Why you should experience Jack Poole Plaza at the Vancouver Convention Centre.
The Jack Poole Plaza at the Vancouver Convention Centre is where Vancouver’s modern identity meets its eternal backdrop, a gathering place of glass, granite, and light framed by sea and mountain.
Set directly beside the harbor, the plaza opens like a civic amphitheater to the horizon. It’s vast yet intimate, framed by the iconic sails of Canada Place on one side and the snow-dusted ridges of the North Shore Mountains on the other. The air smells of salt and cedar; the hum of seaplanes mingles with the low rhythm of waves brushing against the seawall. In the center stands the Olympic Cauldron, a crystalline sculpture of fire and steel that glows like frozen light, a relic of unity from the 2010 Winter Games that continues to pulse with civic pride. This isn’t just a square of stone; it’s where Vancouver looks outward, a place for reflection, celebration, and belonging, where locals and travelers alike pause to feel the scale of a city perfectly balanced between wilderness and wonder.
What you didn’t know about Jack Poole Plaza.
The Jack Poole Plaza was named in honor of the man who brought the 2010 Winter Olympics to Vancouver, a tribute built not in words, but in open sky.
Completed in 2009 as part of the Vancouver Convention Centre West Building, the plaza was designed as both an urban stage and a maritime lookout. Its surface of polished granite tiles doubles as a radiant heat system, designed to stay ice-free through coastal winters. Beneath its expanse lies a network of geothermal channels that regulate the temperature of the building below, part of the Convention Centre’s pioneering LEED Platinum sustainability program. The Olympic Cauldron, built from glass and steel to evoke ice illuminated by fire, still functions and can be reignited for national holidays and public events. Around the plaza, subtle design choices honor both land and legacy: native plantings nod to British Columbia’s coastal ecosystems, while the open sightline toward the mountains was preserved as a permanent architectural promise that no structure will ever block the view. The plaza also conceals a stormwater collection system that channels runoff from the Living Roof into the harbor filtration network, a hidden act of environmental harmony beneath the feet of thousands. Over time, the space has evolved from Olympic centerpiece to public living room, hosting concerts, festivals, ceremonies, and moments of spontaneous civic joy.
How to fold Jack Poole Plaza into your trip.
To feel the full rhythm of Jack Poole Plaza, visit when Vancouver is glowing, early morning light gilding the harbor or sunset casting amber reflections off the glass skyline.
Begin your walk from Canada Place, passing beneath the sails toward the open expanse where the Olympic Cauldron stands tall. Allocate 30, 45 minutes to wander the plaza and its perimeter; take time to pause along the seawall, where the panorama stretches from Stanley Park to the Lions Gate Bridge. If you arrive around noon, you might hear the Heritage Horns from Canada Place echo across the water, a subtle link between the city’s past and present. The plaza is fully accessible, ideal for families, couples, or solo travelers looking for an easy yet meaningful stop between the Vancouver Convention Centre, FlyOver Canada, and the Seawall Trail. Come in the evening if you can: as the cauldron lights up and the mountains fade into shadow, the plaza becomes a mirror of everything Vancouver stands for, open, luminous, and alive with quiet pride.
Hear it from the Foresyte community.
“Honestly thought it was just for suits, then I saw the rooftop meadow. Place has more grass than half the parks downtown.”
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