Showing posts with label sheraton wall centre. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sheraton wall centre. Show all posts

Friday, November 18, 2022

Skywatch Friday Vancouver

 Hello friends and fellow bloggers,

Happy Friday to you all. I hope you are all doing well.

Thursday was a beautiful, sunny day here in Vancouver. I had an appointment downtown and walked back to the main transit station to return home. Along the way I took these photos to share with you.

Vancouver Art Gallery (with red banners) and the Vancouver Hotel just to the left in the photo.

Robson Square in the heart of downtown, UBC downtown campus

View looking south from Robson Square, Vancouver courthouse just beyond the trees in middle

Part of the Sheraton Wall Centre Hotel


Adjacent buildings reflected in one of the Wall Centre towers

The Vancouver Courthouse

Nelson Street going east

I'm linking up with Skywatch Friday this week. 

Thank you for stopping by!


Tuesday, February 2, 2010

City Architecture

This post is part of a new series on posts about my city, the City of Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada. This particular post is intended to show you some of the city's varied architecture. It is not a post on describing the architecture as I am no architect or student of architecture. I simply like looking at different structures and buildings and I'm using the building as a jump off point to tell you a little more about my city. I hope you enjoy the little tour. In future and as weather improves, I hope to show you a lot more of our city's natural wonders so do drop by often.

Last week, I posted about the neighbourhood of Gastown. At the west side of Gastown is the Harbour Centre which houses the Vancouver Lookout. As the name suggests, here you can look out over the city and take in the 360 degree view. I haven't been to the Lookout for many years but when I first moved to the city it was one of the first places I went and the view was simply spectacular though the sky line has now changed considerably. The tower below the Lookout is home to 28 floors of business offices and to the satellite location of the Simon Fraser University whose main campus in located in Burnaby, BC. The Vancouver Lookout was opened in 1977 by the Neil Armstrong, the first astronaut to walk on the moon.

To get to the Lookout, you will enter a glass encased elevator which will whisk you to the top in record time. So don't blink! Your entry fee is good for the entire day so you can leave to go and shop in Gastown next door, have a meal and return. You can also sit in the Lookout lounge and enjoy a refreshment.

The Harbour Centre and Vancouver Lookout is located just steps to the west of Gastown. See photo below and read all about it in my post here.

The Harbour Centre Lookout is also located right in front of the main station for the sky train which is the hub for the City's Light Rapid Transit. The Waterfront station is the connection point for the West Coast express (commuter train to points east), the Sea Bus (city transport over the water to the North Shore), and the 3 different sky train lines which take you to many different points in the city and to the outlying municipalities. You can read more about the schedules for each of these transportation options here.


Burrard Station is the last sky train stop before you get to the Waterfront and make connections to points elsewhere. Alternatively it is the first stop after you leave Waterfront sky train travelling to points east. Burrard Station is also a bus connection hub. Many of the buildings you see behind the station are at least 50 years old and seem to be in what I refer to as the "blah" style.

The building below is St. Paul's Hospital and is located in downtown Vancouver. It was established in 1892 by the Sisters of Providence though the sisters no longer run the hospital. This is where my cousin's daughter has been staying all week recovering from major heart surgery.


Burrard Inn, formerly Bosman's Inn, is a smallish hotel with 71 rooms and suites and has recently undergone renovations. It is the only hotel I am aware of which is in the downtown core and has reasonable rates. The rooms are $65. (Canadian) for double room from September-May and goes up to $99. Canadian from May-September. This is a favourite place for my relatives to stay when they have to come to the city for medical reasons since it is across from the St. Paul's hospital. These rooms and many others in the city are completely sold out for the Winter Olympics which will begin very soon.

Vancouver Hotel (below) is now part of the Fairmont group hotels. If my memory serves me correctly, it used to be part of the Canadian National group Hotels but hasn't been for some time. In recent years this hotel it has completed an extensive 65 million dollar renovation. The results are stunning. You can see some of the beauty in these photos here. Don't you just love the roof of this building? In olden days, you could go to a club at the top of the hotel and listen to jazz.

The next three photos show the relatively new Sheraton Wall Centre. One of the buildings is called One Wall Center and is the second highest building in the city. Designed by Busby, Perkins and Will, it won an award in 2001, its year of completion for the Best Skyscraper. apparently, it has something called a tuned water damping system at the top of the building to counter act the swaying of the building.
The first two photos above were taken last week and the photo below was taken last summer. The sky scraper is quite aesthetically pleasing in a long view, don't you think?


The building below is St. Andrew's Wesley United Church. This is one of the United Churches that recognizes and embraces the gay and lesbian community. They also have a number of broad based programs to invite the community in to their sanctuary. One of them is Jazz Vespers every Sunday afternoon. I simply love the carved stone in the building and the archways of the windows and doorways.


That is the tour for today. There is so much more to share but we will need to do it in stages. Some days I may have themes as in today where I showed you numerous structures. Other days, it may be about one specific site or a natural scene of beauty. I hope you will join me again soon.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Oldies but Goodies, Newbies & the Not So Uglies

I thought it might be interesting to capture the variety of buildings we have here in our part of the world for visitors from elsewhere to enjoy. Whenever I have travelled to other lands, I've observed that Vancouver has a greater variety of building styles throughout the city and there is very little of same style development in any given neighborhood. Part of this is due to the fact that Canadian cities are generally not that old and so the buildings we have do not have the same history as in many parts of Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

Nonetheless, I really enjoy the variety of building styles here. Combined with the natural beauty of the ocean, mountains and rain forest, the variety of buildings, is one thing I take joy in as I walk about in the different neighbourhoods. Recently, I took a lot of snaps of buildings right in the heart of the city. I would like to share a few of them with you.

Oldies but Goodies

(Above) Saint Paul's (Catholic) Hospital
(Below) St. Andrew's Wesley United Church

Newbies

(Above & Below ) Sheraton Wall Centre Hotel

Not so Uglies


(Above) Vancouver Provincial Courthouse
(Below) Former BC Hydro Headquarters, now private condos


Buildings are important to God and are referenced many times in His Word, both in the spiritual sense and in the literal sense.

Corinthians 3:9 says "For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building." The Apostle Paul refers to Jesus as the "chief cornerstone in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord" (Ephesians 2:21) and Peter quotes Isaiah saying "Behold I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame." (2 Peter 2:6)

Right now, Jesus is preparing a literal place for us. In John 14: 2-3 He says:

In My Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also."

I don't know about you but I would rather have my mansion and be spiritually connected to Jesus for all of eternity, than to have all the silver or gold on earth for a season.

It Was a Spectacular Day! ~ Skywatch

Hello friends and fellow bloggers, It was a spectacular, sunny day where I live. It's still rather chilly from my point of view but the ...