Bloedel Conservatory

The conservatory owes its existence to Prentice Bloedel of the MacMillan Bloedel lumber company, whose foundation put up $1.25 million, joined by contributions from the City of Vancouver and the Board of Parks and Recreation. It was the largest gift the city had received up to that time. The building went up at the summit of Queen Elizabeth Park, Vancouver's highest point, on a plaza laid over the concrete lid of a large drinking-water reservoir built by the Greater Vancouver Water Board.

Construction took eighteen months; the dome's frame, made in Ottawa, was erected on site in ten days. The grand opening took place on 6 December 1969, and more than 500,000 people came through the doors in the first year. The building won a Vincent Massey Award in 1971 and was designated a heritage building in 1996.

In November 2009, citing operating and capital costs, the Park Board voted to close the conservatory by March 2010. A public campaign followed, and on 29 April 2010 the Friends of the Bloedel and the VanDusen Botanical Garden Association submitted a proposal to keep it running, which the board approved unanimously that September. It is now operated jointly by the Park Board and the Vancouver Botanical Gardens Association. In 2014 the entire roof was replaced over seven months, with netting and scaffolding protecting birds, plants and visitors.

Designed by architect McKinley Underwood, the dome uses the triodetic system, a three-dimensional lattice of extruded aluminium tubes joined at hubs, and takes its cue from Buckminster Fuller's geodesic dome at Expo 67 in Montreal. It is about 43 metres (140 feet) across and 21 metres high, enclosing close to a quarter of an acre.

The frame is made of 2,324 aluminium tubes five inches in diameter, glazed with 1,490 plexiglass bubbles of varying sizes that give the surface its faceted texture. Some 1,400 acrylic panels were renewed in the 2014 re-roofing. Inside, a single continuous path winds through three climate settings: tropical rainforest, subtropical forest and desert.

Around 500 species of exotic plants from tropical and subtropical forests and arid lands make up the setting. A rotating orchid display, staged with the Vancouver Orchid Society, features Cattleya, Vanda and Dendrobium among others.

More than 200 birds of many species fly freely beneath the dome, including macaws, African parrots, parakeets and cockatoos. The larger perching birds, whose wings are clipped, are rescues taken in from local sanctuaries or from owners no longer able to keep them. A koi pond is home to Dragon Gate, described as Vancouver's oldest koi, brought to the city for Expo 86 and moved here in 2020 after surviving otter attacks elsewhere.

The conservatory crowns Queen Elizabeth Park at 4600 Cambie Street, about fifteen minutes from downtown by transit. The surrounding plaza looks out over the city and the North Shore mountains, and Henry Moore's bronze Knife Edge – Two Piece stands close by. It is warm and humid inside, so layers are sensible, and the main path is wheelchair accessible. A visit pairs naturally with the park's quarry garden and with nearby VanDusen Botanical Garden, run by the same association.