Canada Place

This guide to Canada Place in Vancouver opens on March 9, 1983, when Queen Elizabeth II poured the first bucket of concrete for the sail-shaped structure rising over this old Canadian Pacific Railway pier. It traces the design choice to wrap the whole building in fabric peaks meant to read, from the water, as a ship under full sail, and the building's opening as Canada's pavilion for Expo 86. Look up at the sails and notice they aren't decoration bolted onto an ordinary building.