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Tuesday, February 27, 2024

Bentall Centre ‘bear pit’ to get makeover

Plans are afoot to remake the “bear pit” at Bentall Centre – a sunken plaza and water feature outside the office tower complex at Burrard and Dunsmuir.

Owners Hudson Pacific Properties have retained Hapa Collaborative and Tangible to design a new outdoor space and suspended light feature for the plaza on Dunsmuir Street, outside the Bentall Centre Four tower.

Bentall Centre plaza 1986
Bentall Centre plaza in 1986. Credit: City of Vancouver archives

The tired-looking space will be remade with a suspended canopy with 55 sparkling LED light strings, and the existing fountain will be decommissioned and replaced with a “wave deck” — a mutli-level, flowing platform of cedar decking.

Bentall new landscaping LED lighting
55 LED strings will be suspended from a large canopy. Credit: Tangible
Bentall Centre LED lighting
55 LED strings will be suspended from a large canopy. Credit: Tangible
Bentall new landscaping
Conceptual rendering of ‘Wave Deck’ covering the existing Bentall Centre fountain. Credit: Hapa Collaborative

The decking is described in project documents as a “temporary activation” anticipating “the complete transformation of this space as part of the Bentall Master Plan project.”

New trees (Japanese Snowbell) and shrubs (Autumn Moor Grass) will be added, as well as several umbrellas and seating areas.

The alterations require a City of Vancouver development permit.

The four office towers of Bentall Centre were completed between 1967-1981.

Tragically, four men died on the worksite in January 1981 while preparing a platform known as a ‘fly form’ for the last concrete pour on the roof, when it broke free. Without warning, the fly form fell over the edge of the fourth tower, carrying the four men to their deaths. 

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Peter Meiszner
Peter Meiszner
Peter Meiszner is an experienced journalist and media relations professional, based in Vancouver. As founder of urbanYVR.com, he has been reporting on urban development across the Lower Mainland since 2016, and has also served as vice-chair of the Gastown Historic Area Planning Committee. In October 2022, he was elected to Vancouver city council and is no longer actively reporting for urbanYVR.

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