Vancouver Convention Centre Expansion Project | Completed

[clooless]

I'll say it again, the convention centre looks so much better in real life than it does from the models and concept sketches.

[subdude]

Cool, have to go down and take a look today...

[Coldrsx]

Originally Posted by clooless

I'll say it again, the convention centre looks so much better in real life than it does from the models and concept sketches.

agreed, but it is still so "vancouver" in that it is underwhelming and understated.

[excel]

You have to stand beside it to really appreciate its shear size.

[mr.x]

If only they could open the roof up to the public in the future, perhaps just the perimeter like this:

[vanman]

Pictures I took on the weekend with some bonus shots of HMCS Vancouver.

[mr.x]

wow, nice pics!

i've gotta wonder why HMCS Vancouver is here....perhaps for Olympic training?

lol, and is that guy holding a rifle?

[vanman]

Originally Posted by mr.x2

wow, nice pics!

i've gotta wonder why HMCS Vancouver is here....perhaps for Olympic training?

lol, and is that guy holding a rifle?

I was wondering the same thing. It looked as though they were doing public tours but I'm not sure.

[jlousa]

Been slow in this thread so I figured I'd post an update. The structure for the habour green restaurant on the western end of the site has been completed. It's quite huge and needs to be seen to be appreciated. They have also begun tieing into the seaplane terminal parkade. The existing parkade will become a part of the convention centre.

Here's an interesting article on the business aspect of VCCEC.

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/n...d5fb96&k=17017

Senior staff change at Vancouver's convention centre part of larger shift in direction
By Bruce Constantineau, Vancouver Sun
Published: Monday, April 07, 2008

VANCOUVER - The Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre will get a new president and a new marketing focus under major structural changes initiated by B.C. Pavilion Corp. (PavCo) chief executive Warren Buckley.
Former VCEC president Barbara Maple left her position last month as part of "organizational changes" needed to boost business, Buckley said in an interview.
"We're reorganizing the structure of the entire organization - right from the sales people to the markets we go into," he said. "It's a different plan - to be more aggressive and more tactical in some of the overseas European markets."
Buckley refused to discuss any "personal reasons" for Maple's departure.
The $800-million-plus Vancouver convention centre expansion project, which will triple the facility's meeting and convention space, is set to open by March 2009. Buckley noted about 70 per cent of international business at the centre now comes from the U.S. market.
"We want to change that and move into the European market more aggressively and look for more conventions and thematic trade show kinds of activities," he said. "I don't mean we're not there but we're just not there the way I want to be. So it's just a change in the way we're going to focus."
Buckley said the organization will definitely get more marketing dollars to go after European business more aggressively but he's not yet certain of the exact amount.
He said he's satisfied with the future business the expanded centre has already attracted, noting 2011 is shaping up to be a "superb" year while 2012 is "okay."
"The level of tentative bookings is also quite good and it's our job now to convert those tentatives into real bookings and generate more business going into 2013 and beyond," Buckley said.
He said Melbourne and Sydney average about 20 major international conventions a year and Vancouver is "approaching" that level now.
The convention centre says it has attracted 36 events for the year ending March 31, 2011 - including 15 "expansion" events that could not have been accommodated without the expansion. It said 17 events have been confirmed for the following year, including 12 "expansion" events.
Dave Gazley, vice-president of meeting and convention sales for Tourism Vancouver, said Maple has been a "wonderful ambassador" for Vancouver.
"She put in a lot of dedicated years with the convention centre and with PavCo and her representation on some major international groups gave Vancouver a great profile," he said.
Buckley returned to Vancouver to head PavCo this year after six years in Singapore as CEO of the Suntec Singapore International Convention & Exhibition Centre. He was CEO of PavCo - the Crown corporation responsible for VCEC and BC Place Stadium - before heading to Singapore in 2001.

[raggedy13]

A few pics from today. Unfortunately my battery died right after the second pic so I couldn't get any more than that.

[SFUVancouver]

Great shots Raggedy13, in all the threads.

I took the liberty of posting your photos in the Green Buildings thread via quotes and credit. `Hope you don't mind.

[excel]

The wood finish looks great.

[clooless]

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

agreed, but it is still so "vancouver" in that it is underwhelming and understated.

Originally Posted by excel

You have to stand beside it to really appreciate its shear size.

As excel points out, you have to see it to appreciate the size of it and the windows alone are incredible. I visited the convention centre site back in November and it looks far more imposing in person.

That said, it does have a bit of a generic look to it, but there are details that stand out when you look at in person. While I wished the project fit better with the design of Canada Place, it is what it is and it is going to be an asset to the city.

[mr.x]

Creating a there, there in Vancouver
With expanded convention centre, cry goes out for other sites to host and entertain large groups of visitors

PETER MITHAM

Special to The Globe and Mail

March 18, 2008

Having help stage the wedding reception for Bill and Melinda Gates in 1994, David Clark knows something about what it takes to host a major event.

But overseeing that top-secret party for 130 high-powered guests on the Hawaiian island of Lanai might seem like child's play compared with trying to host a large gathering of convention-goers in Vancouver these days.

Next year, the city will unveil the expanded Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre, a $883.2-million project that is adding 335,000 square feet of space to the 133,000 square feet at the existing centre.

But a key problem will remain: Despite having plenty of room for trade shows and conventions in an eye-popping building overlooking Vancouver's harbour, convention organizers still struggle to figure out where to take people after hours.

A shortage of offsite venues, the places where visitors can attend receptions and special events away from the big convention hall - and which frequently showcase what a destination city has to offer - has cost Vancouver some convention business in the past. Now, there's an effort to address that problem.

"We're short of venues," says Mr. Clark, president of B.C. Event Management Inc. in North Vancouver. "It just feels even more immediate as we're closer to the opening of the convention centre expansion [next] March."

A Tourism Vancouver report released last year says that, apart from major hotels, venues capable of accommodating groups in excess of 250 people are in short supply.

"One of the limitations that we have as a city is that we don't have places to host dinners for 1,000 people, outside of hotel ballrooms and the convention centres themselves," said Richard Yore, director of sales, meetings and conventions for Tourism Vancouver. "A lot of the time, people want to go to a different type of venue, like a museum or something along that line. In Europe, you can go to castles."

Mr. Clark, who has staged several events for Mr. Gates, the Microsoft Corp. chairman, and was a consultant for Vancouver's bid for the 2010 Winter Olympics, says an offsite event with a capacity for thousands of people is typically restricted to BC Place. But the aging, cavernous football stadium isn't always the most appropriate venue.

He would like to see a space that can accommodate up to 2,000 or 3,000 people for a dinner. One venue he has his eye on is the speed skating oval being built in nearby Richmond for the 2010 Games.

Indeed, long before world-class athletes put blade to ice, city officials see the speed skating oval providing much-need- ed space for meetings and events, with upward of 180,000 square feet available on a single level.

"[It] will produce a number of opportunities that, currently, we can't bring to the area," says Gerry De Cicco, Richmond's manager of oval sport business. "There's not a footprint of that size and magnitude to host large events."

Scheduled to be completed next year, the $178-million facility is being built expressly for the Olympics, but its mandate includes legacy uses, such as hosting trade shows and special events to generate revenue for the city and offset the facility's operating costs. The first available period for bookings coincides with the opening of the expanded Vancouver convention centre next spring.

Mr. Clark considers the oval an ideal venue, easily accommodating up to 2,500 people. "It's going to be a multipurpose sports facility, but because it is clear-span, flexible space, it can be all things to all people," he said. "That's exactly what we need."

Richmond already enjoys spinoff benefits from Vancouver's trade show and convention business, says Tracy Lakeman, executive director of Tourism Richmond. But she concedes the shortage of venue space is a region-wide problem.

The Gulf of Georgia Cannery, a former salmon cannery that's now a national historic site, and the John MS Lecky UBC Boathouse are two such venues in Richmond, but neither can accommodate more than 600 people, with sit-down dinners limited to 150 people.

"We've got a large number of hotel rooms, and to attract meetings and events you need meeting space or venue space," Ms. Lakeman says, adding that it is hoped the oval "in itself, will be a destination."

The University of British Columbia in Vancouver is getting in on the act. Its $1-billion expansion of campus facilities, such as at the Thunderbird Winter Sports Centre and the landmark Arthur Erickson-

designed Museum of Anthropology, will create additional gathering places.

The Thunderbird centre will host ice hockey and sledge hockey during the 2010 Games; following the Olympics, it will provide a 5,200-seat venue for mid-size events, including trade shows and concerts that are too small for other venues, such as GM Place.

In 2009, an expansion of the Museum of Anthropology will add 40,000 square feet of space, including a covered outdoor terrace with a capacity for hosting receptions and other events of up to 125 people. A natural history museum will open on campus next year, too. Built within a 125,000-square-foot research complex, the natural history museum will include a 2,200-square-foot atrium adjacent to a 30,000-square-foot exhibit space.

With the convention centre expanding downtown and the Olympics focusing world attention on Vancouver, UBC Properties Trust vice-president Rob Brown says the university welcomes opportunities to host visitors to the city.

"These would probably be great locations because of their cultural heritage and relevance to research," he said. The opportunities aren't just limited to UBC, Mr. Brown adds. While the university offers some specialized venues for meetings and events, the expansion of the convention centre will create opportunities for a wide variety of operators.

These include Grouse Mountain, the Capilano Suspension Bridge and the Vancouver Aquarium, all of which are pursuing expansion projects to handle the increase in demand for event space that's anticipated when the expanded convention centre opens.

"The convention centre expansion is going to bring in a lot more people and groups to town," Mr. Brown says. "It's not only UBC, there's tons of venues across Vancouver that would incidentally benefit."





well, just for starters we're building a $400-million art gallery in downtown though it would be nice if we could get like a natural history museum as well in the future. we have a long way to go.

interesting how the article mentioned Richmond oval could double as a convention centre.

[jlousa]

I mentioned this over at SSC on the same topic, one of the largest after event site has been the Vancouver aquarium, I've been there countless time after conventions, they are busy ~200nights/year with various events and can currently handle ~1200 people. With the expansion that should jump to just over 2000 people.

[Hed Kandi]

..

[Delirium]

does anyone have info on what's going on with the float plane terminal? i think it had to go through a seperate development board review but i haven't seen any plans or info on it.

here's how the convention centre looks from cypress..

from www.flickr.com

[jlousa]

On the aquariumthe expansion has been approved by the UDP still waitng on the DPB and they are short on the funding for the expansion, but I'm confident the funds will turn up shortly.

The seaplane terminal will be relocated to it's future home at the VCCEP after completion, they extended there existing location for 2 more years with the city late last year.

[Delirium]

^ thanks

[mr.x]

wow, quite impressive....a lot of steel, it looks sort of like a cage...our very own birds nest.

thx for the shots!