![]() While Ontario Place launched McMillan’s serendipitous career in playground design, contrary to popular belief, it wasn’t the site of the very first ball pit (although it would house one later). Suddenly I became the world’s expert on child’s play.” “People loved it, and it quickly became the top attraction at Ontario Place. “The Children’s Village opened in July 1972, and it was an amazing success,” McMillan writes. Striving for a more kid-friendly environment, the designer created the Children’s Village, a massive playground unlike any other, where youngsters could climb huge rope nets and soft pyramids, crawl through hanging tunnels, and jump on an enormous air mattress. ![]() “One of the ‘mistakes’ was the project’s lack of child appeal,” McMillan notes on his website. Ontario Place was a visionary project, but it was missing something. In 1971, he was appointed chief designer of Ontario Place, an ambitious project that included a park, a theme park, and the world’s first IMAX theater on newly built artificial islands just off the Toronto waterfront. Born in England and an industrial designer by training, McMillan moved to Canada and worked as an exhibition designer for Expo ’67 in Montreal. The invention of the ball pit (or “ball crawl,” as it was first dubbed) is widely attributed to Eric McMillan. Two girls fall backward into The Beach at the National Building Museum. Of course, ball pits also make for fantastic social media fodder, a resurgence perfectly timed to the Instagram age. There’s something about swimming in a vat of colorful balls that people and animals of all ages find simply delightful. Zoos in Houston and Denver have made ball pits for their mongooses the Indianapolis Zoo created one for its meerkats. YouTube is replete with videos of people filling their living rooms with plastic balls - amusing themselves as well as their dogs. They were a ubiquitous part of any indoor children’s playground in the 1980s and ’90s, and you can now find adults taking selfies in vast pools of colorful plastic balls at Instagram-friendly pop-up museums and bars, on boats, and even in offices in New York, Philadelphia, London, Sydney, Mexico City, and beyond. ![]() Over the past several years, ball pits have made a huge comeback. Then as now, the art installation is equally popular for families with children as it is for childless adults. Snarkitecture, the architectural collective behind this massive success, has been touring various iterations of The Beach since the project first debuted in 2015 at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC. By March 2, the first two weeks of reservations were booked solid. On March 1, The Beach Detroit, an “interactive installation” that’s really just a giant pool of white plastic balls, opened in a skyscraper in the city’s downtown. ![]() Foam pits appear to have taken the place of ball pits-another major difference from the Discovery Zone of the past.People love ball pits. There are party rooms available for birthday parties, just like the good old days.Īt first glance it does not appear the new Discovery Zone has the legendary, but dangerous, roller slide that many 80s and 90s babies lost some hair to and crushed their fingers in too many times to count. Located inside of EastGate Mall, the new Discovery Zone is like a blast from the past, with games, indoor mazes and plenty of climbing features. By the end of 2001, the remaining Discovery Zone locations were closed.Īlthough Discovery Zone suffered a tragic downfall that left Millennials, and even some Gen Z-ers, with nothing but memories of the fun experiences had at the indoor playground, restored hope has been presented to those in the newest generation.Ī brand new Discovery Zone is expected to open in Cincinnati on Feb. The chain sold some of its locations to the owner of entertainment competitor Chuck E. The original Discovery Zone was a chain of entertainment spaces featuring games, indoor mazes, roller slides, climbing structures and of course, ball pits galore.ĭiscovery Zone was a hot spot for children’s parties in the 90s before the company was forced to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1996. CINCINNATI - 80s and 90s babies rejoice! A Discovery Zone is opening in Ohio, so prepare yourself for a rush of nostalgia.
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