For weeks, I’ve been ranting to anyone who would listen to me (fortunately, there aren’t that many) that the BC Place roof was an architectural blight on Vancouver, with giant struts in heavy gray industrial steel going up that looked like some kind of homage to Dominion Bridge.
Every time I went over the Cambie Bridge, I’d be aghast all over again at the heavy look of the couple of dozen prongs sticking up — a weird contrast to the glassy towers all around them — and wonder why the people in those condos weren’t protesting in the streets.
I have to say that I talked to a few planners and architects who were equally appalled, couldn’t get over the way the earlier illustrations looked so different from the reality. The renderings made the roof supports look delicate and slim; the reality was like industrial scrap.
Well, as it turns out, the current reality is sort of industrial scrap. What’s here now on this website is mostly scaffolding that will be removed, leaving behind something less oppressive. I’m attaching the BC Place website here as an illustration because I can’t seem to upload anything better that I have.
25 responses so far ↓
1 D // Jan 12, 2011 at 5:42 pm
I still think that they should fully close it and turn it into a giant West Ed style waterslide and wave pool extravaganza… it’s not too late.
2 CS // Jan 12, 2011 at 7:50 pm
You’re right, it’s not going to be as ugly as many fear. I loved the early designs I saw, but I’ll admit, as more of the large masts started to go up, my feelings went from awe and wonder to thoughts that they might be too large and out of scale. I held out hope for the best, however, and now that all but one of the masts are up, and some of the scaffolding has begun to come down, I’m loving it again. The end result of the masts without all the scaffolding, the thinner, permanent roof support cables and LED lighting is going to be stunning. The spider-web-like roof will contrast and coexist wonderfully with the heavy, brutalist concrete structure below.
Let’s face it, there are very few “attractive” stadiums out there to begin with. I think we’re going to have one of the best looking in the world when all is said and done.
3 Mike // Jan 12, 2011 at 8:20 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs-Hk5mbpqU
Check out this video on youtube for some of the lighting effects they plan on implementing. I think it will look quite striking when completed and will certainly make the Vancouver skyline more memorable from an architectural point of view. Can’t wait to see it finished!
4 Bobbie Bees // Jan 12, 2011 at 8:33 pm
Yeah, but Frances, you do realize that the roof can’t be operated while it’s windy or raining?
Also, everyone realizes that unlike before, it’s gonna be on the chilly side watching games in wintertime now, right? You didn’t serioulsy think they were going to heat the stadium while the hole was open?
Jeez, they couldn’t afford the steam to heat the original roof properly which lead to the collapse, now you think they’re going to splurge on steam from Central Heat to heat the atmosphere?
5 mezzanine // Jan 12, 2011 at 9:06 pm
I like the look of the new stadium. It even looks like the 1980s brown glass around the concourse in being replaced. IMO the steel uprights blend in more with the surrounding environs than the white, marshmellow-y dome previously.
IIRC, the stadium is influenced by commerzbank stadium in frankfurt. There is a lot of similarities to Poland’s new national stadium in Warsaw as well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Stadium,_Warsaw
6 Mike // Jan 12, 2011 at 10:24 pm
As someone who has followed the BC Place renovations closely I can safely say that the roof is just one of many major upgrades the stadium will be receiving, albeit the most pronounced.
What few people realize, and what those who oppose the renovations never seem to mention, is that the money the provincial government is putting into BC Place is NOT just for a new roof. In fact the only thing being carried over from the current stadium is the concrete shell and foundation.
When completed the new stadium will have: new seats, new luxury boxes, new sound systems, a massive new central jumbotron, and many more internal upgrades on top of the new roof. With the trend in many other cities leaning towards building new stadiums out in the suburbs where land is more accessible what we will be left with is a brand new, world class stadium in the heart of downtown and to me that is a very exciting proposition.
I have been in a few cities around the globe with open roof stadiums and when the roar of the crowd bursts out into the streets it is truly an amazing experience and something I cannot wait to see in Vancouver.
7 Tessa // Jan 12, 2011 at 10:48 pm
I thought the old roof was an eyesore. Then again, I thought the concrete stadium itself was, too. But yes, I’m glad to hear the existing beams will not be as currently seen. Some colour would be nice, too.
8 Tessa // Jan 12, 2011 at 10:49 pm
Oh, and as for the temperature in the stadium, they somehow fill up Mosaic Stadium at Taylor Field in Regina every fall. We have these things called jackets that I hear work wonders on the cold. =)
9 Roger Kemble // Jan 12, 2011 at 11:37 pm
@ Frances “BC Place roof was an architectural blight on Vancouver, ”
“. . . was . . .” still is . . . more so!
Those two inappropriate, inarticulate chunks should never have been dumped there in the first place.
Entertainment district . . . pah!
Sign off on the noise . . .pah!
Too late to cry now . . .
But every time we expediently rationalise such bad siting and bad design our sense of the built environment takes another giant leap down . . .
10 Shane // Jan 13, 2011 at 12:42 am
But, it certainly won’t be called, “BC Place”. It will likely be called, Edgewater Casinodome.
Seriously though, shouldn’t we start speculating about who will have the naming rights?
11 gmgw // Jan 13, 2011 at 12:50 am
Frances, how is the illustration on the BC Place website different from what’s there now? From what do you take your newfound enthusiasm for the design? To me the thing still looks like a giant dead mutant spider lying on its back, and as a lifelong arachnophobe, I’m already tired of having to avert my eyes every time that appalling monstrosity heaves its massive bulk into my field of vision. And let’s not even begin to count the innumerable sociocultural benefits that could have been wrought with that $500 million… thinking about that manages to thoroughly spoil the view, all by itself.
gmgw
12 Norman // Jan 13, 2011 at 8:39 am
That’s a pretty nice photoshopped picture. It really tries to make a silk purse out of an ugly mess. I will never understand the approval process for these projects – don’t the powers that be ask for an accurate depiction of what things will look like? Don’t they get accurate engineering reports about the capabilities of the project when it is completed, or is it all done by Party faithful who just do the needful?
13 Dan Cooper // Jan 13, 2011 at 10:30 am
Well I LIKE the way it looks! It may not work the way it should when the weather isn’t perfect, but the spiky thing is good.
(I guess someone had to like it. *heh*)
14 Gassy Jack's Ghost // Jan 13, 2011 at 12:06 pm
Mezzanine, the main difference between our roof and Frankfurt’s (completed in 2006 and including the whole stadium being rebuilt one section at a time) is not so much design, as price.
Ours will cost 400 million more than theirs, despite a more limited scope of work!! Now how, exactly, did THAT happen?!
15 Edward // Jan 13, 2011 at 12:16 pm
“It may not work the way it should when the weather isn’t perfect.”
Uh, like, you mean for ten and a half months of the year?
16 Tessa // Jan 13, 2011 at 1:24 pm
On re-reading the post, what’s your source to say that what exists now is mostly scaffolding? How is it going to be different? What will change? It seems unclear on second reading.
17 tf // Jan 13, 2011 at 2:27 pm
I have the same reaction Frances. Everytime I see it, I reimagine the enclosed white roof and yearn for the past when it was self-contained.
It’s hard to find an analogy for how I feel – it’s like a school where each department has it’s own space but sports always takes over everything – now if there’s a game or monster truck rally everyone has to pay attention – there’s no way we can keep it contained…
It’s a Crown Rib Roast for all the meat-eaters and a crown for King Campbell:)
18 mezzanine // Jan 13, 2011 at 2:53 pm
@GJG, good point, but i’m not sure if a direct comparison is fair. From the get go, Frankfurt’s stadium is an outdoor stadium with a roof (it was able to be built in sections), while BC place was built as an indoor-stadium with a new roof that has to have similar tolerances as the prior complete roof.
Warsaw’s completely new stadium costs 300 million euro. I am unsure if that included demolition costs. Both frankfurt and Warsaw sites (from photos) look like they are in the middle of parks, away from dense living areas, unlike BC place. If we did demo BC place, I am unsure if further soil remediation is mandated.
I found this interesting – a piece on discovery channel about testing the new roof. nothing is failproof, like say, the previous roof, but they put a lot of thought and design to it.
http://watch.discoverychannel.ca/#clip371234
19 mezzanine // Jan 13, 2011 at 3:03 pm
@ tf, I see BC place more useful in its other purposes, concerts, ameteur sport /school events, staging for large events like winterfest for the kids, the sun run and trade shows. IIRC, BC place makes more revenue from trade shows than from pro sports leases.
i am unsure if the teflon fabric dome was a more reliable sound insulator for concerts and other loud events.
20 mezzanine // Jan 13, 2011 at 3:08 pm
sorry, @ 14, the BC place clip starts at the 10 minute mark.
21 Ned // Jan 13, 2011 at 8:33 pm
Talk about a roof over a stadium where buffed multimillionaire ball players are going to show their latest doped up muscle. Great. For that 500 million dollars were taken away from programs and amenities benefiting ALL Vancouver residents not only the select ones enjoying the round or the oval shaped ball sports.
All the above after this city/ province spent Billions staging a two weeks party. Ask any of my overseas friends… ‘ Vancouver Winter Olympic Games?’ What Games!? Can’t remember. The only ones bragging about that are the politicians and the MSM.
Period.
Let’s talk about the LOST Stanley Park Animal Farm (apparently $ 200,000 could not be found) Welcome to the suggested Bike Rentals Shop or the Ecology Center.
Now that’s just sick. Talk about that!
22 mezzanine // Jan 13, 2011 at 9:31 pm
@ Ned, That $500 million also goes to seismic upgrading that will allow BC Place to offically be designated a regional disaster shelter.
http://www.teratec.ca/category.aspx?contid=15039&catid=11516
And Ned, this is BC Place Stadium we are talking about. AFAIK, you might find multimillionaires at BC Place, you might find doped-up ball payers at BC Place, but you’d be hard pressed to find multimillionaire doped-up ball payers playing pro sport at BC Place…
23 don diockson // Jan 17, 2011 at 1:16 am
The structures to support the roof are the most strikingly beautiful structure in downtown Vancouver. I would be really surprised if any decent architect didn’t admire them. The library on the other hand is an eyesore.
24 UglyStadium // Jan 25, 2011 at 8:31 pm
The new stadium looks like a dead spider resting on its back. Nobody needs a disco ball in the middle of their city, and all the light shows will not make it more beautiful. I work on Beatty street, next to the Stadium, now in the shade of it. It was built without any respect for the surrounding architecture, and contrary to the drawings showing it from above, the posts look black and massive in contast to the sky, and seem to extend much further outward, making the stadium look much larger. Sounds more like another project of this government made without any consultation and with the same bullying force as with the olympics. And as far ar I can read, the same cheerleaders are following… The largest cable supported structure in the worls? The ugliest for sure. We did build the fastest bobsleigh in the world and what did it give us?
25 Mavro // Jan 27, 2011 at 6:53 am
I just saw a 2 second flash of a model of the new bc place retractile roof. I am a scientist artist and self made moolaist, my word. One peek and the answer is yuk, two and a half thumbs down. This think is ugly because it is busy. It is ugly because you can’t flight around it. It is ugly because it makes me thing of the brids nest in china and there is one of other, the world doesn’t need a straightened out birds nest. I don’t care what it costs. get rid of it. Where are the brains of our time. Personally the marshmallow in bondage is going to be missed. Don’t put your head too close to it, or you’ll poke out an eye. Canada’s porcupine with an erection. Did we vote on this design first or did I drop another chromosome that day. Next there will be flags on every pole. My kid could have drawn a more esthetically pleasing roof and actually see the relationship with the building around it. For example I know this posting is not beautiful because its not short and simple. This excited porcupine is static on my karmic image sense. That means I, who have been here longer than the land fill under bc place, have to look at the imagined look of others, inferior artist for sure. Focused on function lost in the blizzard of child level engineers just getting paid not actually making the world a better place. This town is over run with no one to blame but the group of idiots that approved this hot mess collectively loss my respect.
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