The Westin Bayshore

• 1. Introduction

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  The Westin Bayshore sits at the edge of Coal Harbour in Vancouver, British Columbia, and the ground beneath it was once underwater. Before the hotel rose from what had been tidal flats, builders dumped fill and drove concrete piles 40 feet down to bedrock just to create solid land. That act of reclamation set the stage for one of Vancouver's most storied addresses. How does a modest plan for a roadside motel become a landmark resort? And how does a hotel at the edge of the harbour end up sheltering the most photographed man on earth, a man no camera ever managed to catch?

• 2. From Motel to Resort

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  Hugh Martin and Douglas Welch, two local Vancouver businessmen working through their company Marwell Construction, had originally drawn up plans for a motel on the Coal Harbour site. The project changed direction when they brought in Seattle-based Western Hotels. Edward Carlson, the chain's head, persuaded them to abandon the motel concept and build a full-service resort hotel instead. Marwell and Western split the six-million-dollar construction cost between them. The project was notable for another reason: it was the first hotel Western Hotels had ever built from the ground up. Until that point, the chain had grown its West Coast presence by taking over management of hotels that were already operating, not by constructing new ones.

• 3. Design and Opening

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  Vancouver architect Douglas C. Simpson gave the Bayshore Inn a T-shaped form. A low-rise four-story wing faced the street, and a taller eight-story wing extended out toward the water. The configuration gave guests in the taller section views over Coal Harbour. The hotel opened on the 27th of March, 1961, with 308 rooms. Two years later, in 1963, Western Hotels renamed itself Western International Hotels. The tower wing that now defines the hotel's skyline profile was added in 1970, bringing the total to the 499 rooms spread across the two buildings that stand today.

• 4. Howard Hughes Arrives

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  On the 14th of March, 1972, a man whose face was on the cover of every major publication moved into the top-floor penthouse. Howard Hughes, described by press accounts of the era as the world's most famous fugitive billionaire, took over the hotel's three-room suite and did not leave it for six months. Hughes was by then one of the most relentlessly pursued subjects in journalism. Photographers staked out the Bayshore in hopes of capturing an image of the reclusive magnate. None succeeded. Hughes remained entirely inside his penthouse for the entire duration of his stay, unseen by anyone outside his immediate circle.

• 5. Name Changes and Record Sale

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  The hotel carried the Bayshore Inn name for two decades before the chain rebranded. When Western International Hotels became Westin Hotels in 1981, the property was renamed The Westin Bayshore, the name it holds today. The hotel's most significant transaction in recent memory came in November 2015, when the complex was sold for 290 million dollars. That figure set two records simultaneously: it was the largest single-asset sale anywhere in Canada that year, and it set a new high for any Vancouver hotel measured both by gross value and by the per-room price paid. Canada's men's national soccer team is scheduled to use the hotel as their base for the duration of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.