Photo courtesy Vancouver Convention Centre

The Vancouver Convention Centre was one of nine Olympic venues recognized for excellence in green building design. The building displays extensive use of local Douglas-fir and hemlock wood-finished surfaces.

The Richmond Olympic Oval, Vancouver Convention Centre, and Killarney Ice Rink are among nine 2010 Olympic Winter Games venues recognized for sustainable design. The GLOBE Foundation and World Green Building Council (WGBC) presented a one-time, international award for Excellence in Green Building Practices to 15 architectural firms for developing the largest collection of simultaneously built, single-project, low-environmental impact facilities in history.

Locally harvested wood featured prominently in the innovative design of several of the venues. For example, the roof panel system at the Olympic Oval utilized wood harvested in British Columbia's interior lodgepole pine forests that were damaged by a pine-beetle infestation. In addition to Douglas-fir plywood, other species used included yellow cedar from the province's coastal forests. (For more on the oval, see the November 2009 issue of Construction Canada.)

Another example is the Trout Lake Community Centre that employed glulam beams from trees blown down in Stanley Park during a 2006 windstorm.

Other venues in the winning collection included both the Whistler and Vancouver Olympic Villages, Whistler Sliding Centre, and Whistler Olympic Park.

The firms receiving the award included:
• Acton Ostry;
• Burrowes Huggins;
• Cannon Design;
• CJP Architects;
• DA Architects;
• GBL Architects Group;
• Hotson Bakker Boniface Haden Architects;
• Hughes Condon Marler;
• IBI/HB Architects;
• LMN Architects;
• MCM Partnership;
• Merrick Architecture;
• Nick Milkovich Architects;
• Stantec; and
• Walter Francl Architecture.

Photo courtesy Stephanie Tracey

Locally harvested wood was also employed for the roof system at the Richmond Olympic Oval, another venue honoured for sustainable design.