Harbour Centre

This article is about the building in Vancouver. For other uses, seeHarbor Centre (disambiguation).

Harbour Centre
Harbour Centre
General information
Type	Mixed-use:Observation, office, commercial, restaurant
Architectural style	Brutalist/Modernist
Opening	1977
Height
Architectural	147 m (482 ft) (CTBUH)
Technical details
Floor count	28
Design and construction
Architect(s)	WZMH Architects
Website
harbourcentre

Harbour Centreis a skyscraper in thecentral business districtofDowntown Vancouver,British Columbia,Canadawhich opened in 1977. The "Lookout" tower atop the office building makes it one of thetallest structures in Vancouverand a prominentlandmarkon the city's skyline. With its 360-degree viewing deck, it also serves as a tourist attraction with the Top of VancouverRevolving Restaurant,offering a physically unobstructed view of the city.

Harbour Centre is located at 555 West Hastings Street inDowntown Vancouver.It is steps away fromWaterfront Station,a major multi-modal transit hub which serves as the Downtown Vancouver terminal for variousTransLinkoperations includingSeaBus,West Coast Express,SkyTrain,Canada Lineand buses.Simon Fraser Universityoperates its downtown Harbour Centre campus in the adjoining Spencer building and houses the Center for Dialogue and Canadas World.

VancouverCoast GuardRadio operated until 2015 from Harbour Centre, providing distress watch and vessel traffic services to the North Arm Fraser River, Burrard Inlet, Indian Arm, English Bay and Howe Sound.

History

The downtownSimpsons-Searsdepartment store was located here before it closed in 1987.

During thedot-com boomof the 1990s, it served as the headquarters for several tech firms, includingStormixTechnologies, NetNation and others.

Official Height Discrepancies

Designed byWZMH Architects,the building is listed as being 28 stories tall, though the tower/observation deck extends above the 28 office floors (claimed to be approximately 40 stories in total). There is some disagreement as to the building's height. According to the Vancouver Lookout's website the observation deck is 168 m (551 ft) above the 'street level'. The CTBUH however lists the buildings architectural height as actually being 147 m (482 ft).Furthermore, Skyscraperpage lists the buildings height to the roof as being only 139.6 m (458 ft).This is stated to be the height from the Hastings Street entrance while the height from the back entrance on Cordova Street is 146 m (479 ft). It also lists the buildings pinnacle height to the tip of the antenna as being 177.1 m (581 ft).

The building was British Columbia's tallest measured by pinnacle height until the construction ofLiving Shangri-Lain 2009.

Tourist attraction

The Vancouver Lookout tourist attraction, located atop the Harbour Centre business building, was officially opened on August 13, 1977 byNeil Armstrong,whose footprint was imprinted onto cement and was on display on the viewing/observation deck until disappearing during renovations. Glass elevators whisk visitors 168 meters (553 feet) skyward from street level to the Observation Deck in 40 seconds.

In television and film

InBeyond Belief: Fact or Fiction?,a group of young teenage girls ride the famous glass elevator to the top to dine at the fictional "Above the Clouds" restaurant and the elevator breaks down. (S04E13 - "Above the Clouds" ). Harbour Centre can also be seen in theArrowepisode "Dark Waters". The Harbour Centre is visible in the background along with the rest of the downtown Vancouver skyline at the beginning ofThe X-Filesepisode "2Shy". This building was also filmed in some episodes from the originalMacGyverTV series in and around Vancouver. This building also had some shots from the TV seriesDanger Bay.There were also some shots from the Schwarzenegger filmThe 6th Dayand the filmBlade: Trinity.InThe NeverEnding Story,the building is seen in the closing scene, whenBastianis flying withFalkor,to get some revenge over the kids.

Gallery

• 
  Detail of the Vancouver Lookout.
• 
  Vancouver Lookout Lobby
• 
  Vancouver Lookout

See also

• List of tallest buildings in Vancouver
• Lighthouse of Alexandria,a possible influence on design.

External links

• Harbour Centre (business building site)Archived1999-10-01 at theWayback Machine
• Top of Vancouver Revolving Restaurant