Canada Place Pier, Expo 86
Vancouver,
British Columbia
Zeidler
Partnership
Toronto, Ontario
| Terri Meyer Boake BES BArch MArch LEED AP Associate Professor :: Associate Director :: School of Architecture :: University of Waterloo |
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Canada Place Pier, Expo 86 Zeidler
Partnership
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| Project Information: |
| The pier that was constructed
during Expo 86, designed by the Zeidler Parntership, was one of the key
buildings to remain after the majority of the temporary structures were
demolished at the end of Expo. It continues to be a hub of activity, supporting
conferences, the Pan Pacific Hotel, and providing premier docking facilities
for cruise ships. It is expected that the facilities will be further upgraded
to support expansion for the 2010 Olympic Games.
The character of the architecture was in keeping with the transportation theme for Expo. Many of the buildings made use of tensile structures - and provide a good working vocabulary of the structural elements required for such. The Zeidler Partnership was also responsible for the design of the Ontario Pavilion for Expo 86. This building had a quite creative use of tensile structural elements and sails, but unfortunately, was one of the buildings that was taken down after the exhibition was finished. |
| Project Images: | |
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View
of the pier from adjacent Gastown. |
At
the left is the Pan Pacific Hotel and Conference facility. This pier is
the docking port for many cruise ships that run up the Pacific Coast to
Alaska. |
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View
along dockside. |
The
roof over the facility is a steel supported fabric structure. The masts
are custom concrete filled, hollow structural steel sections, tapered
towards the top, that take the compressive forces exerted by the cables
structure, to the main dock structure below. |
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Detailing
is all nautical in nature. All of the handrails, guards, lighting standards
and furnishings use HSS tubes and steel mesh. |
Some
of the diagonal bracing members cross over the pedestrian walkway to be
secured to the structure below. |
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Detail of
top connection at mast. |
Each of the
masts is connected to the next via horizontal cable ties for extra stability. |
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Base connection
showing tension connectors. |
Base connection.
The heavy fabric has all of its edges and seams reinforced with steel
cables and thin steel plates. |
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Base connection
detail of the cables that fly over the pedestrian walkway on the east
side of the pier. |
View out to
the mountains. The steel railing and lighting system undulates along the
edge of the pier to allow for overlooks back towards the ships and dock
edge. |
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The sun plays
with shadows cast on the steps from the steel handrail system. |
Holland America
Cruise ship at dock. |
These images are for educational use only and may not be reproduced commercially without written permission. tboake@sympatico.ca |
Updated September 25, 2005
