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Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre Expansion Project


mr.x

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Magnificent POOet, simply magnificent! And if vanoc mistakenly gave the contract to an engineering firm and not an architectural one, I wonder what other errors are looming ..................... did they give security to an art society or something?

The convention centre wasn't an Olympic project, it was to be built with or without the Olympics....so it wasn't managed by VANOC. It is a provincial government project, costing nearly $900-million and the funding split between the province, federal government, and Tourism Vancouver......but with the provincial government footing in about $600-million. The province has not cut any part of the design due to rising costs.

As for the engineering firm handling everything, that's also what happened to Montreal's convention centre:

PicForNewsletterJan2006MontrealConventionCenter.JPG

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The convention centre has been in the planning stages eversince the mid-90s, before any thought of bidding for the Olympics. Local architect Bing Thom had proposed a convention centre/hotel next to the BC Place site, but it was rejected by the NDP in favour of a waterfront location next to Canada Place. The Las Vegas Wynn casino chain proposed a massive hotel-casino-convention centre complex, with a free convention centre next to Canada Place, but that was rejected due to slot machine limits in the province and the taboo within city council on casinos. The NDP's waterfront convention centre project was then passed on to the new Liberal government. This was not an Olympic project, it would have been built with or without 2010.

The Sea-to-Sky highway was planned to have an expansion/upgrade eversince the 70s, and the Ministry of Transportation had set a 2012 timeline. With the Olympics, the project was fast tracked a few years.

Go back to worrying pointlessly about roofs collapsing, it's what you do best. :rolleyes:

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The wind turbine atop Grouse Mtn is going to kill birds and bats.

I'm not preoccupied with the BC Place Roof. It's a valid concern as they haven't even tested the effects of a huge flame inside that pressurized atmosphere or developed any contingency plans in the event of a gas leak or explosion inside the dome.

Gas lines do leak.

Fast tracked or not, the costs of the Highway and Convention Center are Olympic related costs and they should be part of the overall budget. Don't just take the side of the Liberals on this one.

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Vancouver is just the most stunning city in the world ( I'm saying this with clenched teeth and a forced smile) but really it is. The building's interior is elegant but the outside still sorta looks out of place and inappropriate.......like a injured airplane wing or something.

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  • 3 weeks later...
These are some of the earlier designs for the convention. I prefer the earlier designs.

http://bobbea.com/expo-86/now3.html

I like the first design, with the white wavey roof.....but ultimately, i do think we went with the best design. Note that the final design is far different than the rendering posted in that website.

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Wow, U're reallly late in admitting that! This design is too harsh for that environment. Hence, a crupled chocolate wrapper tossed in vancouver's front yard!

You didn't read my entire post....I do believe we went with the right design, and it's much more impressive in person than in picture. The design is quite unique, and it doesn't steal attention away from Canada Place. It's hardly a "crumpled chocolate wrapper".

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At just under half a million feet of exhibit space (old and new combined), Vancouver wouldn't even be in the top 10 or mabey even top 20 in North America alone never mind the rest of the world.

Not sure how we stack up against Seattle now; probably slightly ahead until they build something better.

Largest U.S. convention centers

Here is a list of the largest convention centers

in the U.S. by available exhibit space:

Size

Center Location (in square feet)

1. McCormick Place Chicago 2.2 million

2. Orange County Orlando 2.05 million

Convention Center

3. Las Vegas Las Vegas 1.94 million

Convention Center

4. Georgia World Atlanta 1.37 million

Congress Center

5. Kentucky Exposition Center Louisville 1.29 million

6. Sands Expo & Center Las Vegas 1.13 million

7. Ernest N. Morial New Orleans 1.1 million

Convention Center

8. Dallas Convention Center Dallas 1.02 million

9. Pennsylvania Farm Show Harrisburg 1 million

Complex & Expo Center

10. George R. Brown Houston 930,000

Convention Center

56. David L. Lawrence Pittsburgh 313,400

Convention Center

SOURCE: TRADESHOW WEEK TRIBUNE-REVIEW

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