Architectural Topography
The West Building uses a "folded" roof structure, designed by LMN Architects to echo the jagged profile of the North Shore Mountains. It sits directly on the Coal Harbour waterfront, integrating 1.2 million square feet of program space, with floor-to-ceiling glass curtain walls facing the water. The West Building opened in April 2009 at a construction cost of about CAN $883 million, and together with the adjoining East Building, which began as the Canada Pavilion for Expo 86 in 1986 and still wears its sail-like fabric roof, the complex offers roughly 466,500 square feet of meeting, exhibition, and ballroom space.
Olympic Legacy
Commissioned as the International Broadcast Centre for the 2010 Winter Olympics, the facility supported the broadcast of the games to 3.5 billion viewers. The legacy of this event remains physically present in the Olympic Cauldron at Jack Poole Plaza and the building's massive fiber-optic backbone, which allows it to host tech-heavy events like SIGGRAPH and TED.
Ecological Engineering
The VCCW was the first convention centre to earn double LEED Platinum certification. It carries a 6-acre Living Roof, the largest non-industrial green roof in North America, planted with roughly 400,000 indigenous plants and grasses and home to on-site beehives, plus a seawater heating and cooling system that reduces energy use by up to 60%.
The Marine Habitat Skirt
Beneath the waterline, the building features a bio-engineered concrete "skirt" that acts as an artificial reef. This structure was specifically designed to mitigate the impact of the building's shadow, providing a migration corridor for juvenile salmon and a habitat for barnacles, mussels, and starfish.