Storyeum was a short-lived tourist attraction, located at 142 Water Street, Vancouver. Storyeum was located in the largely touristy area of the Gastown neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Storyeum offered up a live, interactive, educational, re-creation of British Columbia's history through special effects, actors and actresses in a 65-minute show. Storyeum, in the wake of diminishing profits and revenue, ran its last show on October 17, 2006. The City of Vancouver continued as the property landlord and occasionally rented parts of the space for events such as Vancouver Fashion Week, the Juno Awards After Party, Vancouver Film School projects, and entertainment and cultural celebrations. The space sits underneath the Woodward's parkade and with the City's largest revitalization project underway across the street, the Storyeum site has been divided into two retail spaces. At 142 Water Street a German/Iranian furniture store now occupies 12000 sqft, and at 151 West Cordova Street, W2 Community Media Arts is operating Storyeum as a 31000 sqft conference and festival venue, titled W2 Storyeum. Whereas the venue previously housed heritage displays and gift shops aimed at tourists, it now plays host to a community media lab, cafe, art studio, exhibition space, offices, and community meeting room. Excalibur Entertainment (of Surrey, BC) proposed to turn the basement into a 40+ lane bowling alley but their business model was incumbent upon securing a ground floor liquor permit. This combination made the idea unlikely to occur with the new Woodward's across the street that has a 150-seat restaurant and bar. Creditors went through the approximately 70000 sqft basement in 2006 for auctionable value. The space is currently being used by Vancouver Film School for student and small production sets, including green screens and one-take live action shots.

History

The Storyeum concept was officially conceived in 2000 by its founder Danny Guillaume and architect Al Waisman. To help fulfill their concept, they founded Historical Xperiences Inc. (HXP) to create and manage Storyeum. Storyeum officially opened in June 2004. Many local businessmen and the City of Vancouver invested over CAD $22 million into the concept, but not enough people visited the attraction, and Mr. Guillaume owed his creditors over CAD $6 million when Storyeum closed.

Facts

The show

The theatrical adventure predominantly took place under the streets of Gastown. The entire show duration was approximately 65 minutes. Storyeum broke from the traditional performance/play by making guests move from set to set. In total, there were eight sets, including the 360 degree visual demonstrations in the two passenger lifts. The Storyeum experience started when guests entered the first passenger lift to descend below the grounds of Gastown. Upon descent, they were guided from set to set. The sets are, in order of appearance: