With its multitiered "living" roof and expansive windows framing the harbor and towering mountains, the Vancouver Convention Centre’s new addition is a far cry from the big-box concept that has traditionally characterized convention center design. The free-standing structure just to the west of the original convention center on the Vancouver, British Columbia waterfront was truly built for 21st century meetings.
"No matter what your business or event, it’s a unique and inspirational setting," says General Manager Ken Chetney. "You walk out of the meeting room and are surrounded by mountains and water."
The new facility, which is linked by a covered walkway to the original building, triples the size of the convention center, bringing meeting and exhibition space up to almost 500,000 square feet. It boasts Canada’s largest convention center ballroom as well as the country’s largest green roof.
In fact, it is the roof, covered with 400,000 indigenous plants and intended to be a living habit for birds and insects, that is one of the structure’s most distinctive features. Some sections of the roof even sport beehives, while sensors throughout the roof indicate the need for watering when rainfall can’t do the job.
Inside, the facility also reflects the outdoor environment. Walls are fashioned out of local hemlock and fir, with blocks of wood stacked in such a way to reflect the important part that lumber and logging have played in the history of British Columbia. Overhead, wood beams are set into the ceilings.
Catering at the convention center is also in harmony with the local environment. Executive Chef Blair Rasmussen, a Vancouver native, relies heavily on ingredients such as fresh Pacific Northwest seafood and seasonal produce from local farms. For example, a recent lunch menu at the center included Dungeness crab souffle and apple sorbet served in cider from the Merridale Cidery on Vancouver Island.
"Chef Blair is renowned in our industry for producing extraordinary cuisine for a convention center," Chetney says. "Everything is prepared on the premises from scratch and really showcases the cuisine of the region."
Beyond its good looks, the new addition is opening up a whole new range of convention business for Vancouver. The center recently booked the annual convention of the American Educational Research Association, which will meet over 11 days in 2012, bringing in 14,000 delegates and generating the most room nights from a Washington D.C.-based association in the city’s history.
"Vancouver is now ready for a much larger place in the convention world—there was a lot of business outgrowing us because we didn’t have the facilities," Chetney says. "Some of those groups are very comfortable about moving into the new facility—we’ve got almost 60 bookings so far that we couldn’t have taken without the expansion."
Besides handling larger groups, the convention center is now well positioned to handle two simultaneous conventions, with one group using the new facility and the other using the original building, a sail-roofed architectural icon built for World Expo 1986 as part of the Canada Place complex, which also includes a cruise ship terminal and the Pan Pacific Hotel Vancouver.
Scheduled for completion this month, the original convention center building is currently undergoing a renovation designed to mirror the look and feel of the expansion. Upgrades will include new stone work, a new plaza, new carpeting and wall treatments, and the introduction of natural woods.
