Pacific Coliseum
The rink where Vancouver first played NHL hockey — and where 2010 Olympic skaters competed on the same ice.
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Built in 1968 at Hastings Park, this arena was home to the Canucks for their first 25 NHL seasons before Rogers Arena arrived in 1995. It hosted figure skating and short track speed skating at the 2010 Winter Games, and today the Vancouver Goldeneyes of the PWHL keep the ice busy. Its architect W. K. Noppe designed it so well that the same plans were reused for Edmonton's Northlands Coliseum.
What to look for
- The distinctive ring of white panels wrapping the exterior — the signature move of Noppe's 1966–67 formalist design
- The simple geometric bowl shape shared with Edmonton's Northlands Coliseum, proof the blueprints were worth repeating
- The four-sided Daktronics scoreboard, the 2007 replacement for the 1985 matrix clock that once carried Imperial Tobacco and Molson Brewery branding
Located at Hastings Park near Renfrew Street; check the Vancouver Goldeneyes (PWHL) schedule if you want to see a game inside.
Pacific Coliseum is one of 13 sights worth the detour in Vancouver, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Vancouver pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Vancouver
- BC PlaceA stadium that broke the same world record twice — first with the largest air-supported roof ever built, then with the largest cable-supported retractable roof.
- Rogers ArenaBuilt for C$160 million and opened in 1995, this is the rink where Vancouver's hockey soul lives — and where the city briefly renamed it Canada Hockey Place for the 2010 Winter Olympics.
- Stanley ParkA thousand acres of old-growth forest on a downtown peninsula — bigger than Central Park, as old as Vancouver itself.
- Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports CentreCanada's first national hockey team was born on this ice in 1963 — and the Vancouver Canucks still practice here.
- Richmond Olympic OvalThe rink where Olympic speed skaters raced in 2010 is now a public arena where you can climb a wall, row a tank, or lace up hockey skates — all under one roof.
- Vancouver Art GalleryWestern Canada's largest art museum, housed in a Francis Rattenbury courthouse since 1983 — the gallery's original home even survived a 1938 sit-down strike with its paintings untouched.