Page 214 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Pacific Northwest

212  V ANC OUVER

Street-by-Street: Downtown

Vancouver’s small downtown might have ended up an
unlivable, daytime-only place crowded with office towers.
That affliction has been avoided by preserving existing, often
historic, apartment blocks, and by building new towers to
accommodate inner-city dwellers. Although Vancouver is a
relatively new city, it has taken care to preserve many of its
historic buildings, which gives the downtown area a panache 1 Christ Church Cathedral
missing in many other North American city centers. A prime Stained-glass windows inside
example is the Vancouver Art Gallery (see p215), housed in this cathedral, which was once
the former provincial courthouse, designed in 1906 by the a landmark for sailors, depict
the lives of Vancouver heroes.
preeminent Victoria architect Francis Rattenbury.

2 Cathedral Place
This elegant building is
indicative of Vancouver’s
efforts to preserve the
past while building with
an eye to the future.
B U R R A R D S T H O R N B Y S T R E E T

3 Fairmont Hotel Vancouver H O W E S T
An historic building and
Vancouver landmark, this building
dates back to the 1920s. Much of R O B S O N S T R E E T
the hotel’s interior today has been
restored to its former glory. S M I T H E S T

S E Y M O U R S T R E E T

Key
Suggested route
N E L S O N S T R E E T

6 . Robson Square
and Law Courts
This complex, with
expanses of glass
over the Great Hall,
is quintessentially
West Coast in style.

5 . Vancouver
Art Gallery
Work from British
Columbia’s major
artists is shown at
this gallery,
alongside exhibits
by acclaimed
international artists.
For hotels and restaurants see p290 and pp302–3

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