Vancouver Sun

It's often said God was Vancouver's architect-in-chief, creating the sea, the snowcapped mountains and backdrop of deep, green rain forest that make this city stunning. But good gosh, isn't it time the mere mortals on the ground started pulling their weight, too? I raise this suggestion after spending the last few years watching, with great expectation, the rise of our latest addition to the waterfront: the expanded Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre. There's been a raging debate over the fact the near $1-billion price tag of this new edifice far exceeds planners' -- and taxpayers' -- expectations. But less talked about is that this "signature building" falls far short of another expectation: great architecture. To be fair, it's no outright disaster. It seems well-engineered, something you'd expect given the cost overrun. And as a building designed to attract conventions and offer visitors an impressive view of the water and mountains once they get here, this mostly glass structure, with its six-acre roof garden, will do the trick. But don't expect anyone to be sticking this building on postcards or Architectural Digest to be putting it on the cover.