Vancouver is the largest city in British Columbia. It is a sea port in British Columbia’s southwest corner sitting at the foot of the Coast Mountain range. Much of Vancouver is built on a peninsula surrounded by water.
Vancouver is a city with a view. It has a natural harbor, a backdrop of rugged mountain peaks, a forest-like park, sandy beaches, you can ride a gondola car up Grouse Mountain in North Vancouver, and you can fish for salmon. You can drive almost to the peak of Mount Seymour for beautiful views and skiing sites. Vancouver is Canada’s third largest city.
Robson Square is located in the heart of downtown Vancouver; it was designed by Arthur Erickson and houses a Law Courts building, office space for six hundred government employees, and the City’s outdoor ice-skating rink. The three-block development has a rooftop reflecting pool, three waterfalls, a foot bridge, a man-made mountain, and many trees and shrubs.
We drove up Mount Seymour to the bottom of the ski slopes (the end of the roadway) where the elevation is 1,016 miles.
Canada Place resembles an enormous ocean liner with its roof of billowing sails. Canada Place represents many stories, such as, Indian legends, shipwrecks, cruise ships, Vancouver’s history and beautiful scenery, freight and cargo, exports and imports, Vancouver and Canada’s development in world trade. Canada Place is the terminal where cruise ships dock. It was built for Expo 1986 and is a dramatic structure with its distinctive sails. Underneath is the Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre.
Granville Island incorporates everything from the theaters to a popular public market. Located at the south side of False Creek under the Granville Street Bridge, Vancouver’s Granville Island Public Market sells fresh vegetables, fresh fish, meats and other groceries and plants. The Island is home to several restaurants as well as a marina. Access from downtown is via the Granville Street Bridge.
Queen Elizabeth Park was once a quarry. From its location on Little Mountain, there is a fine view of the city, mountains and sea. Rolling lawns and gardens are interspersed with winding paths to enable enjoyment of colorful flower beds. The dome of the Bloedel Floral Conservatory is a beacon to lure park visitors to view an assortment of tropical and semi-tropical plants.
Stanley Park at the western end of the city is a thousand-acre wilderness crisscrossed by walking trails and bounded by an eleven-kilometer seawall. Indian carvings on the totem poles tell their enchanting tales with each figure, animal and head depicting some phase of life or belief of the early coast Indians.
837-857 Hamilton Street – Hamilton Street Victorian Homes – These four homes date from when Vancouver was less than a decade old and new homes such as these filled the neighborhood all the way to Granville and Hastings Streets. Each was built in the Queen Anne style, three in 1893, with the newer 1895 Alex Gibson house displaying fine mill work in its gables.509 Richards Street – The eight-story Lumbermen’s Building, originally known as the North West Trust Company Building, is a reinforced-concrete commercial structure with terracotta ornament, built in 1911-12 and located on Richards Street south of West Pender Street in downtown Vancouver. It is a good example of the Edwardian Commercial Style, which was the decorated version of the Commercial Style, in which the elevation is treated in three parts – a base and a cap, both of which are finished in ornamental terracotta; and a five-story, relatively plain brick-faced ‘shaft’ between them. The decorated facade contrasts with the plain, brick treatment of the other three elevations. The character-defining elements of the building include: the simple, point-tower massing built flush to the sidewalk and lane; the classical terracotta ornament on the ground floor, including the Doric columns and pilasters supporting a frieze and cornice; the column bases, the arched surrounds on the outer bays; the recessed panels between the mezzanine windows, and the narrow frieze above the mezzanine floor; the terracotta ornament of the top floor, including the segmental-headed windows, decorative frieze, strong cornice, and dentils and brackets below the window sills; the uninterrupted brick piers and recessed spandrels of the intermediate floors; the terracotta capping to the parapet on the south elevation; the terracotta window sills on all the elevations; the plain brick walls on the side and rear elevations.1120 Mole Hill – Mole Hill is a heritage housing community in the heart of the West End. It sits in the block framed by Thurlow, Pendrell, Bute, and Comox Streets, two blocks north of Davie Street and one block west of Burrard. This 170 unit unique and complex project involved the restoration of 26 City of Vancouver-owned heritage houses on an entire city block in the heart of Vancouver’s densely populated West End. The homes include some of the oldest structures remaining from early Vancouver history. This significant heritage resource had been under threat of demolition for many years. The heritage interiors and exteriors of the houses were preserved; each of the houses was raised, adding proper foundations and an additional story; the houses were adapted to include energy efficient heating systems, storm water management and re-use of heritage features. Mole Hill now houses low-income singles and families, as well as market tenants, in studio, one, two- and three-bedroom units. Along with the century-old houses, the project also preserved many of the site’s mature trees. The public space of the Mole Hill block was reconfigured to include community gardens, pathways, benches and a water feature. The introduction of traffic-calming features in the lane way protects the safety of residents and introduced a pleasant walkway for the entire community. Awards for Mole Hill include the 2004 Heritage Canada Award, the 2004 City of Vancouver Heritage Award of Honour, the Canadian Construction Association’s 2004 Environmental Achievement Award and a 2006 CMHC Housing Award for Best Practices in Affordable Housing.750 Hornby Street – Vancouver Art Gallery – It was the former Vancouver Court House.5668 Chaffey Avenue – our lodging during our stays – with brother and sister-in-lawPink dogwoodCanada Place is located at the south foot of Burrard Street opposite the Waterfront Centre Hotel and adjacent to the Pan Pacific Hotel. The Waterfront Sky Train Station is close by.Burrard Street BridgeQueen Elizabeth Park is located at the city’s highest point providing a panoramic view of Greater Vancouver and North Shore Mountains. It is the city’s first Civic Arboretum.Fountain at Queen Elizabeth ParkStanley Park Totem Poles‘Girl in Wetsuit’ represents Vancouver’s dependence on the seaReplica of the figurehead of the S.S. Empress of Japan which plied these waters for thirty-one years 1891-1922 carrying Vancouver’s commerce to the Orient.The H.R. MacMillan Planetarium is designed in the shape of the cedar hats worn by the Coast Salish people.The St. Roch, a short, two-mast schooner, was a Royal Canadian Mounted Police ship with eleven crew. It was the first vessel to travel from the Pacific to the Atlantic through the fabled Northwest Passage, and the two perilous voyages made by the little wooden ship maintained Canadian sovereignty over the Arctic islands. It was built as an Arctic supply and patrol ship the R.C.M.P. bases up to Coppermine. It was in service for twenty-six years. There is only a four-month time period when the ice was open (not frozen).The Museum of Anthropology, located on the cliffs of Point Grey, with a display of Northwest Coast First Nations art is housed in the award-winning glass and concrete structure designed by architect Arthur Erickson which was inspired by the traditional post and beam architecture of North West Coast First Nations People. Pottery, dolls, carvings, wooden musical instruments, lead glazed earthenware tiled stove and Chinese ceramic dishes were on display.The Spirit of Haida Gwaii: The Jade Canoe – 1994 – Artist: Bill Reid – Dimensions and materials: Bronze cast with a jade green patina – at Vancouver International Airport –
Often described as the Heart of the Airport, this acclaimed sculpture was inspired by nineteenth-century miniature canoes carved in argillite, a soft sedimentary rock that is found near Skidegate on Haida Gwaii. As with many historic examples of miniature canoes, this vessel is crowded with creatures and beings, their identities drawn from legends and oral histories of the Haida, and their forms energetically and sometimes fiercely interacting with each other in the manner of rivalrous siblings.
