The new Vancouver Convention Centre engages the urban ecosystem in the capital of Canada. In fact, this was the stated goal of the expansion project to “bring urban ecology into the downtown core” as well as serving for the XXI Olympic & Paralympic Winter Games in 2010.

Designed by LMN Architects and Musson Cattel Mackey in partnership with Downs / Archambault, the building was completed in April 2009. The convention center program emphasizes spaces for both public and private events. It was also designed in an architectural approach to create a public experience that is simultaneously a building, an urban place, a park, and an ecosystem. Indeed, the building’s landforms fold in specific ways to embrace the downtown street grid and preserve view corridors out to the water.

The Canada Green Building Council gave the Vancouver Convention Centre the LEED Platinum certification. The project has received many over sustainable prices and was the first convention center in the world to receive this highest level of LEED certification. In fact, originally, they went for LEED Gold, but won Platinum.

Moreover, with this new infrastructure, the City of Vancouver passed an initiative to become the “greenest city in the world” by 2020, releasing a 10-part action plan addressing carbon, waste, and ecosystems.