Volume 12 Number 2 February 2003 HERITAGE

Vanco N e w s l e tu t ev r er

Top Ten Endangered Sites

nce again, Heritage presents its Top Ten is considering demolition of the concrete railings and the Endangered Sites. This is our third annual list. As addition of outrigger sidewalks. Without the original rail- this year’s Heritage Week theme is public places, ings, the bridge will lose its edges, and its architectural Oyou'll notice that many selections include public buildings, features will be isolated. The proposed outrigger structures structures, and spaces. You’ll also notice that quite a few will radically alter the external appearance of this landmark sites from last year’s list are still endangered. In our March structure. A coalition of stakeholders, including Heritage newsletter, we’ll feature updates on what has happened to Vancouver, have written the new Council stating that the sites from 2002 not on this year's list. Stay tuned! proposals are unacceptable—from both a transportation and heritage perspective. The coalition is asking Council to 1. instead consider dedicating the two outer traffic lanes to Completed in 1932 to provide a high-level crossing to the non-motorized traffic, a solution that would involve little western neighbourhoods, the bridge is a triumph of civic alteration to the Bridge itself. architecture and a key gateway structure. Architects Sharp and Thompson, conscious of the bridge’s ceremonial gate- 2. First Shaughnessy District way function, embellished the utilitarian steel superstructure Vancouver’s only residential heritage character area is fast with imposing concrete towers, torch-like entrance-pylons, losing its prime heritage stock of pre 1940’s houses. A total and art deco sculptural details. Unifying the parts are heavy of 44 A and B listed houses have been lost since the First concrete railings, originally topped by decorative street Shaughnessy Official Development Plan was instituted in lamps. To facilitate cyclist and pedestrian use, the City see page two Top Ten romantic estate-like landscaping that ity very different from the massive HERITAGE old Shaughnessy is also known for collegiate gothic Iona Building is being destroyed at the same rate commenced the same year (the lat- as the houses. ter perhaps better-known because VancoPRESENTSuver Seventy-two homes in First of its granite façade and landmark Shaughnessy are on the Vancouver tower). The VST grounds contain a Bryan Adams Warehouse Studios Tours Heritage Register, which means that remarkable collection of architec- 100 Powell Street, nearly 280 pre-1940 character homes ture, both period and modern, but all Sunday, February 16, 10:00 - 11:00 am are left without any form of recogni- or some are threatened by School of Saturday, February 22, 10:00 - 11:00 am tion or protection. Aggressive develop- Theology redevelopment plans. ers and architects are advising clients Warehouse Studios is housed in a that any house can be demolished in 4. Hastings Street (Cambie to Main), including Pantages Theatre, Ralph rehabilitated Gastown heritage build- First Shaughnessy, as long as they are Block, Woodward’s ing. There are only 30 spaces in each willing to maneuver their way through tour, so make a reservation on our hot- the city’s Planning Department and Once the commercial heart of line as soon as you can, 604.254.9411 the Advisory Design Panel. These Vancouver, East Hastings Street two bodies have no power to prevent between Cambie and Main is the the demolition of heritage buildings city’s best surviving turn-of-the-cen- and more importantly, they have no tury streetscape. However, the build- from cover Top Ten convincing incentives for retention to ings are empty, with little or offer to the owners of these homes. no maintenance, and demolition 1982 to preserve and protect the pre- One has only to look at the William has left ugly gaps along the street. 1940 heritage character of the neigh- Astley House at 3638 Osler St. to see Hastings Street needs help before bourhood. The pace has accelerated in a first rate craftsman house bracketed all of it is lost to the wrecking recent years, with grand old homes by bloated, historically inaccurate ball. Among its treasures, behind being replaced at a rate of 4-6 houses McMansions to understand the poten- a modest brick facade at 152 East per year. The design guidelines were tial threat that this trend poses to this Hastings, is the oldest remaining written in 1982 and offer the possibility grand old neighbourhood. Pantages Theatre in North America. of infill and conversion of large char- More on Shaughnessy next month. Built in 1907 by Alexander Pantages acter homes into flats. Unfortunately, as part of his emerging vaudeville the guidelines, which have never and movie empire, this theatre is been reviewed, did not anticipate that one of the oldest purpose-built this area would return to its original vaudeville interiors in Canada. The prominence as a centre for luxury theatre has been dark for over a single-family homes. Land values and decade and its future is still uncer- the resulting development pressure tain. Farther west, in the 100 block encourage owners to tear down orig- of West Hastings, is the rotting hulk inal homes so as to achieve the max- of the Ralph Block, an important imum square footage allowable for cast iron facade designed by promi- the generous lots. First Shaughnessy nent architects Parr and Fee (1899) has no cap on square footage (unlike and a B on the City’s Heritage Southlands with a cap of 9,000 square Register. The 100 block, anchored feet) and substantial old homes are by the historic Woodward’s build- being replaced with new houses of up ing and devastated by the store’s to 23,000 square feet. Current bylaws closure in 1993, is now in danger of ensure that these new homes are demolition by neglect. The former Canterbury House shorter in overall height than the department store has suffered from originals, with larger footprints. This 3. Canterbury House ten years of failed schemes, both means that the quality and quantity of (Vancouver School of Theology private and public, culminating in 6090 Chancellor Blvd.) calls for its demolition. The good One of Vancouver’s finest examples news is that the current City Council of the English Arts and Crafts move- has purchased Woodward’s from the ment, this Voyseyesque design was Province with the intention that the built for the Anglican Theological landmark building be rehabilitated College in 1927, two years after for needed housing, and for the development of the UBC Point Grey commercial and institutional activi- campus. The building’s landscaped, ties needed to jump-start the area’s informal profile projects a sensibil- economic revitalization. Threatened Shaughnessy house western approach to the original 1915 March 1998, a tragic fire destroyed all , is a commemorative but the brick, bay-windowed facade, plaza called Viaduct Park. The park, now propped up by a steel frame in created in 1970 after the old Viaduct the hope that the owners might try was demolished, incorporates the origi- to save the facade as part of a new nal concrete railings and street lamps. building. Four years have passed, Under the proposed rezoning (to per- and the burned-out hulk continues to mit a Costco store and residential tow- deteriorate, its prospects weakened by ers), the Beatty Street grade would be low demand for upper floor uses in extended outward in a plaza structure, Gastown. Exposure to the elements burying the escarpment, and maroon- will soon complete what the fire left ing the Drill Hall on a flat surface. The unfinished. However, with approval of escarpment would become a concrete the new Gastown heritage incentives, retaining wall for a parkade, the tun- the economics of development have Beatty Street Drill Hall nel portal would be demolished, and suddenly improved, and with it re- Viaduct Park would be obliterated. newed interest in Gastown investment. 5. Beatty St. Drill Hall (620 Beatty) / (The first heritage project to utilize Bessborough Armoury (2025 W. 11th Ave. 7. Giant Dipper Roller Coaster the new incentives—and a reported near Arbutus) (PNE Playland) market success—are the recently The Beatty St. Drill Hall, built 1899- Playland’s Giant Dipper Roller Coaster completed loft residences across 1901 as the headquarters of the BC is known across North America as one the street at 65 Water St.) City staff Regiment, Duke of Connaught’s Own of the best coaster rides going, but if the should be doing their utmost to help Rifles, is Vancouver’s oldest surviving PNE becomes history the Coaster’s the owner utilize the new incentives drill hall. The structure, with its mas- future is bleak. Landscape architects to save this A-listed site. sive brick walls, crenellated turrets and have suggested that it be broken up and original interiors is an A-listed heri- used as garden sculpture in a re- 9. 900-1000 Block Main Street tage building. The Bessborough designed Hastings Park. This rare wood- When Westminster Avenue (Main St.) Armoury, a B-listed heritage site, was en coaster deserves better—much better. and Westminster Road (Kingsway) constructed 1931-33, and officially The Giant Dipper is constructed entirely provided the primary connection to opened by the Earl of Bessborough in of specially treated fireproof woods and New Westminster and the US border, 1934. This later structure is re-inforced was built from scratch on the PNE hotels and commercial establishments concrete rather than brick, and features Grounds. It’s 75 feet high at its tallest stretched south along the thoroughfare. cast Art Deco motifs. Both the Beatty point, and in 1958, the year of its con- An isolated vestige of early develop- Street and Bessborough facilities are struction, it was one of the two highest ment still exists south of the Georgia threatened by Federal plans to consoli- roller coasters in North America. Walker Viaduct in the 900-1000 blocks, featur- date military reserve operations in new LeRoy, of Oaks Park, Oregon, oversaw ing everything from miraculously utilitarian structures adjacent to the construction using the plan created by intact wooden boomtown structures, at 1st and Burrard. Carl Phare, the world’s foremost roller to substantial brick and masonry Both buildings retain their historic coaster builder and designer. This was buildings. The east side of Main military reserve functions. Maintaining the last coaster that Carl Phare designed has unique double-sided buildings the original function is crucial not and he said, “I’m really proud of this designed to front both Main and only to their historic significance but ride, I know I'll never build another so Station Streets. Recently, a large chunk ultimately to their survival—other- I put everything I have learned over of the 1000 block was flattened, and wise at risk to abandonment, decay, the past 56 years into this one. There’ll the rest is ripe for the wreckers ball. demolition, or at best conversion. never be another one as good”. Without recognition, the street will Suggestions that the PNE (or annual disappear under the approaching 6. Beatty Street Escarpment/ Viaduct fair) might continue at Hastings Park in wave of condo tow- Park/ CPR Tunnel Portal temporary structures could bode well for ers. Inexplicably, neither the skinny The Escarpment below Beatty Street is the Coaster if the ride were allowed to BC Electric Railway Men’s Quarters among the few remaining natural fea- stay as the Fair’s only permanent struc- (1913) at 901 Main, nor the Cobalt tures in the downtown and provides a ture. Otherwise, its only hope is another (Royal George) Hotel (1911) at 917 commanding site for the historic Beatty municipality willing to adopt. Main with its passage for carriages, Street Drill Hall. Set into the base of nor the Station Hotel (1911) at 1012 the cliff is a concrete Art Deco Portal 8. Terminus Hotel Main are on the Heritage Register, so marking the eastern entrance for old (30 Water Street, Gastown) these and several others are extremely CPR Dunsmuir Tunnel. The portal, Constructed on Water Street just after vulnerable. Listed buildings include now sealed, is an important monument the Great Fire in 1886, the Terminus to Vancouver’s early railway history. Hotel is a Gastown landmark and one South of the Drill Hall, marking the of the oldest buildings in the city. In continued on back page Top Ten Top Ten

Words from the President the Ivanhoe (VanDecar) Hotel (1907); Main Sheet Works, with its detailed 1907 wooden façade at 1024 Main; and the abandoned for- Heritage Vancouver mer Bank of Montreal (1929) at 906 Main, all B-listed. It’s almost too Watchdogs Hard at Work good to be true, but a current plan for the former bank proposes its com- plete restoration for retail/commercial Dear Members, use. Could this signal renaissance for Main Street’s historic frontages? This month Heritage Vancouver once again is publishing the Hopefully it’s not too late. definitive listing of at risk structures in our city. Now an annual listing, the Top 10 list will help you know what is happening in 10. Jericho Beach Marginal Wharf Vancouver’s heritage scene and what Heritage Vancouver will be One of the last vestiges of the Jericho focusing on over the next year. Seaplane Base, and a hive of activity It is no coincidence that the Top 10 list comes to you in during WWII. In 1976, shortly after February. Heritage week, a week in which we celebrate the transfer to the City, the base briefly heritage of our province, is held every year at this time . This year’s sprung to life as Habitat Forum, with theme is the heritage of public buildings and spaces. Heritage week railings for the wharf provided by the also allows us to show you some of the lesser-seen heritage sites in 1938 guard rails from the Lions Gate Vancouver. This year, Heritage Vancouver is presenting two tours Bridge, whose north deck had recently of Warehouse Studios — Bryan Adam’s recording studio, housed in been replaced. The Park Board, which a rehabilitated Gastown heritage building. Tours are from 10 am has provided little or no maintenance, to 11 am on February 16th and 22nd. There are only 30 spaces in wants to spend money to demolish each tour, so make a reservation on our hotline as soon as you can. rather than rehabilitate the Wharf. Finally, many of you came to our fantastic Tiki evening at the Waldorf Hotel. It was Heritage Vancouver’s best attended event to date Photo credits: Exploring Vancouver by Kalman, Phillips, Ward and everyone had a great time, proving once again that heritage need Ralph Block not be boring. Thank you to the Waldorf Hotel and everyone who was Beatty Street Drill Hall Canterbury House involved. Watch next month’s newsletter for a full review of the event. Burrard Bridge / D. Luxton

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