The Great Canadian Convention Centre Thread!

[J_Murphy]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Ottawa's is beautiful. That render of Halifax's looks nice as well.

I'm not a fan of our expansion. It's more than just the personal disappointment that, yet again, we are underestimating ourselves and building something that is too small for our existing needs, let alone our growing needs (something of a habit we have; the airport, just recently upgraded, is being significantly expanded now as well). This should have been a much larger expansion with a hotel tower on top.

But my real concern is the design. To me, the design isn't great. It looks like an outlet mall. Can't you just see DANIER LEATHER and STAPLES on those orange and blue entrance features?



Hopefully the cladding is something interesting... but I think this is just going to be another average building in the Downtown West End.

It's still a step up from what was there before, though... a handful of dilapidated rowhouses, a couple of nice businesses, and a gravel surface parking lot.

Same view as the above render:

Yup....makes me want something more like Halifax's CC.

I think the renovation/expansion will look nice, but like you said I think we will outgrow this in a few years.

[Mrs Sauga]

Ottawa definitely takes this one, followed by Vancouver. Can we get pics of Calgary, Quebec, and others?

Toronto's is ugly. Can't wait for Oxford to fix it up.

[Daveography]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

Where else will you find a subterranean convention centre.

Edmonton's Shaw Conference Centre - Halls A, B, and C are underground.

[J.OT13]

Québec City


http://www.can-acn.org/meeting2011/venue.htm

Calgary


http://www.csc2012.ca/1_about/location.html

Edmonton


http://www.edmonton.com/shaw-conference-centre/

And for the Regina one, at 489,000 square feet, it's more of a suburban exhibition hall than a convention centre. It also seems like a pretty choppy layout and I assume the square footage includes the theatre space. It is not competing with the high class downtown Centres of the biggest cities.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regina_Exhibition_Park

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

120 meters is still quite long for a platform, using 90 second frequencies (given that it is grade seperated this is possible) you are looking at a similar capacity to Toronto's subway today. Just be happy ottawa didn't go the way of the Canada line and build 40 meter platforms.

I find solace in comparing with Vancouver's platform lengths, but keep in mind that their trains have higher capacities so the Confederation Lines max capacity at 120 meters matches the capacity of the Expo/Millennium line at 70-80 meters.

Quick note: I dig the proposed Convention Centre in Halifax!

[Symz]

Originally Posted by north 42

Windsor basically gave it's old convention centre to St. Claire College for its downtown campus, when Caesars built it's new hotel tower and 100,000 sf state of the art convention centre. It has worked out well for everyone!

I hate the deal we got in Windsor because you don't even really get the feeling that there is a convention centre in downtown Windsor. The way it's incorporated into the casino, at the ground level of the Colleseum theatre you almost wouldn't even know that it's there. There's no grand facade like many of these other convention centres have.

I just don't think it's presented well at all.

[MolsonExport]

London's is utterly unremarkable, and therefore not worthy of a photo.

[Symz]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Here's a web page showing 19 of the main Canadian Convention Centres. Gives you a picture, general description, square footage, adjacent hotel rooms, theatre space, travel time to airport and parking spots...

Definitely worth a look!

http://www.conventioncentrescanada.c...es/ottawa.html

Here's a good example of the point I was making about Windsor's convention space. It's not even listed on this site and yet it's substantially bigger than what is available in Chatham-Kent. Windsor has 100,000 sq ft of convention space at it's convention centre, that I might you would probably have a hard time finding if you didn't already know it was located inside Caesars Casino.

[Chadillaccc]

Calgary's is just awful, the worst of all cities over 700 000. The city has been working for years to figure out how to expand it, or where an expansion could possibly go, without having to demolish the existing one. I'm afraid, however, that demolition might be our only option. Hopefully they botch the implosion and it takes the nuclear bunker... I mean the Glenbow Museum... with it. As long as the artifacts and art pieces are saved, it wouldn't be a major loss.

[coolcanadian]

Toronto's Direct Energy Centre at Exhibition Place - Canada's largest exhibition and convention centre

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

Calgary's is just awful, the worst of all cities over 700 000. The city has been working for years to figure out how to expand it, or where an expansion could possibly go, without having to demolish the existing one. I'm afraid, however, that demolition might be our only option. Hopefully they botch the implosion and it takes the nuclear bunker... I mean the Glenbow Museum... with it. As long as the artifacts and art pieces are saved, it wouldn't be a major loss.

I'll see your Calgary convention centre and raise you Hamilton's (opened in 1981)


Source page


Source page



Source page for both pics

[Denscity]

Vancouver's Canada Place convention centre won "worlds best convention centre" twice. And then they built a bigger and better one right beside it. Connected by a below grade glass bridge. With a cruise ship berth in between the two.

[coolcanadian]

Apparently Oxford Place at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre is still in the works. It will be a fantastic area - shopping, a park, entertainment, offices, hotel - all over the rail the railway right beside the CN Tower and Rogers Centre!











Whatever happens here, it'll be a beast!

[Prometheus]

Source: http://lmnarchitects.com/exploration...esitgreen-vccw


Source: http://www.bestcities.net/photogallery-vancouver.aspx

• Video Link

[kevinbottawa]

The Niagara Falls Convention Centre isn't bad.





I like ours in Ottawa, but I think Winnipeg's might be a bit nicer. We'll see when it's done.

[Cyro]

I do love Ottawa's Centre. There are some very good looking convention spaces completed across Canada and others on the way, very positive.

Just a small addition to Chads OP on the RBC Centre expansion in Winnipeg.
-------
Just another render to illustrate the bridge between the older structure and new one with York Ave beneath it. Vehicles will use York as a major entrance point to the building(s), (left: existing , right:addition), both the old and new expansion so traffic will flow beneath it.

"City Room, which will bridge York Avenue and will feature floor to ceiling windows to let in sunlight during the day and the glow of the city in the evenings. The 46,000 sq. ft. space will accommodate 2,800 people for sit-down dinners or 217 tradeshow booths. At street level underneath, York Avenue will serve as an outdoor, weather-protected gathering place.



Other Features:


The $180 million dollar upgrade will include:

Total space on completion 264,000 sq. ft.
24,000 sq. ft. main floor ballroom;
22,400 sq. ft. main floor public lobby, concourse and registration area;
and an additional 57,500 sq. ft. third floor exhibit space that will connect to the existing building creating a new contiguous 135,500 sq. ft. of exhibition space that can accommodate over 650 exhibit booths.


Source

[Hali87]

This is a similar design to the new Halifax convention centre... Grafton Street runs through the site and the main convention spaces will be above and below it. Initially all of the convention space was to be underground.

[ZeDgE]

In Calgary the BMO Centre is also used for conventions as its larger than the Telus one afaik. Pretty sure most events are at the BMO anyway due to its size.

[ScreamingViking]

Hamilton also has the Careport Centre - a large privately run exhibition hall at the McMaster Innovation Park that used to be an industrial warehouse.



Long term, Mac plans to use this for research space. Part of the building is now the McMaster Automotive Resource Centre (MARC).

There does seem to be demand for a space like this in Hamilton, so perhaps we'll see something new built at some point in the future (or adapted from one of the many large industrial buildings that are vacant, or will be). The downtown convention centre is landlocked, unless they were to do something creative like build on the parking lot across MacNab St. and create a large connecting exhibit space over the street, like in Winnipeg.

[J.OT13]

Ottawa also has the 220,000 sqft Ernst and Young Centre near the airport. It was built as the "replacement" for Lansdowne's exhibition space.



http://eycentre.ca/ottawas-ce-centre...t-young-centre