Weatherproof walk cost $38m
Ian Austin
Province
A $38-million concourse now connects the old and new convention centres on the Vancouver waterfront. Photograph by: Wayne Leidenfrost, The Province
At $100,000 a stride, it’s B.C.’s costliest concourse.
The week-old, 90-metre-long walkway connecting Vancouver’s twin convention centres is more proof that $38 million doesn’t buy what it used to.
So The Province went to see what you get for the equivalent of 100 Rolls-Royce Corniche Convertibles — or 2,750 Hyundai Accents.
The two escalators at the east end of what government calls “The Connector” are certainly gleaming, and the two wide-screen overhead TVs give tourists useful information — except one wasn’t working yesterday.
The carpets are nice, and there are quite a number of outstanding pieces of native art lining the waterproof, windproof tunnel — but $38 million?
“That’s a lot of money,” said Kitty van der Meer, visiting the new venue for the first time. “My first impression was, ‘It’s really nice,’ but I don’t see that much worth.”
How else besides a walkway can you spend $38 million?
Well, according to recent stats, for that kind of coin you could raise 150 children to the age of 18.
Or, if expensive government projects are your thing, it’ll buy you just one-tenth of the proposed retractable roof for B.C. Place.
Warren Buckley, CEO of the B.C. Pavilion Corp., said most of the cost is hidden.
“You’re only seeing half of it — behind the wall with the native art is a second corridor where we have equipment going back and forth,” said Buckley. “To appreciate the steel beams that support it you have to go to the convention centres on either side. After the Games are over, where there’s a plaza above, there’s going to be landscaping, so they need all the beams to support that extra weight.”
What’s undeniable is the Connector has a stunning, $38-million view, with floor-to-ceiling windows revealing an unobstructed view of the North Shore mountains.
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