Incredibly Close Yet Extremely Far: The Juxtaposition of Utopia and Reality in Expo 67 and Montréal

Abstract

Expo 67 was a powerful cultural symbol that represented a utopic and futuristic view of the civilized community. The event, originally sought as an addition to the centennial celebration for the country, took on a life of its own and changed its host city, Montréal. Exploring the event through period photographs of the site and the city; memoirs of the principal administrators of Expo 67; the official guide to exhibitors; and the souvenir book, this article examines how the ideals of Expo 67 immediately influenced the creation of the site and its layout and compares it to the urban planning philosophy of the wider city in the 1960s. It is proposed that the site and its planning were in complete symbiosis with the ideals and values put forth by the organizers of the event, but in the city of Montréal the integration was more diluted. On the newly created island, organizers could shape the nature and the environment that tourists saw and tailor it to reflect an idealized version of a city. The reverberations of the model on the city were more ambiguous as the built infrastructure and the larger scale of Montréal put up challenges to the transfer of the ideals.