LMN Architects • Just by the numbers, the Vancouver Convention Centre West—designed by Seattle-based LMN Architects—is impressive: 1.2 million square feet located on an 11-acre former brownfield site on the city’s waterfront, topped by a six-acre living roof that hosts 400,000 indigenous plants. The jury was wowed by how well the LEED Platinum building was integrated into its context and how it made links between the public space along the harbor and the downtown urban fabric. “I thought it was a miracle to take a convention center, which is really a big blob, and to make it work in a city scale,” juror Bill Valentine said.
The Convention Centre site is more water than land, and the design team was conscious of the local subaquatic ecosystem. At high tide, two-thirds of the building’s footprint—which rests on a precast marine deck supported by steel piles—hovers over the water of Vancouver Harbour. A sea-water pump system uses water from the harbor (which is at a constant temperature) for heating the building in winter and cooling it in summer. LMN collaborated with marine biologists to restore 200 feet of shoreline and develop an artificial reef, a five-tiered concrete-frame structure that will be soon be host to a convention of barnacles, mussels, and starfish.
Project Credits
Vancouver Convention Center, Vancouver
Project Owner BC Pavilion Corp.
Owner’s Project Manager VCCEP (Stantec)
Design Architect LMN Architects, Seattle—Rob Widmeyer (partner-in-charge); Mark Reddington (design partner); Tom Burgess (project manager); Brian Tennyson (project architect)
Architects of Record Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership—Jacques Beaudreault (principal-in-charge); DA Architects + Planners—Ron Beaton (principal-in-charge)
Contractor PCL Constructors
Civil Engineering Ausenco Sandwell
Electrical Engineering Schenke/Bawol Engineering
Landscape Architect PWL Partnership Landscape Architects
Marine/Foundation Consultant WorleyParsons Westmar
Mechanical Engineering Stantec
Structural Engineering Glotman Simpson Consulting Engineers; Earth Tech (Canada)
Acoustic Consultants Arup Acoustics; Daniel Lyzun & Associates
A/V Sparling
Barrier Free Barrier Free Design
Building Code Consultant LMDG Building Code Consultants
Building Envelope Consultant Morrison Hershfield
Commissioning Authority and Mechanical Commissioning Agent KD Engineering
Communications Consultant Pace Group
Cost Consultant BTY Group
Design/Development Manager K. Grassi Project Development
Electrical Engineering Schenke/Bawol Engineering
Environmental Consultant EBA Engineering Consultants
Ethics Adviser Carol Roberts
Facility Operations Consultant Buckley-Christison International
Fire Protection Engineers GHL Consultants
Geotechnical Engineering Golder Associates
Horticultural & Ecological Consultant Rana Creek Habitat Restoration
Food Service Consultant William Caruso & Associates
Materials Engineering Levelton Consultants
Parking and Traffic Engineering Bunt & Associates Engineering; ND Lea Consulting
Project Management Stantec
Public Art Consultant Public Art Management
Quality Management Consultant Levelton Consultants
Retail Consultant Urbanics Consultants
Revenue Maximization Bell-Irving Grauer Enterprise Corp.
Security Advisor 3Si Risk Strategies
Signage & Wayfinding Consultant Gottschalk + Ash International
Specialty Lighting Consultant Horton Lees Brogden Lighting Design
Structural Engineering Glotman Simpson Consulting Engineers; Earth Tech (Canada)
Surveyors Butler Sundvick & Associates
Sustainability Coordinator BuildGreen Solutions
Telecommunications Consultant RADA Technology Consulting
Value Engineering Facilitator Olympic Associates
Vertical Transportation Consultant John W. Gunn Consultants
Wind Consultant DFA Engineering Services
Size 1.2 million square feet
Cost Withheld
Photography Nic Lehoux
