Located on Vancouver’s waterfront with
spectacular views of mountains, ocean, and parks,
the Vancouver Convention Centre West is designed
to bring together the natural ecology, vibrant local
culture, and built environment, accentuating their
interrelationships through the architecture.
The Convention Centre West expansion facility
triples the total square footage and functional
capacity as well as completes the development of
the public realm on the waterfront.
This facility which, served as the official broadcast
and media center for the Olympics, has a Leadership
in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)
Canada Platinum rating.
Among the VCC’s most stunning features is a 6-acre
living roof, which is Canada’s largest and the biggest
non-industrial living roof in North America.
Inside
The building, natural ventilation is provided
The Vancouver Convention Centre West is a
functional integration of the natural and urban
environments—the natural ecology of the waterfront
with the human activities within the facility.
The building expression is created by intersecting the
convention center functions with forms that are
folding, sliding, and rising up from the waterfront and
adjacent public park.
One of the Centre’s Distinctive features is a six-acre
living roof that is the largest green roof in Canadaand
the largest non-industrial green roof in all of
North America.
This green roof is landscaped with more than400,000
indigenous plants and grasses, providingnatural
habitat to birds, insects and small mammals.
It is designed to act as an insulator, reducing heat
gains in summer and heat losses in winter.
The underside of the roof has Douglas Fir slats and
metal bar grating fascia that create a visually porous
enclosure for the roof support systems.
An underwater habitat skirt or artificial reef that is
part of the centre’s foundation is providing new habitat
for barnacles, mussels, seaweed, starfish, crabs and
various fish species.
The archeticts collaberate with marine biologists to
develop the restoration plans for 200 feet of shoreline
and 1,500 feet of marine habitat.
The five-tiered underwater structure looks like a set
of bleachers, consisting of 76 concrete frames
weighing more than 36,000 kilograms each.
The structure creates tidal zones underneath the
building that flush daily with the rise and fall of
the tide.
An innovative water conservation and reuse strategy
that is projected to reduce potable water use 60 to 70
percent over typical convention centers.
The system features a black water treatment, which
processes the building’s sewage water to render it
appropriate for other uses, to provide about
80 percent of the gray water needs for toilet flushing
in the building and supplemental water for irrigation
of the living roof.
It also comprises a desalinization plant that draws
water from the harbor and processes it to meet
additional non-potable water demands.
A sea-water heat pump system that takes advantage
of the constant temperature of adjacent seawater
to produce cooling for the building during warmer
months and heating for the building in cooler months.
Back up heat is provided by steam when needed.
in many of the public and pre-function spaces to
support healthy indoors air quality.
A generous dose of natural lighting gets inside through
an ultra clear structural glass system surrounding the
building.
Landscaped with 400,000 native plants and grasses,
the green roof acts as an insulator to mediate the
exterior air temperature, as well as contributes to
the building’s stormwater utilization and integrates
with the waterfront landscape ecosystem.
Seattle-based LMN Architects designed the Vancouver
Convention Centre West as a compelling vision of
what a civic building can be—a celebration of
people and place and a model of sustainability.
LMN worked in collaboration with Vancouver-based
Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership and DA Architects
& Planners to design .
Don’t worry there is more to come tomorrow
I am saving the best for last
