Even as far back as the 1960s, Toronto was concerned about its waterfront being a ‘people friendly’ place. It had suffered through more than a century of intense industrialization which cut the city off from the lakefront. By the late 1960s, half a century of automobile-centric lakeside planning had made the Toronto waterfront an unappealing, heavily industrialized location, despite its obvious potential.

Ontario Place was conceived to help to revitalize the waterfront, attract tourists to Toronto, and in part, appease the City, which was frustrated at the high level of government investment that flowed to rival Montreal for Expo 67.

The park itself was originally conceived as an onshore exhibit, but this idea was discarded in favour of five large, architecturally unique, three-level Pods. Each Pod would be approximately 8,000 square feet (743 m²) in area, and suspended by steel cables from four large central pylons driven deep into the lake bed. These Pods would initially house various Ontario-themed exhibits in an aquatic setting somewhat similar in concept to Montreal’s Expo 67 grounds (which were in the middle of the St. Lawrence River). However, a difficult but unexpectedly useful problem developed. The cost of the open-water Pod foundations alone (at the time, estimated at C$9 million) would consume almost the entire budget for the Pods’ construction. Architect Eb Zeidler was faced with a dilemma: how to construct the Pods without the necessary budget.

Zeidler developed an innovative solution: after a trip to the Caribbean, he realized that a “barrier reef” concept would cut down on wave action from the lake enough to reduce the cost of the Pods’ foundation to 1/10 of the original open-water estimate. After some quarrels with the port authorities (due to the dangers of the unseen reef to shipping), the reef plan was modified to incorporate three artificial “barrier islands” made from city landfill. Ironically, the barrier islands were to be so well crafted, they became an integral part of the Ontario Place experience.

The children’s village was designed by Eric McMillan; the glass pagoda building was designed by Raymond Moriyama.