Beginnings
Proposals for building a planetarium in Toronto date back to 1944, but serious planning only started in 1962, thanks to a bequest made by a former member of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC). In May 1964 the Chairman and the President of the University of Toronto gave their support for the idea to the RASC, and suggested a site near the existing Royal Ontario Museum, adding that significant financial support would have to come from outside the University to make it possible.
In November 1964 Canadian businessman Colonel R. Samuel McLaughlin announced plans for donating money directly towards establishing a planetarium in Toronto. He was inspired by the recent construction of the Hayden Planetarium in New York, named after Charles Hayden, who had been a friend and associate on the board of International Nickel. McLaughlin donated $2 million for the building's construction, and gave an additional $1.15 million as an ongoing endowment. The University of Toronto, which owned and operated the Royal Ontario Museum prior to becoming a separate, provincially-funded body, donated land adjacent to the museum. The building was constructed in an area that had formerly been a park belonging to the museum, and also required the demolition of a mansion at 86 Queens Park that had been the residence for the President of the University of Toronto.
The building was designed by architects Allward & Gouinlock and by the engineering firm Stone and Webster Canada, Ltd. in 1965. Colonel McLaughlin unveiled a model of the building at his 94th birthday celebration, which was held in his honour at the museum in September of that year. It was hoped that the building would be open by Canada's centennial in 1967, but construction delays forced the opening to October 26, 1968.
In addition to what was built, the original plans also called for a multi-story parking garage, a 550-seat conventional movie theatre, and a direct underground link to the Museum subway stop. These features were deemed too costly and were never built.
The building contained four floors:
- a basement containing a lecture hall that hosted meetings of the Toronto branch of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, as well as some general storage rooms;
- a ground floor that featured a small store selling space-themed merchandise, a small library, coat-check room, a prominent bronze bust of Colonel McLaughlin, and the box office and staff lounge (not accessible to the public);
- a second floor, called the "Astrocentre", which featured various astronomical exhibits and a line to the adjacent R.O.M; and
- a third floor, called "The Theatre of the Stars", was devoted wholly to astronomical shows, and featured a Zeiss planetarium projector along with 85 slide and video projectors used to recreate starry skies, along with two back rooms that housed computers, cooling systems, and audio/visual controllers. The public theatre could seat 340 people at a time, and contained a sound system of approximately 25,000 watts.
Read more about this topic: Mc Laughlin Planetarium
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