Scotia Tower
Encyclopedia
Scotia Tower is a prominent skyscraper located at 650 West Georgia Street in Downtown Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

.

The 12th tallest building in the city, it stands at 138 m or 34 storeys tall and completed in 1977 and is a landmark skyscraper near the end of the central business district. The building houses Scotiabank
Scotiabank
The Bank of Nova Scotia , commonly known as Scotiabank , is the third largest bank in Canada by deposits and market capitalization. It serves some 18.6 million customers in more than 50 countries around the world and offers a broad range of products and services including personal, commercial,...

 operations for British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

 and the underground Vancouver Centre, with its various shoppes and attendant street retail and theatres. The malls are linked to Pacific Centre
Pacific Centre
Pacific Centre is a shopping mall located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It is operated by Cadillac Fairview Corporation. Based on the number of stores, many of which are underground, it is the largest mall in Downtown Vancouver with over 100 stores and services...

 and the Bay and a SkyTrain
SkyTrain (Vancouver)
SkyTrain is a light rapid transit system in Metro Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. SkyTrain has of track and uses fully automated trains on grade-separated tracks, running mostly on elevated guideways, which helps SkyTrain to hold consistently high on-time reliability...

 subway station via subterranean passages beneath Georgia and Granville Streets.

The Georgia and Granville corner of the site was the former location of the Birk's Store in Vancouver, an ornate Edwardian edifice that was torn down in 1974 to make way for construction of the Scotia Tower and Vancouver Centre. Birk's was the first tenant in the new corner-retail location after the Centre'es construction but has since moved to Granville and West Hastings; that location is now the main downtown store of London Drugs
London Drugs
London Drugs is a chain of Canadian retail stores with headquarters in Richmond, British Columbia. Its primary focus is on pharmaceuticals, electronics, housewares and cosmetics, with a limited selection of grocery items...

.

The Georgia Street side of the Scotia Tower-Vancouver Centre was the location of the old Strand Theatre, the only one of Vancouver's Theatre Row not directly on Granville Street. That movie house was later replaced by the Vancouver Centre Cinemas (now closed) in 1977.
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