The Ontario Science Centre has been a vital hub for the Flemingdon and Thorncliffe Park communities for over fifty years. Please Touch Everything illustrates exactly why the Ford government’s decision to remove this landmark was such a profound loss for our city. This book is a timely and necessary celebration of a world-class institution that we are working tirelessly to restore to its rightful home.
Josh Matlow, city councillor for Toronto–St. Paul’s
A love letter to science education, to Canadian ambition, and to the idea that curiosity is one of our most powerful national resources.
Dov Bercovici, president and CEO, Discovery Centre, Halifax
A fascinating study about the creation, the development, and ultimately the unfortunate closing of one of the pioneering cultural institutions that helped shape and stimulate the growth of the science centre movement of the late twentieth century. Joan Francuz succeeds wonderfully in portraying the inside story through the words of the talented staff of designers that brought this remarkable institution to life for the enjoyment of millions of visitors over the years.
Dr. Robert Semper, chief science officer, Exploratorium, San Francisco
Joan Francuz has given us a loving portrait of the Ontario Science Centre and of the people whose creativity and dedication have provided joy and inspiration to generations. Accessible but comprehensive, this book takes us behind the scenes to see for ourselves how the science centre set a standard for education and engagement, changing the way people learn about their world.
Adam Bunch, author of The Toronto Book of the Dead
In her extensively researched book, Joan Francuz has revealed the creation of the Ontario Science Centre’s important breakthrough in letting peopleexperience science and technology in a new type of museum. The story continues up to the terrible closing of the science centre on Don Mills Roadand the attempts to move it to Ontario Place on Toronto’s waterfront. This is a damn good book that tells the story well.
Jerry Krause, associate director of design (retired), Ontario Science Centre
A must-read for anyone interested in architecture and the fractured intersectionality between government and public spaces. This work details the story of a Canadian Brutalist masterpiece now relegated to the distant memories of a screen-bound generation. It not only documents the Ontario Science Centre’s rich history and sad demise but like the centre itself, it also entertains while educating.
Leala Hewak, artist
A riveting chronicle of an institution beloved to generations of Ontarians. Francuz carefully documents the rise and fall of the iconic Ontario Science Centre, from its opening as a futuristic centennial project, to the shocking closure of its landmark building in 2024. Her extensive interviews with former Ontario Science Centre staff, designers, hosts, and advocates constitute a detailed, valuable account of how design-oriented thinking can help an innovation-oriented institution thrive — and how undervaluing that intellectual capital can ultimately destroy it.
El sa Lam, editor of Canadian Architect
This book exposes an uncomfortable truth: Our most imaginative public institutions are often dismantled not because they failed, but because wefailed to value them. The Ontario Science Centre — like Ontario Place — was a rare civic achievement. Joan Francuz makes clear how casually suchachievements are undone, and how costly that loss truly is.
Ken Greenberg, CM, urban designer
Please Touch Everything captures the bold spirit that changed how the world experiences science. The Ontario Science Centre showed us that science is something you do, not just observe, inspiring institutions like Science North to put curiosity first.
Ashley Larose, CEO, Science North, Sudbury
With this book, Joan Francuz tells the story of the Ontario Science Centre’s evolution and the designers, craftspeople, hosts, and educators who created the vision and brought it to life for millions of visitors. This is a story of Canadian innovation, of passion, of inspiration and engagement.
Lesley Lewis, CEO (retired), Ontario Science Centre
From the Ontario Science Centre’s inception as an audacious national centennial project, the team at the helm charted a new course for interactive, hands-on, engaging visitor experience unlike anything that had been done before.… Joan Francuz has written an engaging biography of an incredible character in the landscape of cultural institutions in Ontario and clearly articulates the many lessons to be learned.
Joanne O’Meara, co-founder, Royal City Science, Guelph
Joan Francuz has crafted an intriguing examination of the “life and times” of the Ontario Science Centre. Through extensive research and a great dealof inside information, she has illuminated the figures and forces that gave shape and spirit to this treasured attraction, and has skillfully set the stagesof development in the context of the wider society to which the Centre was contributing. This is a delightful read for both those with memories of theOntario Science Centre and those fascinated by the evolution of a cultural institution within the government orbit.
Bryan Tisdall, CM, president and CEO (retired), Science World, Vancouver