Downtown Vancouver
During our brief stay in Vancouver, Canada before our Rocky Mountaineer trip, we took a guided walking tour, our favorite way to “meet” a new city.
We started at Vancouver Place, the waterfront complex with a roof of white canvas “sails,” and the place where cruise ships docked. Outside the Convention Center was a 65-foot tall blue sculpture called The Drop (Inges Idea, 2009), which reminded me of a piece we saw at Stampede Park, Spirit of Water (Gerry Judah, 2024).
Downtown Vancouver is known as the “City of Glass,” and it was easy to see why - we were surrounded by glass towers. Our tour guide talked about “Vancouverism.” Key principles of Vancouverism include mixed use structures with mountain views; walkability and ease of access to public transportation; sustainability; and accessibility to green spaces.
Most stops on the tour buildings that were NOT made of glass. Some were historic, like the Art Deco Marine Building (1930) and, our own lodging, the chateau-like Fairmont Hotel Vancouver (1939), which had a fascinating exhibit of memorabilia in the basement. I especially liked the Central Branch of the Vancouver Public Library, which resembled Rome’s Colosseum and had an expansive rooftop garden. In Gastown, crowds gathered to see the steam clock, which was actually an electric clock from the 1970’s with steam-powered whistles. The time on the clock face was off, but we heard a whistle “toot” right on time.
After the Rocky Mountaineer, Banff National Park, and the Calgary Stampede, we returned to Downtown Vancouver for a longer stay (eight nights). We stayed in the Davie Village neighborhood, where it was easy to walk to all parts of downtown.
There were plenty of interesting structures right near our apartment. There was a huge chandelier suspended incongruously under the Granville Bridge. The Leslie House, built in 1888, stood miraculously intact between modern condominium towers. Neofuturist glass towers had twisting, curved, and/or cut-out facades, some clearly designed to surround and preserve adjacent historic structures. We’ll have to do an architecture tour the next time we visit Vancouver.
