RICHMOND Speed Skating Named the 2010 Winter Games’s “sexiest” venue by Omega Lifetime magazine, this new building on the keeps racking up awards for its stunning design and eco-friendly building practices. The extraordinary 2.6-hectare Building the Games (6.5-acre) roof, made from pine-beetle-damaged wood, collects and funnels rainwater, while energy required to make the speed-skating ice is captured and used elsewhere in the building. During the Games, you might notice 13 million The athletes may be the stars of the 2010 Winter cranberries floating in the shapes of a maple leaf and the Olympic rings in the Games, but the backdrops for their amazing feats are river outside the Oval; this is a tribute to Richmond’s iconic berry. Post-Games, these equally impressive venues the Oval will house fitness and sports medicine centres, as well as ice rinks, hardwood courts and running tracks. by Sheri Radford // Photos By KK Law

CANADA HOCKEY PLACE Winter Games in Austria, Bob Hindmarch Ice Hockey and Rev. Father David Bauer established Though it has a new moniker during the ’s first national hockey team. The Games, GM Place is still the same arena newborn team almost scored bronze. Vancouverites know and love. Completed in 1995, downtown’s 19,300-seat venue OLYMPIC/ serves as home ice for the Vancouver PARALYMPIC CENTRE Canucks during hockey season and hosts Curling, Wheelchair Curling big-name concerts ranging from Britney This eco-friendly building, completed in Spears to The Police. Its NHL-sized ice, 2009, recycles energy and minimizes which is smaller than international-sized water use. Post-Games, it will become a ice, is being used during the 2010 Winter community centre housing a curling rink, Games, marking a first in Olympic history. ice arena, aquatic centre and library.

UBC THUNDERBIRD ARENA Ice Hockey, Ice Sledge Hockey Figure Skating, Short Track Speed This 6,800-seat arena on the University of Skating British Columbia (UBC) campus opened in The newly renovated home of the Vancou- 2008. You might call UBC the birthplace of ver Giants hockey team has been used for Canada’s Olympic hockey dreams: in 1963 everything from concerts and at UBC, in preparation for the 1964 Olympic Continued on page 56

The twin domes of BC Place (left) and Canada Hockey Place (right)

54 where.ca // February - March 2010 February - March 2010 // where.ca 55 OLYMPIC AND PARALYMPIC dren’s play area and performance spaces VILLAGE WHISTLER will still attract locals. In the gorgeous Cheakamus Valley, bor- dered by forests and the Cheakamus River, WHISTLER MEDIA CENTRE this mix of apartments, townhomes and Journalists lucky enough to be assigned to hostels comprises the home-away-from- Whistler are headquartered in the Whistler home for more than 4,000 athletes and Conference Centre, which underwent a officials during the Games. huge renovation in 2003. The building is now larger—and kinder to the environment. BC PLACE For the first time ever, the Winter Games’s MAIN MEDIA CENTRE The Olympic and Paralympic opening and closing ceremonies are being Media assigned to Vancouver are in for a Village Vancouver, on False Creek held indoors. The nightly victory ceremo- treat at the newly expanded Vancouver nies, featuring a stellar line-up of musical Convention Centre. Its east building, which acts, also take place inside downtown showed off the city to the world during Continued from page 54 THE Vancouver’s 55,000-seat domed sta- the Expo ‘86 World’s Fair, and its brand games to ice shows and circuses. Opened Bobsleigh, Luge, Skeleton dium, which opened in 1983. Better take a new west building now cover 111,500 sq in 1968, this 14,200-seat arena was home Completed in 2007, this slick new venue snapshot of the venue’s marshmallow-like m (1.2 million sq ft), or four city blocks. ice for the Vancouver Canucks until GM is part of an extremely elite club: there are roof, since it won’t be around much longer: Approximately 40% of the west building Place was completed in 1995. just 15 international-competition sliding a state-of-the-art retractable roof will juts out over the ocean. Its interior walls, tracks in the world. And if the secret to replace it next year. made from renewable Vancouver Island WHISTLER CREEKSIDE a building’s success is location, location, and Sunshine Coast hemlock, resemble Alpine Skiing location, then it has a bright future, indeed. WHISTLER MEDALS PLAZA artfully stacked lumber. And its 2.5-hect- After several unsuccessful attempts over It sits on an area of Blackcomb Moun- After the Games’s medal presentations are (6-acre) living roof—complete with four decades, Whistler (in partnership tain called Wild Spirit Place (Kwekwayex and nightly concerts are a mere memory, four beehives, a bee-keeper and 400,000 with Vancouver) finally won the bid to host Kwelh7aynexw) by the Squamish people this outdoor venue’s amphitheatre, chil- plants—helps the environment. the Winter Games. Now Whistler Moun- and Spirited Ground (A7x7ulmecw) by the tain’s original base, which opened in 1966, Lil’wat people. has undergone more than $30 million in The newly expanded Vancouver Convention Centre is the Main Media upgrades to prepare for the monumental CYPRESS MOUNTAIN Centre during the Games event. Men’s alpine skiing events take Freestyle Skiing, Snowboard place on the black-diamond Dave Mur- A 30-minute drive from downtown Van- ray Downhill, the world’s second-longest couver, this area is popular with locals for downhill course, while Franz’s Run hosts skiing, snowboarding, tubing and snow- the women’s Olympic and all Paralympic shoeing. In case of mild weather, a snow- alpine events. making system (complete with 35 snow guns) guarantees a winter wonderland. WHISTLER OLYMPIC/ PARALYMPIC PARK OLYMPIC AND PARALYMPIC Biathlon, Cross-Country Skiing, VILLAGE VANCOUVER Nordic Combined, Ski Jumping Forget about the cost overruns and financ- Opened in 2008, after years of work and ing snafus: this billion-dollar village is a $120 million spent, this sprawling park in wonder to behold. Located on the water- the picturesque Callaghan Valley hosts front in False Creek, with a view of down- a third of all the Olympic events and half town, the low- and mid-rise apartment of all the Paralympic events. The park’s buildings are housing 3,000 athletes and elevation ranges between 840 and 930 m officials in style during the Games. After, (2,756 and 3,051 ft). they will be sold as eco-friendly condos.

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