been destroyed were muted after Councillor Josh Matlow (Ward 22, St. Paul’s) recently tweeted an image of its current condition.

Transformers sitting atop disc rails.

Remounting the sign, if a location is ever settled on, will be laborious. Each component will need to be tested to determine its functionality, for starters. (When the sign was relit during Nuit Blanche, 25 per cent of the transformers and 30 per cent of the neon tubes were replaced—and that was after only a short period of inactivity.) Grose highlighted some features that will require updating, such as new connectors between the tubes and power supply, which will reduce corrosion. It’s not just the sign itself that will need to be tested—its location will also. Any new home will need to be assessed, to determine if it can support the sign’s weight and if it can supply the 200 amps of power currently required to light the fixture.

Whenever the go-ahead is given, portions of the sign will be assembled into several sections for mounting. Then the tubing will be placed on top and given a final test.

Neon elements of the sign were mounted on frames that slid in and out of custom-built racks.

Grose suggested that technological advances offer greater flexibility for the sign’s future use. He noted that the original mechanism which made the discs “spin” is outdated, and could be replaced with a programmable piece called an electronic flashing unit. The original patterns could be recreated by studying videos of the original discs in action. The technology could also be used to program different patterns, such as the independent lighting up of each tube.

“It’s an important part of putting the sign back up,” Grose notes. “People want to see that animation. It’s part of what people remember.”

UPDATE

The signs were restored, then remounted above Yonge-Dundas Square in late 2017. During its exile near Woodbridge, the “storage area” referred to in the piece was a truck trailer, which legitimately was less ramshackle than Sam’s.