Harbour Centre

Harbour Centre is an office skyscraper in downtown Vancouver, Canada, opened in 1977. On top sits a flying-saucer-shaped section called the Vancouver Lookout, with a 360-degree viewing deck and a revolving restaurant.

The building is listed as 28 storeys, and its official height is about 147 metres, though sources disagree. Visitors ride yellow glass elevators up to the deck. A glass elevator takes visitors up to the deck in about 40 seconds. The deck gives a 360-degree view and the revolving restaurant at the top is called Top of Vancouver. The building was British Columbia's tallest by pinnacle height until Living Shangri-La was built in 2009, and Simon Fraser University runs a downtown campus in the building next door.

Opening day

The Lookout was opened on 13 August 1977 by the astronaut Neil Armstrong, and his footprint was pressed into cement on the deck for years.

The tower stands at 555 West Hastings Street, steps from Waterfront Station, where trains, SkyTrain and the SeaBus meet.

How tall is it?

Sources do not agree. One website says the deck is 168 metres above the street, the skyscraper database CTBUH gives 147 metres, and another source lists only 139.6 metres to the roof.

It was the tallest structure in British Columbia until Living Shangri-La was built. Part of the building is used by Simon Fraser University.

Around the tower

Before Harbour Centre was built, a Simpsons-Sears department store stood on the site, and it closed in 1987. In the 1990s tech companies had offices in the tower. Vancouver Coast Guard Radio worked from Harbour Centre until 2015, listening for distress calls and guiding ships in Burrard Inlet, English Bay and nearby waters. The tower has appeared in television shows and films such as The X-Files, MacGyver, The NeverEnding Story and Blade: Trinity.

On the globe

The model shows the concrete tower with the flying-saucer deck on top. Look at the yellow glass elevators.