The Stage

In 1962, Montreal stepped in to replace Moscow as the host of the 1967 International and Universal Exposition. Celebrating Canada’s centennial, along with Montreal’s 325th anniversary, Expo was given a spectacular stage in the middle of Saint Lawrence River: the artery that enabled the foundation of the city and of the nation. Expo 67 showcased national pavilions representing 62 countries; thematic pavilions showcasing everything from paper, steel and polymer to science, religion, health and brewing; public amenities like the Place des Nations and an impressive collection of public art; and extensive infrastructure including the Minirail monorail and Expo Express train as well as a network of promenades and canals. With 50 million entries, Expo put Montreal on the map at the epicentre of the new world. It was an event, but above all, it was a state of mind.

Expo 67 was one of the major undertakings in Mayor Jean Drapeau’s ambitious drive to transform Montreal from an industrial river port city into a world metropolis. It included a constellation of architectural landmarks that have since claimed a prominent place in the history of modern architecture and that still define Montreal’s identity abroad—namely the US Pavilion’s geodesic dome, Habitat 67, and the French pavilion (which later became Montreal’s Casino). The momentum of Expo 67 was synergetic with the construction of an array of modern civic amenities in the city centre: Place Bonaventure, Théâtre Maisonneuve in the Place des arts, and Alexis-Nihon Plaza shopping centre, together with the Château Champlain and a flurry of other modern hotels.

Construction of major infrastructures also coincided with Expo, equipping the city for the challenges of large-scale metropolitan modernity and, for better or worse, fast-tracking it into the future. The construction of the metro system provided most of the infill that allowed for the expansion of the Expo islands. The Décarie and Bonaventure expressways, the Turcot interchange, and the Louis-Hippolyte-Lafontaine bridge and tunnel, all opened to coincide with Expo, are still among the main lines of Montreal’s metropolitan structure.

Montreal was momentarily projected to the forefront of a new urban and architectural avant-garde. It became a fertile testing ground for the emerging urban imaginaries and paradigms of early the 60s, most notably for megastructure and megaform. Synthesizing the city into large-scale, infrastructure driven topological and topographic systems, megastructure and megaform models found a variety of manifestations in Expo 67’s Montreal. These concepts were embedded in the islands as territorial architectures, in many of the pavilions, in Place Bonaventure and in the unique symbiosis that merged metro infrastructure and urbanity into an ever-expanding underground city.

Expo 67’s most significant impact was on a social level. It opened the city to the world and brought the world to the city, with a fast-forward emancipatory effect. A part of the world stayed in Montreal, creating a wave of diverse and highly qualified new Canadians to a new, emerging multicultural model of Canada. Expo 67 was the catalyst of modern design in Quebec, fostering new practices in object design, graphic design, exhibition design, fashion and media. Most importantly, an entire generation was enlightened by the Expo.