Though tiny, Downtown Vancouver is the business and shopping hub of a sprawling suburban corridor that contains half the population of British Columbia, so naturally the atmosphere is quite intense.The Art Gallery and the small but top-notch Canadian Craft and Design Museum are both key sights, but the real reward comes in the shape of the richly varied architecture. Combined with frequent glimpses of snow-capped mountains and the pervasive oriental influence, Downtown Vancouver makes for fascinating strolling, but is best digested from the top of the Lookout! Harbour Centre Tower. SightsCanada Place Canada Place juts out into the water of Burrard Inlet like a great ocean-going vessel, its five giant white ‘masts’ rising high above a powerful prow, begging obvious comparisons with Sydney’s more famous Opera House. Built as the Canadian Pavilion for Expo ’86, which celebrated the city’s centenary, it now functions as a hotel, conference centre and the main terminus for Vancouver’s raging cruise-ship business. Besides its scenic value, the only real interest for travellers is an Imax theatre inconveniently situated at the back. Across the road is the Visitor Information Centre. Marine Building 355 Burrard St. Designed to put Vancouver on the international shipping map, this strikingly magnificent construction was, and perhaps still is, the city’s most notable building. Completed in 1930, it was the tallest building in the British Empire for over a decade, and was described by Sir John Betjeman as “the best art deco office building in the world”. In keeping with the architect’s vision of “some great crag rising from the sea”, the relief frieze around its base and the brass surroundings of its double-revolving doors are dotted with an array of marine flora and fauna. The sumptuous façade is decorated with terracotta panels illustrating the discovery of the Pacific Ocean and the history of transport, including zeppelins, trains and some famous ships like the Golden Hind and the Resolution. Over the main entrance, Captain Vancouver’s ship the Discovery is seen on the horizon, with Canada geese flying across the stylized sunrays. The sumptuous lobby, designed to resemble a Mayan temple, is well worth a look too. Lookout! Harbour Centre Tower 555 W Hastings St, T 2999000, http://www.vancouverlookout.com Daily 0830-2130 summer, 0900-2100 winter. $9, $6 concessions for 1-day multiple entries, including guided tour. Distinctive with its flying saucer-shaped top level, the Harbour Centre Tower is no longer the tallest building in BC, but the Lookout! observation deck still gives the best close-up 360° views of the city, particularly striking at sunset on a clear day. Glass- walled elevators on the outside of the building whisk you up 167 m in 50 seconds, and though the ticket is expensive, it allows as many returns on the same day as you wish. Every hour, guides recount the history of the many sights you can see from here. A short stroll east at 848 W Hastings is the Pacific Mineral Museum, whose large collection includes meteorites, all kinds of fossils and a treasure chest of gems and semi-precious stones. The gift shop sells more of the same. Canadian Pacific Railway Station (CPR) 601 W Cordova St. Almost opposite at 601 West Cordova Street is the old Canadian Pacific Railway Station. Built in 1914, this neoclassical beaux- arts-style building with its arches and white-columned façade is now the eastern terminus of the SkyTrain, and behind it is the SeaBus terminal. Major restoration in 1978 thankfully retained many features of the original magnificent interior such as the high ceilings, delicate woodworking and tile floor. Vancouver Art Gallery 750 Hornby St, T 6624700, http://www.vanartgallery.bc.ca Jun-Sep Fri-Wed 1000-1730, Thu 1000-1900, Oct-May closed Mon. $12.50, $9 seniors, $8 students, free for children under 12; suggested donation of $5 on Thu evenings. Vancouver’s original courthouse, an imposing neoclassical marble building, was designed in 1910 by Francis Rattenbury, the architect responsible for Victoria’s Legislative Building and Empress Hotel. In 1983 it was renovated by Arthur Erickson and today its four spacious floors house the largest art gallery in Western Canada. Of the 7,000 works in its collection, only the Emily Carr Gallery is a permanent fixture, but this justifies a visit in itself. The world’s largest collection of works by this prominent Victoria artist are rotated and accompanied by a video on her life and art. Otherwise there are temporary exhibitions, usually contemporary. There are Curator’s Tours on Sundays at 1400; discussions in the Philosophers’ Café on Thursdays at 1900; occasional symposiums; and the Open Studio, where visitors and their kids are given material to create their own related pieces of art. There are also art courses and occasional concerts. The gallery shop is a great place for original crafts. The catacombs are said to house a ghost named Charlie, believed to be the spirit of William Charles Hopkinson, an immigration officer murdered there in 1914. To the west of the Art Gallery is one of the city’s most distinctive landmarks, the Hotel Vancouver. A typical example of the grand hotels erected across Canada by the Canadian Pacific Railway, this hulking Gothic castle sports a striking green copper roof, gargoyles and some fine relief sculpture. It’s worth wandering in to admire the opulent interior. Christ Church Cathedral Opposite the Hotel Vancouver, and all the more distinctive for its location amidst such towering edifices, is Vancouver’s oldest surviving church, Christ Church Cathedral, completed in 1895. The Gothic Revival style of this buttressed sandstone building is reminiscent of English parish churches, with a steep gabled roof, and some impressive pointed-arch stained-glass windows. Inside, the timber framework is also splendid. Canadian Craft and Design Museum 639 Hornby St, T 6878266. Mon-Sat 1000-1700, Sun 1200-1700, Thu 1000-2100. Closed Tue, Sep-May. $5, $3 concessions, by donation Thu after 1700. Nextdoor to the Cathedral, Cathedral Place is a marvellous staggered glass-and-granite edifice with fine details etched into its rock and a roof that clearly pays homage to the facing hotel. A neo-Gothic lobby packed with art deco details leads to a lovely grassed courtyard and the small, but extremely worthwhile, Canadian Craft and Design Museum. Innovative exhibits highlight the artesan expertise for which BC is so highly reputed, with works in a variety of media including clay, glass, wood, metal and fibre. Next door is the sleek HSBC Building whose towering atrium lobby contains the world’s largest pendulum and one of Vancouver’s best unofficial art galleries. It’s also a relaxing place to stop for a coffee. Robson Square and around While renovating the old courthouse, Erickson designed the new Provincial Law Courts two blocks south on Hornby and Smithe. A steel-framed mass of sloping glass roofs and walls, it represents a radical departure from the tendency of courts to be closed off and intimidating. This one is so accessible you can literally walk on it. The building is part of the larger complex of Robson Square, whose landscaped public space is a favourite summer gathering spot. Vancouver Public Library 350 W Georgia St, T 3313600, http://www.vpl.vancouver.bc.ca Mon-Thu 1000-2000, Fri-Sat 1000-1700, Sun 1300-1700. Four blocks west from the Art Gallery is the remarkable Vancouver Public Library. Despite architect Moshe Safdie’s denials, its circular walls and tiered arches do bear an uncanny resemblance to the Roman Colosseum. This post-modern masterpiece appears strangely ancient and futuristic at the same time. As well as the seven-level library, a square within a circle, the complex includes a 21-storey government building, and a pleasant shop-filled atrium spanned by a couple of elegant bridges. Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary 646 Richards St. Two blocks from the library, this is a handsome Gothic Revival structure from the late 1880s. Key features include asymmetrical towers, the pointed arches of windows and doorways, a vaulted ceiling and an octave of eight bells that are still rung by hand each Sunday. The oldest of the stained-glass windows is found in the Lady Chapel to the left of the altar. Yaletown Situated south of the Downtown in a small triangle of land hemmed in by Pacific Boulevard, Homer and Nelson, Yaletown was once the rowdy warehouse district, with more saloons per hectare than any- where else in the world. Recently, the massive old brick buildings have inspired a renaissance, with architects and entrepreneurs falling over themselves to develop the kind of spacious apartments and trendy bars and restaurants that the young and upwardly mobile love to frequent. Many of the establishments walk a thin line between panache and pretentiousness, and the whole zone needs time to mellow into a genuine sense of style. Still, it is a fascinating area which is at its best at night, when the many fine eating and watering holes come to life. BC Place Stadium Robson St/Beatty, T 6875520 Daily 1000-1700. $6, $4 concessions for museum. Stadium SkyTrain station; False Creek Ferry; Bus No 2, 15 or 17 on Burrard or No 5 on Granville. The world’s largest air-supported dome when it opened in 1983, BC Place is known to Vancouverites as the ‘Marshmallow in Bondage’. As well as a 60,000-seat venue for the city’s major sports teams, it contains the BC Sports Hall of Fame and Museum, with hands-on displays highlighting the lives and achievements of the province’s top athletes. Outside is the Terry Fox Memorial, a tribute to the local hero who died in 1981 attempting to run the width of Canada to raise money for cancer research. It’s a strange and unpopular brick, tile and steel structure intended to recall a Roman triumphal arch. Science World 1455 Quebec St, T 4437440, http://www.science world.bc.ca 1000-1700 Mon-Fri, 1000-1800 weekends. $12.75, $8.50 concessions; $17.75, $13.50 concessions with Omnimax; $13.50, $10.50 concessions for Omnimax double bill. SkyTrain; False Creek Ferry; Bus No 3 or 8 on Granville or Hastings, No 19 on Pender, all 3 on Main. Another of Vancouver’s notable structures is the giant geodesic dome that makes a suitably futuristic venue for Science World. Best appreciated from the SkyTrain, this silver golf ball is lit up at night with thousands of lights. Outside is a massive moving sculpture that rattles and rings. Don’t be put off by the lightweight ground floor; almost all of the interesting stuff is in the Main Gallery on Level 2. A wealth of interactive, mind-bending and thoroughly educational exhibits will keep anyone, not just kids, entertained for at least a couple of hours. The Kidspace Gallery has lots of hands- on stuff for younger children, while the Sara Stern Search Gallery does a good job of making environmental lessons fun. The Alcan Omnimax theatre upstairs has the edge over even the giant Imaxes by showing films on a huge dome screen with wrap-around visuals and sound. Shows last 40 minutes.
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Vancouver - £5.99
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