This week, the west expansion of the Vancouver Convention Centre celebrates its grand opening, and we thought you should know a little about this incredible facility. Designed by Seattle's LMN Architects, as well as MCM and DA, the green convention center's most visual feature is the massive, six-acre green roof. It's Canada's largest and the biggest non-industrial living roof in North America! Set directly on the waterfront of Burrard Inlet, the west expansion is 1.2 million square feet and seriously enlarges the city's ability to provide greener conference space. Here are some of its green features:
- Targeting LEED Canada Gold;
- Green roof features more than 400,000 indigenous plants;
- Expansion included shoreline and marine habitat restoration;
- Water conservation and reuse system features black water treatment and desalinization;
- Heat pump system takes advantage of constant seawater temperature;
- Energy efficient fixtures installed throughout;
- The structure uses natural ventilation and controlled daylighting; and
- Cooling provided by radiant floors.
The black water and desalinization system alone is expected to cut potable water use by 60-70% over typical convention centers. Plus, the expansion created 130,000 square feet of new waterfront promenade and 120,000 square feet of public plazas for the public. It's an amazing facility by all accounts, and I'm sure we'll see more of it in the future.
Photo credits: LMN Architects and VCC Expansion Project.
Gorgeous. This is something that Vancouver really can be proud of!
Wow, it may be the largest facility of its type, but the truth is I didn’t know of any places that had green roofs aside from certain high-rise apartment buildings. Way to go with the nice design and seemingly flawless execution, Vancouver!
Absolutely gorgeous building! I am totally diggin’ the green roof. I wonder what types of plants are up there!! What a great thing for Canada. Thanks for sharing, great post!!
Love this project – I wish there more like it in the southeast.
Great post. There’s some more information on this YouTube channel we’ve made. There’s videos on Sustainability, Design and Architecture.
http://www.youtube.com/user/vancouverconvention
Canada is so awesome.
Great looking building. I live in Chicago – this makes McCormick place look even more depressing that it already is.
I just came back from a nice run around the convention center; spectacular and awe inspiring marvel. I bet Hollywood is drooling to film new movies at this location! Maybe sequel to i Robot? Since they filmed the first one not too far away from there!
🙂
Very informative post. Isn’t that roof amazing?! If you don’t mind I put the picture of the green roof on my blog – http://michellelouie.com
[…] 7. Vancouver Convention Center green roof Location: Vancouver, British Columbia Canada, Established: 2009 Size: Six acres Accessible to the public: yes […]