Building features 46,450 metres of meeting space — and 60,000 bees
Lena Sin
Province
More than 26,000 people showed up to check out the new Vancouver Convention Centre. Photograph by: Arlen Redekop, The Province
It seems fitting that B.C.’s latest architectural landmark boasts neither height nor avant-garde boldness.
Rather, Vancouver‘s new convention centre holds bragging rights to 60,000 bees on its roof — and a flourishing sea life below its floors.
After four years of construction and a budget that ballooned to $882.3 million — nearly twice the original budget of $495 million — the convention centre officially opened to the public yesterday.
More than 26,000 people showed up for the open house on a sunny Saturday, and many seemed impressed, despite the cost overruns.
Standing in what is now Canada‘s largest ballroom, complete with five-storey-high ceilings, Thomas and Jessy Scaria decided the waterfront centre was money well spent.
“It’s a beautiful showcase of Vancouver. You’ve got the beautiful landscape, the mountains and the sea,” said Thomas. “You hear a lot of other people saying [the money] could have been spent on other issues, but a city has to showcase itself. They did a good job.” With 46,450 square metres of meeting space, the new convention centre is triple the size of the old one next door.
The site will serve as the broadcast centre for the 2010 Olympics.
And it already has 180 events booked, including 57 international conventions that could not have come to Vancouver without the expansion. The conventions are booked through to 2016.
It will take an estimated nine years to recoup costs, based on spending by out-of-town conventioneers.
Despite the global recession, Warren Buckley, president and CEO of PavCo, is confident of the centre’s ability to compete for contracts.
He said that no one has cancelled bookings as a result of the recession.
“We’ve had no cancellations. We’re blessed, candidly, because the Olympics moves in here in the fall and takes over our space until the spring of 2010, and will actually take us through what we’re hoping is . . . the [difficult] economic time period,” said Buckley.
Perched on the edge of Burrard Inlet, about 40 per cent of the glass and concrete structure is suspended over the harbour. Underneath, “stair-step”-style frames were installed around the waterside perimeter to encourage growth of sea urchins, starfish, barnacles, mussels, kelp and sea lettuce.
Meanwhile, the six-acre green roof is the largest in Canada, with 400,000 indigenous plants and grasses and several beehives installed to house a colony of bees.
Allan Garr, a Vancouver journalist with a passion for gardening and beekeeping, is now the convention centre’s beekeeper.
Jaime Galley of Vancouver was delighted with the West Coast-inspired design.
“I think the space is absolutely fantastic and it’s unlike anything else in the city,” she enthused.
“There’s definitely a natural inspiration with the interior. Like the beautiful wood mosaic walls and exposed wood beams and green roof — it’s just great.” “I’m very impressed,” agreed friend Philip Ma. “From every angle you look, you can see the harbour view . . . It’s a big, big improvement over the old one.” – The open house continues today, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Vancouver Convention Centre is at 1055 Canada Place, near the Waterfront SkyTrain station.
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