General Chat / Vancouver's Architectural Highlights

I put together this list of Vancouver/British Columbia's architectural strong points. Why? I think that Vancouver doesn't get enough recognition for it's archiecture despite its offerings. I chose buildings that are fairly new, although there are one or two buildings that are getting on in age. Hope you enjoy it!

PRESENT:
.........................................................
THE MUSHROOM HOUSE by ZUBE
Whistler (Resort Community approx. 120km from Vancouver)
The home is more of an art peice than a house. Zube is the artist and spent
22 years building it. The Mushroom House is inspired by a tree, so the bedroom (on the top floor) is nothing short of sleeping in the branches while the spa on the lowest level reflects the root system. The exterior of the house is highly remincisent of buildings one could find in Middle Earth (Lord of The Rings).


3D View
3D View

CENTRAL CITY by BING THOM
Surrey (Vancouver suburb)
This particular area of Surrey has had major crime issues, and Central City represents a turning point. This is the first building in a transit orentated development surrounding a skytrain station built almost 20 years ago. A Korean developer recently started selling homes in five 30+ story residential towers in the vacinity. Central City houses offices, an SFU satilite campus and connects with a local mall.









ABERDEEN CENTRE by BING THOM
Richmond (Vancouver Suburb)



THE CHAN CENTRE by BING THOM
Vancouver, UBC


Exterior/Main Entrance


Women's Washroom

VANCOUVER PUBLIC LIBRARY by Moshe Safdie
Vancouver









MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY (MOA) by ARTHUR ERICKSON
Vancouver, UBC





SCOTIA BANK DANCE CENTRE by ARTHUR ERICKSON/STANTEC
Vancouver, Downtown





GLENEAGLES COMMUNITY CENTRE by PATKAU ARCHITECTS
West Vancouver (Vancouver Suburb)





STRAWBERRY VALE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL by PATKAU ARCHITECTS
Victoria









SHAW HOUSE by PATKAU ARCHITECTS
Vancouver

ONE WALL CENTRE by BUSBY + PERKINS & WILL
Vancouver, Downtown
This is currently Vancouver's tallest building, at 491ft. It won the emporis.com award in 2001 for Best Skyscraper Of The Year





SHAW TOWER by JAMES KM CHENG
Vancouver, Downtown
Vancouver's second tallest building at 489ft.



BC CANCER RESEARCH CENTRE by IBI GROUP
Vancouver



CALLISTO
Vancouver, Coal Harbour



RICHMOND CITY HALL by HOTSON BAKKER
Richmond (Vancouver Suburb)











VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT by STANTEC
Richmond (Vancouver Suburb)


Domestic Terminal in foreground, International in background.


International Terminal


Pacific Passage show room, on route to baggage claim & customs


International Terminal and Fairmont Hotel (on right)

UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN BC by HOTSON BAKKER
Prince George







RENFREW BRANCH LIBRARY by HUGHES CONDON MARLER ARCHITECTS
Vancouver



SECHELT JUSTICE SERVICES BUILDINGS
Sechelt


COAL HARBOUR COMMUNITY CENTRE by Henriquez Partners Architects
Vancouver, Coal Harbour
The building is designed to look like a submarine, but this is only noticable from the water.









Dr. Peter Center by Neale Staniszkis Doll Adams
Vancouver

BALLOON CAUGHT by Satoshi Matsuoka and Yuki Tamura of Matsuokasatoshitamurayuki from Tokyo, Japan and FRONTIER SPACE of VANCOUVER
This was the winning entry from a international competition to help revitalize the ally ways of Vancouver. Frontier Space, the organizers of the competition wanted to draw attention to our underutilized allies. During the three day exhibit they had cleaned up the entire ally, organized the dumpsters, not a scrap of garbage, four police officers, and aside from the slight smell of urine they did a great job. Hopefully this will encourage buisness to clean up their allies.







MILLENIUM LINE
Vancouver, Burnaby & New Westminster


Commercial Drive, transfer station to the Expo Line; by VIA Architecture.


Approach to Commerical Drive; by VIA Architecture.


Commerical Drive


Renfrew; by VIA Architecture.


Rupert; by VIA Architecture.


Production Way/University; by Hotson Bakker Architects


Sapperton; by Hancock, Bruckner, Eng and Wright Architects


Approach to Sapperton; by Hancock, Bruckner, Eng and Wright Architects


Brentwood Mall; by Busby + Perkins & Will


Brentwood Mall; by Busby + Perkins & Will


FUTURE:
.........................................................
SUNSET COMMUNITY CENTRE by BING THOM
Vancouver





GEORGIA PROJECT (687 HOWE) by BING THOM
Vancouver
One of six Vancouver buildings allowed over the 450ft. height limit, 687 Howe will stand 532ft. tall. The building went through a tough time getting to where it is today, but last I heard it is approved and ready to start construction soon. The bulding is often refered to as the Crystal Tower because of its resemblance. One of it's features, a first for Vancouver is a fully automated seven-storey parking garage by the Swedish firm Skypark will accommodate 180 cars.









SHANGHAI EXPO 2010 by BING THOM
This is a competition entry by Bing Thom. The firm is in Vancouver, so I thought this was noteworthy. I think it's an awsome building, I esspecially love the main roof structure. I wonder what will be in the void. As far as I know, this project has not been approved or denied.







1133 W. GEORGIA by ARTHUR ERICKSON
Vancouver, Downtown
[i]I'm not sure where this stand politically, but I think it's a safe bet construction will start soon. The bulding is right across the street from Vancouvers tallest building, Shangri-La, and this building is supposed to be around 600ft. tall. It has recieved its share of criticism for its similarites to Santiago Calatrava's Turning Torso in Sweden. Personally, there are so many rectilinear skyscrapers out there I don't think the fact these two are similar is reason to criticize. Aside from their twisted towers they really don't share much else in common.



THE ERIKCSON by ARTHUR ERICKSON
Vancouver, Concord Pacific
[i]This buidling is to be the jewel in the crown that is Concord Pacific. The homes are to be very expensive, I thought I heard that they started at two million dollars.

LIVING SHANGRI-LA by JAMES KM CHENG
Vancouver, Downtown
Currently underconstruction, this building will be Vancouvers tallest building at 642ft. It will tower above Vancouver being that the height limit is 450ft. To achieve this height politically. the developer gave $13 million worth of benifits to the community. This is a common practice in Vancouver, however this amount was the largest donation thusfar.







JAMESON TOWER by FOSTER AND PARTNERS
Vancouver, Downtown



GREAT NORHTERN WAY NEW CAMPUS by BUSBY + PERKINS & WILL
Vancouver


Layout






VANCOUVER CONVENTION CENTRE EXPANSION by Downs/Archambault & Partners
Vancouver
This is a Vancouver architectural blunder. It was doomed from the start. The city said "We don't want it to compete with Canada Place." Well, firstly Canada Place is not iconic, mostly because it's not marketed as an icon, and secondly, the debate has come up that if that be the case, it doesn't mean that the new convention centre has to stand in it's shadow. There is this huge potential for an incredible building and we fill it in with this ugly thing. The only redeeming factor is the gigantic green roof, although it has come out that it will not be open to the public due to load factors on the roof. It would take a great many interior columns to support the weight of not only a huge garden/playing feild but uncountable locals and tourists (Four cruise ships can dock at Canada Place at one time).


Pile-driving. 195 finnished, 609 to go. Notice the Shaw Tower in the background


Construction site.


Rendering of completed project. Note the building to the left of the Shaw Tower. This is known as the Burrard Landing Hotel (Owned and operated by Fairmont) and will be on of Vancouver's tallest once finnished. There are no plans for this building yet.

YVR Fire Hall Facility, Vancouver International Airport, B.C. by Ib G. HANSEN ARCHITECT Ltd.
Richmond (Vancouver Suburb)
I haven't heard anything about this project. I think it's been killed due to the lack of information the airport has given us. The airport is a great community partner, they are not-for-profit and print mini-magazines about what is going on quarterly in the local news papers.





IRVING K BARBER LEARNING CENTRE by Downs/Archambault & Partners
Vancouver, UBC



Versatile Pacific Shipyards by HOTSON BAKKER
North Vancouver (Vancouver Suburb)
The area is known as Lower Lonsdale and is undergoing a major redevelopment.


Before


After




The Pier at build out (Lower right). The pier you see is pictured above, and the boat you see on the left is the SeaBus which connects to downtown in 12 mintues.





SOUTH EAST FALSE CREEK
Vancouver
My personal favorite, South East False Creek is a new housing community. All the buildings will be LEED Gold certified, a tram/LRT will link it to downtown and a skytrain station is to be built near it aswell. Based on the success of other waterfront communities downtown such as Coal Harbour, Concord Pacific and the West End, this one looks very promising. The land where it is to be built is mostly vancant. Unfourtunelty, this will not likely start until after 2010 Olympics. The reason for this is the atheletes village is to be built in this area, and the RCMP are saying if this gets built the security costs will sky-rocket.


Community Centre, Seawall and naturalized shoreline


Layout; downtown is at the bottom of the picture


Shadow renderings

McLeod Lake Community Centre, McLeod Lake I.R. No. 1, B.C.
Northern BC

UNIVERSITY BOULEVARD
Vancouver
This is quite possibly Vancouver's greatest architectural blunder.

'The 17.8-acre, $100-million project’s objective is to create a distinctive entry and social heart for the campus, including a new University Square, and university housing, shops and services. There will also be open spaces and pedestrian connections.

The University, UBC, spent $120,000 on a full page ad in the New York Times advertising their architectural competition. They recieved submissions from Zaha Hadid, Richard Rogers, Steven Hall, Robert A.M. Stern, Dominique Perrault and Bing Thom, none of which were short listed! The three finalists were all highly critized by locals for being completely unintresting, esppecially considering the big price tag. The three finalists were Allies and Morrison Architects, Moore Ruble Yudell Architects & Planners and Patkau Architects Inc. Moore, Ruble Yudell Architects and Planners won it, but I'm sure if the public had been able to see all the entries the out come would have been quite different. The public voted 79% in favour of their design.


Winning entry. On the left is a covered plaza (very similar to SFU), the lower left is a park with water feature and in the centre and upper right are offices and residences. There will also be an underground bus loop.


Winning entry.


Winning entry.


Winning entry.


Shortlisted entry by Patkau.


Shortlisted entry by Patkau.

BRITANNIA PROJECT
Squamish
The Britannia is an old copper mine and is currently and under-whelming tourist attraction (Minus the train ride through the tunnels). I read somewhere that they only get about 10,000 visitors annually and with this mega project they want to boost that to 300,000 in the first year. The town of Britannia is quite depressing, so this will bring up the town too. For more information on the project, including more artistic renderings, clickhere.





VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT by STANTEC
Richmond
They are doing some really big work. Here is a list of their current projects that are either underconstruction or about to begin:

$420 million International Terminal Expansion and Upgrades
$352 million Information Technology and Sustaining Capital
$300 million RAV Line (Airport Spur Portion)
$150 million Domestic Terminal Upgrades
$ 65 million Airfield Projects
$ 60 million Baggage System Upgrades
$ 55 million Roads & Parking

The $420 million figgure includes nine new gates including two for the A380. This expansion will feature an aquarium and a river running down the waiting area.



RAV (Ricmond-Airport-Vancouver) RAPID TRANSIT LINE by SNC LAVALIN
The $1.9 billion line will include 17 stations: 4 in Richmond, 4 on Sea Island and 9 in Vancouver. Currently under construction and to be finnished by November 2009. The Olympics start 3 months later in February. Some intresting facts:
-About 500,000 people travel daily between downtown Vancouver, central Richmond and the Vancouver International Airport.
-On a typical weekday, 288,000 vehicles and 19,000 transit riders travel back and forth
-About 26,000 people now work on Sea Island at the Airport, a number that is expected to climb to 40,000 by 2021
-Employment in downtown Vancouver and Richmond is expected to increase by 23 percent and 70 percent, respectively, by 2021


Route.

NORTHEAST SECTOR (NES) RAPID TRANSIT LINE
This is to be a light rapid transit (LRT) at grade (except for one tunnel) and is to open in 2009.


Note the Millenium line in the bottom left hand corner.

MILLENIUM LINE RAPID TRANSIT LINE EXTENSION
This is currently under study, and construction could begin in 2013. This would link to UBC.


The blue and ted lines are the Expo and Millenium lines respectively, and are operating. The purple line that runs along the water is the West Coast Express (heavy rail) and is operating. The green line is the NES Extension, the Yellow/Dark blue lines that run north/south is the RAV Line. The dark-blue/orange line that runs east/west is the Millenium line extension.

Okay, now that was just plain gorgeous. Vancouver is a wonderful, beautiful city, and it looks like it's on the forefront of the socalled hi-tech architecture style.

Absolutely stunning pics, and very inspirational! I might refer back to these for skinning ideas in my own project for this semester.

That looks like one hell of a city. The future projects, especially, look awesome. This place really looks like it should be the capital city of Canada, thats if its not already lol. Did you take these photos yourself? Because some of them are really good, worried about the womens washroom one if thats the case though.

But yeah, one beautiful city.

-X-

And I thought Colorado had some beautiful places. This puts it to shame. Nice stuff nate...makes me want to visit your city.

I guess my parents were smart to honeymoon there. Beautiful city ineed.

I was just there this summer. Gorgeous place. That one street with all those shops.... and a virgin superstore My kind of town. Although, I didn't like Roots or Tim Horton's that much Everyone was telling me how great those two were.

Great stuff Nate. Thanks for finding and posting these as it has really opened my eye to some other ideas I might try out on my solo project.

Thanks again

James

If you want to see something cool check out the new Israeli Airport!

it is the second best airport in the world

I love that library by Moshe Safdie...

He also designed Salt Lake's library pictured here.

I love his work, extremely recognizable, for sure!

time horton's sucks, it's like mcdonalds except coffee and roots is pretty plain clotheing. some people will probably really like it, some won't.

anyways. nate amazing topic, i really enjoyed looked through all the pictures. i remember when i ate at the coal harbour community center. they had the best fish and chips i have ever eaten. vc is an amazing city, i wouldn't mind living there someday.

what is the population?

None of these pictures are mine, just to clear that one up. Geoff, the street you're talking about is Robson. Actually that Virgin Megastore is closing at the end of September and HMV is moving in. And for what it's worth, I don't like Tim Hortons or Roots. Roots did a good job on the Olympic clothing, but I would never wear their stuff. X250, Ottawa is the capital of Canada, and it's Canada's fourth largest city with just over one million people. Toronto is Canada's largest city with over five million, or about 15% of the country's population. And by the way, the men's washroom looks nothing like that.

And the population of Vancouver is 2.1 million (metropolitan). Vancouver proper is about 570,000. It is expected by 2021 the population will touch the three million mark.

I realized I forgot about a few projects. I'll try to add them tommorow.