Eric McMillan

Who is Eric McMillan?

Eric McMillan, is a Canadian designer who began his career designing exhibitions. By an extraordinary opportunity in 1972, he started designing play areas and elements that encouraged children to learn through play. The concepts were composed of a great variety of materials. He has been referred to as “The father of soft play”.

In 1968 he moved from The Canadian Government Exhibition Commission in Ottawa to Toronto to join the design team planning Ontario Place. When Ontario Place opened in 1971 the section of the exhibition he had designed called “Explosions” was the most successful exhibit in that first season. In consequence of this success he was appointed chief designer for the whole project. The following year saw the opening of the “Children’s Village” land play area and from that project grew his reputation as a designer of children’s play attractions. The opening of the “Water Play” area in 1973 secured that reputation. His work introduced ideas like the ball crawl, net climb, punch bag forest, birdie glide, roller slide, cave crawl, together toys, foam swamp, water bicycle cannons, balancing buoys, rubber band bounce, and a whole range of interactive play elements.