Expo 67 Pavilions That Were Never Built
by Bruno Paul
Stenson, M.A.
Anyone who has ever been involved in a building
project, however small, knows that there is often a difference
between initial plans and the finished product. Such was the case
with Expo 67, and the project being such a grand and complex
undertaking, it should come as no surprise that many pavilions
underwent changes in design, and some were never built.
One
example of a pavilion undergoing a major redesign is the Alcan
Pavilion. The initial plan was for a single building
incorporating both an aquarium and a dolphin pool. In the end this
idea was ditched in favour of a two-building design, one housing the
aquarium and a separate building serving as the dolphin pool. The
initial proposal can be seen here.
Several
pavilions never made it beyond the planning stage. The most famous
of these is the Paris-Montréal
Tower which was to sit at the easternmost tip of Île
Sainte-Hélène. Another example is the World
Wildlife Federation Pavilion which was to be a sort of zoo
stressing animal and habitat conservation.
Because not all
countries could afford to build their own pavilions, some countries
combined their efforts or were given space in a common pavilion
built by the Expo corporation. For example, Trinidad & Tobago
teamed up with Grenada to build their pavilion. More noticeably, the
sub-Saharan nations of Africa were given space in Africa Place built
by the Expo corporation. Expo tried to create a similar complex for
the countries of Central and South America. Of all the Latin
American countries, only Mexico and Venezuela built pavilions at
Expo. Guatemala had planned to build on a 10,000 square-foot
(929 square-metre) lot on Île Ste-Hélène, but this never went beyond
the planning stage. Argentina proposed to build on a 25,594
square-foot (2,378 square-metre) lot on Île Ste-Hélène, but this
project suffered the same fate as Guatemala's. Costa Rica
(9,500 sq. ft. / 883 sq. m. on Île Ste-Hélène) also never carried
out their plans. In an attempt to increase participation from Latin
America, the Expo corporation proposed to built the Plaza de las
Americas along the same idea as generated Africa Place.
Unfortunately, the countries of Central and South America either had
no interest in participating, even at a significantly reduced cost,
or resented the idea of being shown to be like the third-world
countries of Africa, too poor to participate on their own. Thus the
Plaza de las Americas was never built.
There was also a plan
to build a Commonwealth Place which would have showcased the
countries of the British Commonwealth. In the end, so many of the
Commonwealth countries were represented in their own pavilions and
in Africa Place that there was no need to build Commonwealth
Place.
Among the other countries which expressed an interest
in being at Expo 67 but eventually withdrew are Malaysia
which had reserved a 19,983 square-foot (1,856 square-metre) lot on
Île Notre-Dame, and Ireland (9,000 sq. ft. / 836 sq. m. on
Île Ste-Hélène).
Corporate pavilions at Expo 67 included the
Pulp and Paper Pavilion and the Steel Pavilion, both of which were
built cooperatively by several companies, as was the case with the
car industry's Automotive Stadium. Individual corporations that
built their own pavilions included Kodak, Air Canada, and C.I.L.
(the latter having built the Kaleidoscope). Corporate pavilions that
were never built include those of Coca Cola Ltd,
Pepsi-Cola Canada Ltd, and Simmons Ltd., none of which
went far enough in their plans to have lots assigned to them on the
Expo grounds.
