The suffering people who live nearby the new convention centre construction site have a little more than one month more of pile driving to endure, as the City has extended the developer's permit until May 31st.
Then again, pile driving (1000 in total) was originally supposed to be done by the end of 2005, so who knows when it will really end. 'Challenging site conditions and the availability of pile driving equipment' are apparently to blame. Nonetheless, the project director assures everyone that the convention centre will still be completed by Fall 2008.
In the meantime, this update (link to pdf) from last November also tells us that the convention centre's exterior design plans have been finalized, while work continues on the interior design.
It's hard to tell from the renderings (page 3) if they managed to reduce the thickness of the green roof - a major shortcoming of the original design.
Other press releases tell us that a Surrey firm will be responsible for growing the green roof's greenery, while special 'extra clear' glass is being designed for the exterior windows. Glass installation is set to begin by this November, which means the building should rise quite quickly, once the pile driving is done.
For more than 70 photos of the construction site, visit the photo gallery here.
Original Post:
Construction of the long-anticipated expansion to the Vancouver Convention Centre has been underway since November 2004. Estimated price tag for the bigger digs: $565 million.
Set for completion in 2008, the expansion will more than triple the original convention centre's function space, from the current 134,000 square feet to 529,000. According to the business plan, the expansion should pay for itself in approximately 10.7 years.
Click here to see floor plans and more photos of the project's model.
Click here if you want to see what's going on at the construction site this very minute (select "view the live webcam"). Check out the zoom feature on the right to get a closer look at any part of the site. The Time Lapse feature at the top of the screen is VERY cool (select the Viaduct structure as a start). The picture at left is from the photo album.
