Vancouver Convention Centre Expansion Project | Completed

[Delirium]

i quite like the convention centre. in fact, it's turning out better than i expected. there are a lot of details to the building that we haven't seen yet not to mention the $50million art component.

i also think that the building looks a lot better when viewed from the north or west.


from www.flickr.com

[mr.x]

^ i thought the art component was $80 million.

I quite like it too. Really, it's our version of the Hong Kong Convention Centre...while Canada Place next door is our own Sydney Opera House.

[Yume-sama]

What type of "art" are we expecting for $80 million?

I'd be willing to throw together something so abstract nobody would ever be able to figure it out, for that kind of money.

[TwoFace]

Originally Posted by Yume-sama

What type of "art" are we expecting for $80 million?

Let's hope its more creative than the $2.00 Giant "Golden Balls" at Cielo.
There goes the neighborhood.

[Yume-sama]

Originally Posted by TwoFace

Let's hope its more creative than the $2.00 Giant "Golden Balls" at Cielo.
There goes the neighbourhood.

Yeah.... well, if it's really going to be $80 million, you can bet it won't be that well received or make a whole lot of sense to a lot of people. Maybe it'll be cool and floodable like Shangri-la's art...

[SpongeG]

did anyone see global news saturday?

they were installing some cement things around the convention centre

they will create some kind of reef/marine enviornment, kinda neat

will also allow for interaction for people and the water to interact apparently

[giallo]

^That sounds awesome.

The more I see Hong Kong's convention center, the more I dislike it. It hasn't aged well in it's short life.

[mr.x]

^ yea, that was pretty cool. it'll cost $8.3 million.

[deasine]

does it have anything to do with the Vancouver Aquarium?

Reminds me of that river in YVR =)

[Delirium]

Originally Posted by giallo

The more I see Hong Kong's convention center, the more I dislike it. It hasn't aged well in it's short life.

i have to agree. seems like a lot of people here place the HK centre as the benchmark for a convention centre but i would argue that their building has failed at a pedestrian level. it's a very 'inward' designed building in contrast to ours where every attempt was made to engage the public with restaurants, retail and programmed areas. even when there won't be a convention going on, it still should be a place of activity.

this looks rather uninviting to me...




edit;

here's the video clip from Global news showing the concrete "fish habitat skirt" they began installing yesterday (search convention centre)
http://www.canada.com/globaltv/bc/video/index.html

[nathan6969]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

did anyone see global news saturday?

they were installing some cement things around the convention centre

they will create some kind of reef/marine enviornment, kinda neat

will also allow for interaction for people and the water to interact apparently

Are these just steps that run the whole way around the building, so you'll be able to walk right to the water??

[deasine]

Originally Posted by Delirium

i have to agree...
http://www.canada.com/globaltv/bc/video/index.html

Just to let everyone know, GlobalTV's current media player allows you to get a link to the video directly by pressing on the hand on the right hand side of the video player.

The link to the video is: http://canwest.a.mms.mavenapps.net/m...4-eecd677b7d84

Thanks for sharing btw.

[jlousa]

Here's some more details on that aspect of the project.

A giant concrete reef being built today around the Vancouver Convention Centre expansion site is the biggest project of its kind in the world and will introduce marine life never seen in the area. The “habitat skirt,” which looks like a set of bleachers that drops into the Burrard Inlet, will extend to the lowest tide point and cover about half a million square feet of surface area.
Jason Kearns, general manager of Surespan Structures Ltd., which is building
the habitat, said it will allow new marine life to establish itself in the waters surrounding the building.
A 19-storey ocean-going crane is installing 76 frames, each weighing 36
tonnes, around the perimeter of the site. The frames will eventually support 362 horizontal slats to complete the habitat.
Rick Hoos, a marine biologist with EBA Engineering Consultants, said the structure will become completely covered with seaweed, barnacles, mussels, starfish and crab within a year. A walkway around the building will let viewers see the habitat from above while underwater cameras will provide a glimpse of
the reef from below. “There’s no other project of this kind anywhere else in the world,” said Hoos. “I can foresee buses of school kids coming for a day to tour the environmental features and learn from this whole project.”

[LeftCoaster]

Originally Posted by jlousa

“I can foresee buses of school kids coming for a day to tour the environmental features and learn from this whole project.”

How will they be viewing these reefs? Simply from the seawall/edge of the convention centre, or will there be some form of interactive viewing area? possibly even a glass window underwater?

[mr.x]

They're making this sound like the next Great Barrier Reef...."completely covered with seaweed, barnacles, mussels, starfish and crab within a year."

o_O?

[twoNeurons]

The Great Barnacle Reef

[TwoFace]

Originally Posted by tintinium

The Great Barnacle Reef

I've been watching it from my window, glad to hear that there are "horizontal" slabs that will go on the 5 vertical stairs.
It won't be much to see, you will only be able to observe the top flat from the Convention center walkway itself at low tide.
This one is for the marine life not us.

[vansky]

the convention center's not bad at all. not sure if the combined canada place and the new convention center beats the opera house's beauty though, but it's not ugly for sure. sydney's thing is quite a landmark and it's harder to beat than it looks.

[jlousa]

More info on the reef.

A new $8.3-million concrete reef -- or marine life "habitat skirt" -- should be swarming with new sealife within months around the base of the Vancouver convention centre expansion project.Barnacles, mussels, seaweed, starfish, crabs and various fish species are expected to inhabit the five-tiered underwater structure being installed this week.
"You'll see all kinds of marine life living there by this summer," convention centre environmental consultant Rick Hoos said in an interview. "It will take a couple of years for things to stabilize as various species compete for space.
"The strong guys will win out and the weak ones won't."
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans demanded the convention centre install the new marine life facility to replace the habitat displaced by the expanded centre.
The skirt looks like a set of bleachers dropped into the water, with 76 concrete frames weighing more than 36,000 kilograms each. The frames will accommodate 362 1.2-metre-by-6.4-metre horizontal slats that will attract marine life and contain their own 15-cm-deep tidal pools.
The lowest level of the structure will remain covered at low tide but upper levels will be clearly visible to the public much of the time.
Surespan Structures Ltd. general manager Jason Kearns, whose company built the frames in Duncan over the past five months, said the artificial reef contains a certain kind of concrete texturing that encourages marine life to attach itself.
He said the 3 1/2-day installation of the concrete frames should be completed late today, with the slats to be installed in about a month.
"Any person looking across from the Pan Pacific Hotel will definitely notice it because it's a real eye catcher," Kearns said.
Surespan operates a 12-hectare facility in Duncan, employing 80 to 100 workers. Previous company projects include temporary Canada Line bridges and bridges for the Olympic Nordic Centre in Whistler.
Hoos said the marine life project is part of the convention centre's goal to achieve a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.
He expects the new marine environment near the convention centre will be considerably better than the one that existed before, as the site was a historic fill that contained a lot of contaminated material.
"We removed a lot of contaminated sediment and fill and rubble and things like old pavement and cables," Hoos said. "Marine life still tried to live on that stuff but it wasn't the best of environments for them."
He said all kinds of fish will love the concrete reef -- including sea perch, sticklebacks, flounder and baby salmon.
"Seals will absolutely come around to check it out, although we don't want too many predators there," Hoos said. "But that's nature. You can't keep predators from a site when there's food there."
He said the public walkway around the outside of the expanded convention centre will offer great views of the marine life habitat, with special viewing platforms in certain locations
Officials also plan to install underwater cameras that will provide marine life images that can be viewed at an information centre inside the convention centre. Cameras are also expected to provide images of the convention centre's 2.4-hectare "living roof" -- featuring Pacific Northwest vegetation.
"We hope when it's finished, schools will send busloads of kids down to tour all the environmental features," Hoos said.
A HOUSING PROJECT FOR MARINE LIFE
The 'habitat skirt' being constructed for the Vancouver convention centre expansion project is a bioengineered structure that uses a series of pre-cast, concrete benches designed for rapid colonization by a wide diversity of marine life throughout all levels of the intertidal zone.
76: Number of "stair-step" style concrete frames to be used in the skirt
36,000 kilograms: Weight of each concrete frame
Five months: Time it took to make those frames, at Surespan Structures Ltd. in Duncan
450,000 kilograms: amount of steel rebar used to reinforce those frames
2,000 cubic metres: amount of concrete used in the frames
46,000 square metres: Size of the surface area of the habitat skirt, roughly equal to six soccer pitches

[raggedy13]

From last night...