#deloitte summit

Downtown Vancouver (No. 5)

The Downtown area is generally considered to be bounded by Burrard Inlet to the north, West End to the west, Granville Island/Fairview and Mount Pleasant across the False Creek to the south, and Downtown Eastside and Strathcona to the east and southeast. Most unofficial sources also include West End and Stanley Park into Downtown (the so-called "Downtown Peninsula"), but the City of Vancouver officially defines them as separate neighbourhoods.

Besides the readily identifiable office towers of the financial and central business districts, Downtown Vancouver also includes residential neighbourhoods in the form of high-rise apartments and condominiums in Yaletown and Coal Harbour, and other Downtown neighbourhoods include the Granville Mall and Entertainment District, Downtown South, Gastown, Chinatown and Japantown.

Side By Side

Closing In

Leaning In

Vancouver Public Library's Central Branch

Consolidating Vancouver Public Library's Central Branch, Federal Office Tower, and retail and service facilities, the Library Square occupies a city block in Downtown Vancouver. Centred on the block, the library is a nine-story rectangular box containing book stacks and services, surrounded by a free-standing, elliptical, colonnaded wall featuring reading and study areas that are accessed by bridges spanning skylit light wells. The building is located in the eastern portion of the Vancouver Central Business District. The address of the library is 350 West Georgia Street, and the Federal office tower is addressed at 300 West Georgia Street. Levels 8 and 9 were previously leased to the Provincial government. Their address was 360 West Georgia Street.

VPL Central branch internal glass facade overlooks an enclosed concourse formed by a second elliptical wall that defines the east side of the site. This glass-roofed concourse serves as an entry foyer to the library and the more lively pedestrian activities at ground level. Public spaces surrounding the library form a continuous piazza with parking located below grade. The building's exterior resembles the current appearance of the Colosseum in Rome.

Statistics

Library building (including retail and parking)

9 stories

37,000 square metres (398,000 square feet)

1.3 million books, periodicals, and other reference materials are moved through the building by vertical and horizontal conveyors

51 km of cables are laid throughout the building, including a fibre optic backbone

seating capacity: 1,200+

700+ parking stalls and a few bicycle racks

Top two floors were leased by the Government of British Columbia until 2015 and are now part of the library. They include meeting space, study space, roof garden and exhibition space.

Approximate cost: CAD $107 million

Downtown Vancouver (No. 6)

As of 2021, Vancouver is the most densely populated city in Canada. Urban planning in Vancouver is characterized by high-rise residential and mixed-use development in urban centres, as an alternative to sprawl. As part of the larger Metro Vancouver region, it is influenced by the policy direction of livability as illustrated in Metro Vancouver's Regional Growth Strategy.

Vancouver ranks high on the Global Liveability Ranking and stood at number 1 on the list for a number of years until 2011. In recent years, it has dropped, ranking as low as 16 in 2021. As of 2022, Vancouver was ranked as having the fifth-highest quality of living of any city on Earth. According to Forbes, Vancouver had the fourth-most expensive real estate market in the world in 2019. Vancouver has also been ranked among Canada's most expensive cities to live in. Sales in February 2016 were 56.3 percent higher than the 10-year average for the month.

Forbes also ranked Vancouver as the tenth-cleanest city in the world in 2007.

Vancouver's characteristic approach to urban planning originated in the late 1950s, when city planners began to encourage the building of high-rise residential towers in Vancouver's West End, subject to strict requirements for setbacks and open space to protect sight lines and preserve green space. The success of these dense but livable neighbourhoods led to the redevelopment of urban industrial sites, such as North False Creek and Coal Harbour, beginning in the mid-1980s. The result is a compact urban core that has gained international recognition for its "high amenity and 'livable' development". In 2006, the city launched a planning initiative entitled EcoDensity, with the stated goal of exploring ways in which "density, design, and land use can contribute to environmental sustainability, affordability, and livability".