Posted Jan 26, 2010, 12:03 AM
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Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Vancouver
Posts: 41,350
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The 701 West Georgia reno will not be done in time.
Quote:
City scrambles to meet deadline
Construction crews, trucks rush to finish
By Ian Austin, The Province
January 25, 2010
Are we ready?
The Province took a daylong trek through downtown Vancouver and found frenetic activity at virtually every turn as construction crews raced to meet the fast-approaching Feb. 12 Olympic deadline.
GRANVILLE STREET
The changeover from Canada Line construction zone to Olympic pedestrian mall is still not complete.
Today, it resembles a heavy-equipment parking lot with hordes of workers installing lights, chairs and bike racks, and pressure-washing sidewalks.
One of the walkway's signature icons promises to be impressive once crews install the missing feature -- vertical light tubes.
Vancouver's epicentre, Granville and Georgia, is far from ready. White shrink-wrap and orange-and-blue tarps besmirch the street-level worksite at 701 W. Georgia, with a construction own the worksite -- we have to. We've got two weeks, then we'll shut down and put up white plywood with stickers on it."
Public art is popping up on the mall to greet the tourists, but there's no sign yet of the security cameras.
Robson Square
Scaffolding is everywhere as the B.C. Pavilion takes shape around the new enlarged skating rROBSON SQUAREitors cling timidly to the boards.
A blue-and-yellow pavilion roof is under construction, turning the steps into a natural amphitheatre for performances. Sound stages, towers and banners are being put up. A giant video screen at Robson and Howe features short films in the CUE Artists' Videos series.
Art Gallery
The Olympic Countdown Clock has company now, with a giant log cabin under construction and new ART GALLERY
e gallery's north steps.
A look skyward reveals skyscrapers draped with giant billboards -- four-storey athletes at The Bay, a 10-storey Canadian flag at Georgia and Howe, 14-storey Olympic mascots on the TD building. But the gold medal goes to the 30-storey skier at Royal Centre.
LiveCity Downtown
The parking lot at Georgia and Beatty is behind security screens, but colossal tents withLIVE CITY DOWNTOWNre taking shape at a site that will include the $9-million Canada Pavilion and promises to be one of the most popular Olympic venues.
False Creek East
A walk across the Georgia Viaduct -- where workers are installing Olympic banners -- revealsFALSE CREEK EAST
ly transformed.
Looking south, the name "tent city" seems appropriate: No fewer than 32 shiny white Olympic tents cloak the site to the edge of False Creek.
The blue Q of the Maison du Quebec dominates the skyline, while a gold-and-green wheatfield logo trumpets the Saskatchewan Pavilion.
A "Russia Meets Canada" sign at Science World greets truckloads of supplies coming through the doorway for the Russia House pavilion.
The closed-to-the-public Olympic Village on False Creek's south shore has workers installing four-storey Olympic banners. A walk farther west leads to tent villages at the Plaza of Nations and adjacent to the Olympic venues at GM Place and B.C. Place.
LiveCity Yaletown
The rush to get it all done seems more frantic at David Lam Park, where multiple building programs have the look of down-to-the-wire.
An entire house is being built at the corner of Pacific and Homer, and paving crews are taking advantage of good weather to lay asphalt on Beach Crescent.
Westin Bayshore
The Vancouver home of the Olympic family looks more like a fortress, as concrete barriers and three-metre-high chainlink fences ring the venue where the who's who of the Olympic movement will be coming to stay.
Coal Harbour
Eastward along the seawall is the new $800-million Convention Centre. But visitors who want a closer look are out of luck -- only rights-holders such as CTV and NBC, who have paid millions up front, are allowed in.
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© Copyright (c) The Province
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We are not in charge of the whole event and can't really do anything about it. This makes me think these people are just complaining for the sake of complaining 
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