Four new concert halls proposed for Downtown Vancouver, including Robson Square and Northeast False Creek

A coalition of 32 performing arts organizations has unveiled an ambitious vision to create four new and/or substantially renovated performance venues in Downtown Vancouver, with four possible location options identified.

This includes the Robson Square/existing Vancouver Art Gallery site, Queen Elizabeth Theatre plaza, Larwill Park parking lot (sharing the city block with the future Vancouver Art Gallery), and the Northeast False Creek waterfront.

The Vancouver Cultural Precinct proposal by the not-for-profit Vancouver Concert Hall and Theatre Society calls for a connected group of purpose-built venues ranging from an intimate 400-seat hall to a 2,000-seat theatre capable of hosting major operas, ballets, and other large productions.

A press conference held today drew municipal, provincial, and federal officials, all of whom spoke very strongly in support of the society’s vision.

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The plan was developed through a two-year feasibility study led by Diamond Schmitt Architects, which was commissioned by the society to perform the work. Participating organizations include the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Opera, Ballet BC, Chor Leoni, Music on Main, DanceHouse, and the Vancouver Youth Symphony Orchestra.

This vision is intended to address Vancouver’s longstanding shortage of mid-sized and large performance venues, specifically designed for music, dance, opera, and theatre.

The smallest new venue would be a 400-seat hall for chamber music, recitals, storytelling, and Cantonese opera. A new 850-seat hall would accommodate dance, opera, choral performances, recitals, and smaller orchestral productions.

The precinct would also include a new 1,750-seat concert hall for major orchestral and choral performances — serving as the new home of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra — along with a new 2,000-seat proscenium theatre, featuring the stage infrastructure and orchestra pit needed for large-scale opera, ballet, and theatrical productions.

Each venue would be designed with acoustics as a central priority, while offering enough flexibility to accommodate different types of performances.

“This vision reflects a historic opportunity to give Vancouver’s artists and audiences world-class performance venues they have long deserved. By formally addressing the full venue ladder, from small to large, linked in one unified cultural precinct, we will unlock our city’s creative potential, supporting local artists, attracting world-class stars, spotlighting Indigenous performance, and transforming Vancouver into an international performing arts destination,” said Suzanne Anton, chair of the Vancouver Concert Hall and Theatre Society.

“We are also deeply appreciative of the support shown across all three levels of government. This is a powerful signal of what becomes possible when culture is recognized as essential infrastructure,” continued Anton, who was a BC Attorney General and previously a Vancouver city councillor.

The society notes that Vancouver has 0.52 music hall seats for every 1,000 residents, compared with 1.03 in Toronto and 1.44 in Melbourne. It also argues the shortage has contributed to touring productions skipping Vancouver for cities such as Calgary and Seattle, while local groups often struggle to secure suitable venues for regular performances.

Some of Downtown Vancouver’s main performing arts facilities are now a century old. The 2,800-seat Orpheum Theatre, originally built in 1927 as a vaudeville and then used as a Famous Players movie theatre, was saved, restored, and reopened as a City-owned and operated theatre in 1977. The Queen Elizabeth Theatre opened in 1959 and saw a $45-million renovation in 2009. The Vancouver Playhouse, sharing the same complex as the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, was built in 1962.

The four new venues would supplement, not replace, Vancouver’s existing City-owned and operated venues, given that the Vancouver Playhouse, Queen Elizabeth Theatre, and especially the Orpheum Theatre are booked for the majority of the year. Moreover, these existing venues were not designed with the most advanced optimal acoustic design considerations.

“The time has come when we must grow. We need new venues, and we need venues with great acoustics, which is why we are all really thrilled to be here today to unveil the results of our recent feasibility study,” said Anton.

No construction cost has yet been provided. The society expects to develop a more detailed investment estimate after a preferred site or group of sites is selected, with that work anticipated by Spring 2027.

The proposal identifies West Georgia Street and Granville Street in Downtown Vancouver as the main corridors around which a broader cultural district should be formed.

Early concepts are being considered for the provincially-owned Robson Square and Vancouver Art Gallery precinct, the City-owned Queen Elizabeth Theatre and Larwill Park properties, and the privately-owned Northeast False Creek waterfront site. Various permutations have been created for the locations.

The Robson Square concept involves potential permutations of building small halls in the sunken plaza areas, where the ice rink is situated. This is seen as a measure to reinvigorate Robson Square. Additionally, as part of this concept, the 1906-built Rattenbury Building — which is a former courthouse building and the existing home of the Vancouver Art Gallery — would see its interior volume gutted and transformed for the large concert hall, with the heritage building completely revitalized in the process. But this, of course, depends on the Vancouver Art Gallery realizing its own vision of redeveloping its southern portion of the Larwill Park site with its new home, with the project currently stalled and sent back to the drawing board due to skyrocketing construction costs.

Don Schmitt, principal of Diamond Schmitt Architects, said the Robson Square changes could connect into the series of terrace gardens designed by the late architect Arthur Erickson and late landscape architect Cornelia Oberlander. There could also be new restaurant opportunities on the rooftop of the new structures, overlooking the plaza activity below.

A decade and a half ago, the late architect Bing Thom also conceived a vision of repurposing the Vancouver Art Gallery’s existing heritage structure into variously sized concert/lyric halls.

The precinct of the combined The Playhouse, Queen Elizabeth Theatre, and Larwill Park properties could also be potentially home to several new and renovated venues. The Playhouse and Queen Elizabeth Theatre could be renovated, and the Queen Elizabeth Theatre’s West Georgia Street plaza could be downsized for the footprint of a new additional venue. Across the street at the northern parcel of the Larwill Park block, fronting Dunsmuir Street, an additional concert hall could be built immediately north of the future Vancouver Art Gallery site. This parcel fronting Dunsmuir Street was previously envisioned by the City for a future development with office towers.

Furthermore, Cambie Street between Dunsmuir Street and West Georgia Street could be permanently closed to vehicles to create a pedestrian-only, event-friendly plaza that creates a cohesive and integrated cultural precinct.

For the Northeast False Creek waterfront site, a large concert hall could use a parcel of a property owned by local developer Concord Pacific, specifically a site immediately adjacent to the seawall and future Creekside Park expansion under the City’s Northeast False Creek Plan.

Concord Pacific has long-term plans to develop the site into a high-density, mixed-use residential and commercial complex, but the project is stalled due in part to the City’s uncertainty with removing the Dunsmuir and Georgia viaducts.

Greater architectural design considerations could be made for a venue at this site, given the location’s prominence and visibility. Schmitt suggested the Northeast False Creek site could provide the opportunity to build Vancouver’s equivalent of the Sydney Opera House.

It is not yet clear whether all four venues would be built together at one location or distributed across multiple nearby sites.

The next phase of the feasibility work will include an economic impact study, a formal business case, further technical work, and discussions with municipal, provincial, and federal governments. The society is also seeking support from private donors and businesses.

The feasibility work has so far received funding from the participating arts organizations, the federal Department of Canadian Heritage, the City of Vancouver, the BC Arts Council, Creative BC, and private donors.

In Spring 2025, Vancouver City Council unanimously endorsed the efforts and preliminary vision outlined by the society.

Moving forward, the timeline for this is ambitious. If all goes as planned with site selection, municipal applications, and especially fundraising to cover the very significant capital costs, construction could begin sometime between 2029 and 2034 — followed by the gradual opening of individual venues as they are completed.

Diamond Schmitt Architects was previously involved in designing high-profile performing arts venues such as the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto and the La Maison Symphonique de Montreal, and the recently completed redesign of the David Geffen Hall at the Lincoln Centre in New York City.

“The Vancouver Cultural Precinct is an opportunity to connect the excellence of award-winning performers to new venues, tailor-made for music, theatre, and dance. It will correct the shortfall of seats relative to other comparable cities and create a world destination for the arts. It is an extraordinary opportunity to shape a city’s identity through the transformative power of design,” said Schmitt.

Mayor Ken Sim described the plan as an encouraging proposal from the city’s arts community, although the City of Vancouver, at this very early stage, has not made any commitment towards land and construction funding.

“Vancouver has the artists, the audiences, and the ambition of a world-class cultural city. It’s encouraging to see organizations and community leaders advancing ideas that celebrate the arts and strengthen our cultural sector. We appreciate the vision and dedication that has gone into this proposal,” said Sim.

The City first envisioned building a new modern purpose-built concert/lyrical hall in the 1990s, with the current site of the Vancouver Convention Centre’s West Building being one of the original envisioned locations for such a project. The Society was first formed in 2002, before being rebooted by Anton in recent years.

As of 2023, the City’s reserve for building a new concert/lyrical hall — dating back to the early 1990s — has grown to $31 million, with initial funding in an interest-bearing reserve growing annually.

You might also like:
• New study to consider building a new Vancouver cultural precinct with multiple concert halls
• Opinion: Museum of Vancouver or Royal BC Museum should take over Vancouver Art Gallery's existing building
• Paris-based Magnicity sees Vancouver's skyline as ripe for a new world-class observation deck attraction
• Bing Thom's dream for a world-class museum under Robson Square
• City of Vancouver is sitting on a $31 million unused fund dedicated for building a concert hall