Photo: Remy Scalza
It seems like there was a brief era in the ’60s and ’70s when towering, space-age observation decks were really, really cool. You weren’t a modern, up-and-coming city unless you had one. It was during that time that Seattle got its iconic Space Needle (1962), Toronto got the CN Tower (1976) and Vancouver got a unique addition to its cityscape, the flying saucer-shaped Lookout atop the Harbour Centre (1977).
Times have changed, of course. These days, it’s really not en vogue to clutter up your skyline with monumental, not entirely practical, towers. Plus, lots of plain old apartment buildings in Vancouver now rival – and even surpass – the Harbour Centre’s height of 181 meters (25 stories). So my question is – in the year 2010 – does the Vancouver Lookout still have a role to play in the city?
