The pristine mountains and the Pacific Ocean serve as the perfect backdrop for a venue as unique and modern as the Vancouver Convention Centre. This stunning building brought to life by PCL combined with the unique vision of the client, was built mainly to support the 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics along with the 10,000 media representatives that would gather here from around the world. 

Spanning approximately 1.2 million square feet, four city blocks, this convention space was one of the largest in North America at the time of construction and the first Double LEED® Platinum Convention Centre in the world! Our forward-thinking adoption of technology would provide an opportunity to work closely with the designers using 3D modelling for complex details like having to construct 40% of the building over water in the Burrard Inlet, and reconstructing the shoreline to accommodate marine habitat. The Exhibition Hall measuring in at a whopping 240,000 square feet (5 football fields) is so big that the parking lot was built over top to maximize on space.

In keeping with the environmental requirements, the re-use of ocean water through the central plant would provide heating and cooling throughout the building, and if that wasn’t enough, the structurally glazed curtainwall is made up of over 2,500 glazing units covering 150,000 square feet which is enough to cover nine hockey rinks. With too many awards to list, this project was such a great success for the owner that it translated into another landmark project for PCL in the heart of downtown Vancouver.

Did you know that the Vancouver Convention Centre has one of the largest “living roofs” in the world at almost 6-acres? This roof has 400,000 different plants and grasses and provides a haven to over 120,000 European Honeybees. Now that’s a lot of honey!