Expo 86


The 1986 World Exposition on Transportation and Communication, or simply Expo 86, was a world's fair held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from May 2 until October 13, 1986. The fair, the theme of which was "Transportation and Communication: World in Motion – World in Touch", coincided with Vancouver's centennial and was held on the north shore of False Creek.
It was the second time that Canada held a world's fair, the first being Expo 67 in Montreal. It was also the third world's fair to be held in the Pacific Northwest in the previous 24 years as of 1986 and to date, it still stands as the last world's fair to be held in North America.
It was a great success, drawing over 22 million visitors, double that of Knoxville in 1982 and three times that of Louisiana in 1984.

History

The logo of three interlocking rings to make the 86 in the logo stood for the three main modes of transportation; land, air, and water.

Background

Up until the late 1970s, the site on False Creek, where Expo was staged, was a former CPR rail yard and an industrial wasteland. In 1978, Sam Bawlf proposed an exposition to celebrate Vancouver's centennial year. The proposal was submitted in June 1979 for a fair that was to be called "Transpo 86." In 1980, the British Columbia Legislature passed the Transpo 86 Corporation Act, paving the way for the fair. The transportation theme reflected the city's role in connecting Canada by rail, its status as a major port and transportation hub, and the role of transportation in communications.
The initial idea was to have "a modest $80 million transportation exposition that would mark Vancouver's 100th anniversary." It soon blossomed into a full exposition, thanks to the help of the Vancouver Exposition Commissioner-General at that time, Patrick Reid. The theme of Transportation and Communication led to the conglomeration of many different exhibits of transportation networks. This included a monorail line that glided over the crowds included a trip to every zone. Other ground transports included the SkyTrain, a High Speed Surface Transport from Japan, and a French "People Mover." The transport of the sky was the Gondola, a boxcar hovering high in the air. The water taxis moved along four different ports on the site.
The fair was awarded to Vancouver by the Bureau International des Expositions in November 1980. However, once it became clear that the event would be a world exposition, the name was officially changed to "Expo 86" by Ambassador and Commissioner General Patrick Reid in October 1981, and, by the end of the year, Expo 86 Corporation was established as a nonprofit agency responsible in the planning and operation of the fair. Local business tycoon Jim Pattison was appointed as CEO, and would eventually also become the president of the corporation. The chief architect selected was Bruno Freschi, the Creative Director was Ron Woodall, and Bob Smith was responsible for the production and design.
Construction started in October 1983, when Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, started a concrete mixer on the future site of the Canada Pavilion, and offered the "invitation to the world." However, work was disrupted by labour disputes for five months. Still, Expo Centre opened May 2, 1985, as a preview centre for the fair.
The fair was originally budgeted for CAN$78 million. However, final expenditures for the expanded event totalled $802 million, with a deficit of CAN$311 million.

Evictions

As the city prepared to welcome an influx of visitors, more than a thousand low-income residents of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside were evicted from their long-term homes in single room occupancy hotels, sometimes with as little as a single day's notice. Because tenants were subject to British Columbia's Innkeeper's Act rather than the laws governing typical landlords and renters, the SRO owners were not required to give significant notice, or even written notice, of an eviction. Mike Harcourt, the city's mayor at the time, hoped provincial laws might be changed to protect these residents, but the provincial government refused. The Patricia Hotel was among those establishments that evicted most or all of its residents, including a Norwegian man named Olaf Solheim. Solheim, who had lived at the Patricia Hotel for decades, was well known in the community but was evicted with just a week's notice. Although he found a new home, he became despondent, stopped eating, and died within a month. Vancouver's chief medical health officer at the time, John Batherwick, publicly asserted that the sudden eviction could be the cause of Solheim's death: "He'd been moved from where he was to a place he didn't want to be, and he simply lost his will to live and he died."

Fair

Expo 86 was opened by The Prince and Princess of Wales, and Prime Minister Brian Mulroney on Friday, May 2, 1986. It featured pavilions from 54 nations and numerous corporations. Expo's participants were given the opportunity to design their own pavilion or opt for the less expensive Expo module. Each module was approximately two-and-a-half stories high and had the floor space equal to a third of a city block. The design was such that any number of the square modules could be placed together in a variety of shapes. The roof design allowed the interior exhibit space to be uninterrupted by pillars.
This world's fair was categorized as a "Class II", or "specialized exhibition," reflecting its specific emphases on transportation and communications.
The fair was known for the unfortunate ill-timing of the themes of both the United States and the Soviet Union pavilions. The U.S. pavilion centred around the country's space program. However, it had been less than four months after NASA had its worst disaster when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after takeoff. The Soviet Union had an even more problematic theme: it celebrated the country's nuclear industry. But less than a week before the fair opening ceremonies, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster occurred.

Pavilions

Canadian provinces and territories

Countries and international organizations

US states

  • Corporations and non-governmental organizations

  • Air Canada
  • BCTV set up a fully functional broadcast studio on the Expo site. The BCTV pavilion allowed visitors to see, and participate, in every step of how a television station operates, and to see how newscasts and television shows were produced. The pavilion was also used by the station for coverage of the Expo, and by visiting journalists.
  • Canadian National
  • General Motors - Had one of the more popular exhibits in its pavilion: Spirit Lodge a live show augmented with holographic effects and other special effects. It was produced by experience designer Bob Rogers and the design team BRC Imagination Arts, and created with the assistance of the Kwagulth Native reserve in Alert Bay.
  • Via Rail Exhibit
  • Canadian Pacific – The pavilion's main feature was the film Rainbow War. As with the Spirit Lodge show for the General Motors pavilion, Rainbow War was also produced by experience designer Bob Rogers and the design team BRC Imagination Arts. Following the film's run at Expo '86, Rainbow War received an Oscar nomination for the 'Live Action Short' category at the 58th Academy Awards. The film was played again for an international audience at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul Korea, as a part of the Olympic Arts Festival. CP Air was the official air carrier.
  • Telecom Canada – Featured a Circle-Vision 360° movie: ''"Portraits of Canada – Images du Canada"''

    Other pavilions and exhibits

  • Great Hall of Ramses II – containing rare treasures from the life of the pharaoh, Ramesses II.
  • Great Norwegian Explorers
  • Pavilion of Promise
  • Roundhouse – a renovated 1880s era railway roundhouse and turntable. Restored historic train Engine 374 was displayed here.
  • Expo Centre
  • Parade of Steam – a runby of various Steam Locomotives from Canada, the US, and UK. This was part of a 2-week exhibit called "SteamExpo".

    Outdoor exhibits

  • Air Plaza
  • Land Plaza
  • Marine Plaza
  • Folklife
  • Highway 86 – a sculpture/exhibit consisting of a 4 lane concrete highway that contained various modes of transportation that were frozen in time. All the real vehicles were painted a shade of light grey, and mounted in place. It was designed by 'S.I.T.E. Projects' of New York.
  • UFO H2O – a UFO inspired children's water playground.

    Theatres

  • Labatt's Expo Theatre
  • Kodak Pacific Bowl
  • Xerox International Theatre

    Entertainment and notable visitors

Royalty

Many of the concerts were hosted by Red Robinson, Vancouver DJ. These concerts were held at the Open air Expo Theatre.
The "Festival of Independent Recording Artists", a concert series promoting local bands, was cancelled on the first night after a performance by Slow devolved into a riot. Other artists who had been scheduled to appear in that series included Art Bergmann.