Living Roof Gets its Annual Trim

Vancouver, BC (October 15, 2010) – Anyone with a good view of the six-acre living roof atop the Vancouver Convention Centre West building this week will witness a rare sight.

Landscapers are power trimming the wild grasses that have grown all year atop the roof – the only formal maintenance the roof receives. The West Coast grasses and plants that have been growing on the roof since they were planted in late 2008 are left to grow primarily as a natural downtown meadow, receiving no fertilizers or pesticides.

In addition, the honey bees which live in four beehives on the roof and gather pollen from the roof’s wildflowers, have produced 140 pounds of honey recently harvested from the hives. 50 lbs of the honey went to the convention centre’s kitchen for use in food and beverage items served at events, with the rest put in jars for promotional use by the convention centre.

The West building, which opened in April 2009, was designed and constructed with a significant focus on environmental sustainability. In fact, earlier this year, the West building was awarded LEED® Platinum certification for new construction by the Canada Green Building Council. The Vancouver Convention Centre is the first convention centre in the world to earn this highest LEED® rating.

The West building’s sustainable building design features include:

• The six-acre (2.4 hectare) living roof, the largest non-industrial living roof in North America

• A leading-edge seawater heating and cooling system

• An innovative wastewater recycling system (supplemented in summer months by a seawater desalination system)

• Use of natural lighting and ventilation to reduce energy consumption

• A unique marine habitat built into the foundation

• An advanced integrated building controls system that adjusts according to building activity and external conditions to efficiently manage telecommunications and technology, access control, lighting, blinds, and climate control

The West building of the Vancouver Convention Centre covers 1.2 million square feet, the approximate equivalent of four city blocks, with over 40% of the facility built over water.

The West building adds approximately 335,000 square feet of attractive and flexible function space, including a 220,000 square foot exhibition hall, Canada’s largest waterfront ballroom at 53,000 square feet, and 52 meeting rooms ranging from 500 to 7,500 square feet.

About the Vancouver Convention Centre
The Vancouver Convention Centre opened in July 1987 after originally serving as the Canada Pavilion at the World’s Fair in 1986. Since inception, the facility has demonstrated a constant commitment to service excellence, technical capabilities, and creative high-quality banqueting. With our expansion complete, we’ve tripled our size to cover 1.1 million square feet (or four city blocks) for a combined total of 466,500 square feet of pre-function, meeting, exhibition, and ballroom space.

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