All about Downtown Vancouver
Downtown Vancouver is the main financial and shopping district of Greater Vancouver. High-rise office towers along the shoreline with beautiful mountain scenery make Downtown Vancouver a beautiful place to travel to. Downtown Vancouver is also environmentally stable, meaning new buildings in the area have to meet environmental standards set by the City of Vancouver. Downtown Vancouver also is home to BC Place, home to CFL’s B.C. Lions and Rogers Arena, home of the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks.
History of Downtown Vancouver
Downtown Vancouver was originally a two block area featuring buildings called Granville in what is now known as Gastown. In 1887, the City of Vancouver was created and the area began to flourish with the first streetcar service. This streetcar service joined Waterfront to Granville Street, Pender Street and Cordova Street. In 1898, the Klondike Gold Rush contributed to a major growth in Downtown Vancouver.
The early 1900’s saw Granville Street transform into the center of Downtown Vancouver as the area began to populate with well developed commercial and residential buildings. However, not much changed in the early 1900’s which saw the Great Depression have an effect on the area. The early 1970’s saw Downtown Vancouver develop into an international business and financial centre. The Expo in 1986 was a major contributor to the development of Downtown Vancouver. The first ever Skytrain was built in conjunction to the Expo 86’ and featured several train stops in Downtown Vancouver. Downtown Vancouver was clearly emerging as a booming financial and shopping district known around the world. In the late 1980’s the first major stadium, B.C. Place was built and was a state of the art building which was a 60,000 seat stadium.
Today, Downtown Vancouver remains the central hub for financial business for all of Greater Vancouver and most of the province of British Columbia. With everything from employment to shopping to transportation runs through Downtown Vancouver.
Geography of Downtown Vancouver
Downtown Vancouver is located between Burrard Inlet to the north, Stanley Park to the west and Yaletown to the south. Many people believe that the entire Downtown peninsula including neighboring Yaletown, West End and Stanley Park is also part of Downtown Vancouver. However the City of Vancouver defines them as separate neighborhoods.