False Creek once had a 4,500-seat amphitheatre for concerts (PHOTOS)

False Creek once had a 4,500-seat amphitheatre venue for concerts (PHOTOS)

Expo 86's Expo Theatre at False Creek. (Terence Williams)

Metro Vancouver is finally getting a world-class outdoor venue for concerts and festivals — a 10,000-capacity, purpose-built amphitheatre at Hastings Park with a covered roof, and the latest amenities and modern facilities for such a site.

And if all goes as planned, construction on the new PNE Amphitheatre will begin in early 2024 for a completion in Summer 2026 — potentially in time for the 2026 PNE Fair and the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

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When complete, the amphitheatre will be the PNE’s first major permanent entertainment venue project in nearly six decades, since the construction of the Pacific Coliseum.

It will be one of the largest free-span vaulted timber roof structures in the world.

And it was just about four decades ago that an amphitheatre with a design not entirely dissimilar to the future PNE Amphitheatre was completed in Northeast False Creek in downtown Vancouver.

This was the Labatt’s Expo Theatre, built as one of the many attractions of the Expo ’86 World’s Fair. But as the main concert venue for big entertainment acts, with a capacity of 4,500 seats, the amphitheatre was the largest spectator venue on the fairgrounds. It was used almost daily for scheduled performances throughout the 164-day-long World’s Fair.

The Expo Theatre was located near the southeast corner of BC Place Stadium and just east of what remains today of the Plaza of Nations — in the vicinity where Pacific Boulevard meets Griffiths Way. The footprint of the former amphitheatre is now a portion of the waterfront surface vehicle parking lot, which is awaiting a future high-density, mixed-use development by Concord Pacific. On the Expo ’86 map, it is located in the “Blue Zone” of the False Creek fairgrounds.

Location of the Expo Theatre on the Expo ’86 map is circled in red on the right, within the Blue Zone.

Location of the former footprint of the Expo Theatre. (Google Earth)

The site of the former Expo Theatre on the Concord Pacific-owned parking lot in Northeast False Creek. (Google Maps)

While nearly all of the over 60 buildings constructed for the World’s Fair were designed to be temporary, the Expo Theatre was considered to be a potential enduring legacy.

Terence Williams, who was the design principal and architect of record for the Expo Theatre, told Daily Hive Urbanized the venue was originally designed as a permanent structure, before being later revised as a prefabricated glue-lam beam structure with demountable pre-cast concrete.

He says the venue remained at the location for several years after the World’s Fair, but it is unclear exactly when it was demolished.

Archival aerial photos of the area suggests the theatre was completely removed by 1991, and a record of concert archives indicates the venue continued to host performances well after the World’s Fair, with last two concerts featuring major acts, held in 1988, being Wayne Newton on September 8 and Iggy Pop on October 3. Williams says the venue also saw children’s theatre uses post-Expo.

There was an effort to either keep the venue in place at its location or find a new location for it in the Lower Mainland.

Expo 86’s Expo Theatre at False Creek. (Terence Williams)

Expo 86’s Expo Theatre at False Creek. (Bobbea)

The theatre was configured in a classic circular amphitheatre form, with a roof protecting it from the elements to expand its operating season.

Like the future PNE Amphitheatre, the Expo Theatre was also designed as a showcase of wood construction to promote BC’s timber industry to international markets.

It had four sculptured columns to support the longest glue-lam beams manufactured in the province at the time. Bush Bohlman & Associates were the structural engineers of the vaulted roof.

The lighting, catwalks, and sound control booths were even suspended from the glue-lam beam. From the outside, it was apparent that the hypalon single-ply roofing was coloured blue and white to reflect the structural folded plates of the theatre below.

“We thought it important that the innovate structure should be expressed from above and be obvious within the theatre,” he told Daily Hive Urbanized.

“It was well received by the public and illustrated in architectural magazines around the world.”

Expo 86’s Expo Theatre at False Creek. (City of Vancouver Archives)

The Expo Theatre was completed in August 1985, well ahead of the World’s Fair’s opening. The building, spanning a floor area of 57,115 sq ft, carried a construction cost of $5.235 million in 1985 dollars (equivalent to $13.1 million in 2023 dollars).

Princess Diana and then-Prince Charles attended some performances at the Expo Theatre during their Royal Tour of Canada coinciding with the opening of the World’s Fair in early May 1986, including a gala concert headlined by Bryan Adams.

Other major performance venues on the False Creek fairgrounds that no longer exist include the 3,000-seat Kodak Pacific Bowl, which was located on the westernmost end of the Expo site — where George Wainborn Park is now located. It hosted large outdoor events, such as the RCMP Musical Ride and motorcycle stunt shows.

The 1,500-seat Xerox International Theatre for cultural performances was located at water’s edge at present day David Lam Park.

There were also other pop-up performance spaces and two small amphitheatres for Expo programming, located at the Plaza of Nations, which was originally built as the BC Pavilion, and at the tip of the Canada Place before its pier extension, which served as the Canada Pavilion. With its covered glass roof, the Plaza of Nations saw extensive uses as a concert and events venue for decades, until its covered outdoor roof — intended to be temporary — was demolished in the late 2000s due to its deteoriation. BC Place Stadium was built in 1983, just in time for the World’s Fair and its role for hosting the Expo opening and closing ceremonies.

Expo ’86’s Xerox International Theatre, located on the present day North False Creek seawall at David Lam Park. (City of Vancouver Archives)

Expo 86’s Expo Theatre at False Creek. (City of Vancouver Archives)

Science World, originally built as the Expo Centre, was also meant to be temporary. Major investments were made to upgrade and expand the geodesic dome building in the years immediately after Expo ’86 for its reopening as a science museum, and its latest significant expansion was performed just over a decade ago.

But the building that is home to Science World is now really starting to show its age. Significant reinvestments are required to extend the lifespan of the structure and its building systems.

Over the past year, at separate occasions, the senior governments provided the non-profit organization behind Science World with a combined total of $30 million — $10 million from the federal government and $20 million from the provincial government — towards critical building improvements that are challenging to privately fundraise. But this funding represents just a small fraction of the overall reinvestment needed over the coming years.

BC Premier David Eby suggested that the decision makers in the early 1980s were shortsighted with their decision to build a temporary dome, instead of proceeding with the available option at the time to build a permanent dome.

“The problems at Science World, the challenges and the opportunities here, started with the decision originally to build a temporary dome instead of a permanent dome,” said Eby previously in April 2023.

While the World’s Fair certainly put Vancouver on the map and provided a profound economic, tourism, and human legacy, its direct physical legacies of providing enduring, long-term cultural attractions and performance spaces has been relatively limited, given that most of the buildings were temporary and demolished.

Footage of Princess Diana and then-Prince Charles arriving at the Expo Theatre for a concert at the start of Expo ’86:

Audio recording of the Stevie Ray Vaughan’s concert at the Expo Theatre during Expo ’86:

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