The Vancouver Marine Building, at 355 Burrard Street, is an art-deco building completed in 1930. As you would expect from such a building, both the exterior and the interior are highly decorated while the structure itself is graceful and simple. According to the architects, McCarter & Nairne, the building was intended to evoke "some great crag rising from the sea, clinging with sea flora and fauna, tinted in sea-green, touched with gold."[6] [wikipedia]
You can walk in from Burrard street through the revolving doors that bring you into the lobby of the building, that is still used for offices.
The phone booths in the lobby play a short narrative of the history of the building.
The decorations are sea-themed (of course :) , with imaginative sea creatures, a zodiac on the lobby floor, and the prows of boats hold the lights along the ceiling. Decorative plagues grace the exterior, with sail boats, biplanes and zeppelins; and on the left hand side of the entrance, the European explorers' ships (the Discovery, the Resolution, the Sonora, and the Golden Hind).
Should you be getting peckish, there is a beautiful JJ Bean location on the ground floor for coffee ("ground" floor, get it? :) ) , sandwiches and pastries, and a Tractor Foods for healthy self-serve salads, soups, stews and such.
I love the layout and feel of the JJ Bean (picture on the right), with cozy places to sit, a mezzanine floor with more seating, and historical photographs of the Marine Building. They have 2, 4 and many people-sized tables for any size group.
Both JJ Bean and Tractor are also accessible directly from Burrard street.
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