Children's Creative Centre Playground, Canadian Federal Pavilion, Expo '67, Montréal, Québec (1965-1967)

Part of:

People:

Cornelia Hahn Oberlander (archive creator)
Cornelia Hahn Oberlander (landscape architect)

Title:

Children's Creative Centre Playground, Canadian Federal Pavilion, Expo '67, Montréal, Québec (1965-1967)

Date:

1965-1971

Level of archival description:
Project

Extent and medium:

82 photographic material
77 drawings (including 44 reprographic copies)
0.1 l.m. of textual records
1 panel

Scope and content:
This project series documents Cornelia Hahn Oberlander's landscape project for the outdoor playground of the Children's Creative Centre. The Centre was part of the Canadian Federal Pavilion built for the Universal and International Exposition of 1967 (Expo 67), located at the south end of Notre-Dame Island in Montréal.

Oberlander worked on this project from 1965-1966. She based her design on children's spontaneous exploration, to encourage self-motivation and creative play. The playground included a rolling terrain, looping paths, a wobble walk made of short logs embeded in the ground, a canal, and "giant wooden building pieces and a rocking boat in water replaced static sculptures". [1] The playground included a sand beach-like area with drifwood and plants to be used as play props. At the centre of the playground was a grass mound with an interior cave and a high wooden platform only reachable by a commando rope. A forty-foot long circulating water channel was situated in the east section of the playground and included two small islands linked by bridges, but was narrow enough to allow children to jump over it.

The project series contains sketches, preliminary landscape concept plans, site plans, general landscape plans at different stages of design development, several sections and detail drawings for the playground's equipment and installations, and presentation drawings, including perspective views. The project series also contains architectural, electrical, and structural drawings of the Pavilion, which were provided to Oberlander for reference. Also included are photographs of the playground, research material on playgrounds, and articles and publications on the project, including Oberlander's writings, and publications on Expo '67.

Source:
[1] Herrington, Susan. Cornelia Hahn Oberlander: Making the Modern Landscape, University of Virginia Press, 2014, 304 pages. p. 106.

Reference number:

AP075.S1.1965.PR01

Arrangement:
Material in this project series was kept in its original order when it was first processed upon its arrival at CCA.

Location:

Montréal Island of Montréal Québec Canada

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