page_title: Exhibition Place
section_title: Post World War II
hierarchical_section_title: Exhibition Place / History of the grounds / Post World War II
caption_attribution_description: English: The preserved Canada Sports Hall of Fame facade, preserved as an entrance to BMO Field
context_page_description: Exhibition Place is a publicly owned mixed-use district in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located by the shoreline of Lake Ontario, just west of downtown. The 197-acre site includes exhibit, trade, and banquet centres, theatre and music buildings, monuments, parkland, sports facilities, and a number of civic, provincial, and national historic sites. The district's facilities are used year-round for exhibitions, trade shows, public and private functions, and sporting events.
  From mid-August through Labour Day each year, the Canadian National Exhibition, from which the name Exhibition Place is derived, is held on the grounds. During the CNE, Exhibition Place encompasses 260 acres, expanding to include nearby parks and parking lots. The CNE uses the buildings for exhibits on agriculture, food, arts and crafts, government and trade displays. For entertainment, the CNE provides a midway of rides and games, music concerts at the Bandshell, featured shows at the Coliseum, and the Canadian International Air Show. The fair is one of the largest and most successful of its kind in North America and an important part of the culture of Toronto.
context_section_description: After the military vacated Stanley Barracks, the CNE made plans for the Barracks' demolition. However, until 1951, the buildings were used for emergency housing. The first phase of demolition in 1951 demolished all of the wooden buildings, leaving only the original stone buildings. In 1953, despite public opposition, three of the remaining four stone buildings were demolished for parking, leaving only the Officers' Quarters. In 1955, the Quarters found its first CNE use, for Sports Hall of Fame exhibits before being turned into a year-round Maritime Museum in 1959.
  A new phase of building construction followed, replacing buildings destroyed by fire, demolished for the Gardiner Expressway, or needed expansions. The new buildings, mostly in the central block of the site, exhibited a new Modernist style of architecture. In 1946, the third Grandstand burned down. In its place was built the fourth Grandstand, a massive concrete construction and monumental cantilevered steel roof was a sharp contrast to the other buildings around it. The Modernist trend continued with the construction of other buildings and monuments typifying the modernist style including the Food Building (1954), the Shell Oil Tower (1955), Queen Elizabeth Building (1957) and the Princess Margaret Fountain (1958).
  In the later 1950s, the new six-lane Gardiner Expressway was pushed through the north side of the grounds, cut below grade in the western section of the grounds, and an elevated section in the eastern section. This necessitated the demolition of the Dufferin Gate, the Women's Rest building and the Machinery Hall. The new parabolic arch Dufferin Gate was built in 1959. 
  On January 3, 1961, the Manufacturer's Building and the Women's Building (the one built prior to the Queen Elizabeth Building) were destroyed by fire. The buildings were replaced by the Better Living Centre, which came with a distinctive Mondrian-inspired ornament on its roof. In 1961, the Hall of Fame building opened north of the Grandstand to house Canada's Sports Hall of Fame and the Hockey Hall of Fame. In 1963, the Coliseum was re-clad with a modernist south facade. To replace its exhibit in the Ontario Government Building, the Government of Ontario built Ontario Place on artificial islands to the south of Exhibition Place (accessible via two foot bridges).
  Coinciding with the opening of the ultra-modern Ontario Place to the south, a new master plan for the Exhibition site was developed in 1971. The 1971 Master Plan was radical, calling for the demolition of many pre-World War II buildings, new Modernist buildings, and a massive central public space with a reflecting pool and fountains on the site of Exhibition Stadium, which was to be relocated. The plan proposed the demolition of the Fire Station, Art Gallery, General Exhibits Building, Railways Building, Government Building, Ontario Government Building, Automotive Building, Transportation Building, Band Shell, Grandstand, Shell Tower and the 1959 Dufferin Gate. A monorail was proposed to move people around the site and to and from the parking lots. It had first been proposed to connect Union Station and the Exhibition Grounds. Dufferin Street was to be connected to Lake Shore Boulevard, a new four-lane road along the north of the site and a new 1800-place parking lot taking the place of buildings to the west of Dufferin.
  The plan resulted in some demolition, such as the Electrical and Engineering Building in 1972 (allegedly in poor structural condition) and the General Exhibits Building and Art Gallery, which were in the path of the new road. In 1974, the International Building, (formerly the Transportation Building), to the west of the bandshell, burnt down. It was hosting an exhibit on Spain during the CNE when it caught fire and was destroyed. The building was demolished and not replaced, the site left vacant and has since used mostly as a parking lot. The 1971 plan was abandoned after Exhibition Stadium was redeveloped and enlarged to host Major League Baseball in 1977. The site officially became Exhibition Place, partly 
caption: Remnant of Hall of Fame building facade at BMO Field. The building housed the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame from 1961 to 2006.
exif: {"Image Make": "EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY", "Image Model": "KODAK EASYSHARE M893 IS DIGITAL CAMERA", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "480", "Image YResolution": "480", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "188", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "11998", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5606", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/250", "EXIF FNumber": "29/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "80", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2011:08:23 12:58:50", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2011:08:23 12:58:50", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "8", "EXIF ApertureValue": "31/10", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "31/10", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash fired, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "57/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3296", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2472", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "11862", "EXIF ExposureIndex": "80", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "34", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}