Okanagan Valley Architecture
Kelowna is widely regarded as the heart of the Okanagan and as such encompasses a great deal of the region's architecture developments. Not only is it the heart of the Okanagan based on its geographical location, it also has the largest population and biggest economy. It is located on Okanagan Lake in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia, Canada. The name is derived from a native term for "grizzly bear".
Top 10 (and more) architectural and architecture projects of Kelowna:
- Prospera Place, a 6,800-seat arena
- Apple Bowl, a 5,700 seat outdoor stadium
- SOPA Gallery of Fine Arts
- Alternator Gallery for Contemporary Art
- Rotary Centre for the Arts, a 326-seat theatre
- Kelowna Art Gallery
- Kelowna Community Theatre, a 853-seat theatre
- Kelowna Museum
- Kelowna Marina on Okanagan Lake
- Capital News Centre
- H2O Adventure and Fitness Centre, largest publicly-owned water park in Canada, and features Canada's first FlowRider
- Kasugai Gardens, an outdoor Garden beside City Hall built to celebrate friendship with its sister city; Kasugai, Japan.
- Summerhill Pyramid Winery
- Kettle Valley Railway (Myra Canyon Trestles)
- UBC
- Kelowna Airport
History of Kelowna architecture
The history of Kelowna architecture parallels the history of the entire Okanagan. An interior Salish people lived in the valley from the head of Okanagan Lake downstream to near the river's confluence with the Columbia River in present-day Washington. Their traditional territory encompassed the entire Columbia River watershed. As a primarily hunting and gathering society, no large architectural, pre-colonization architecture was designed and built.
The colonization period starts with Father Charles M. Pandosy, a French Roman Catholic missionary who arrived in 1859 and was the first to settle at Kelowna, a place named "L'anse au sable" (Bay of Sand). During the Victorian and Edwardian periods, no major civil projects were commissioned in the area as Confederation politics made the East to West railroad link a priority.
Today, the largest industries are real estate and tourism. Not surprisingly many current projects directly or indirectly support these economic drivers.
