Volume 10 Number 2 February 2001 HERITAGE

Vancouver N e w s l e t t e r Fair bigger and better

By Hugh D. McLean proven track record, The Vancouver Sun has become one of the main sponsors. Based on the broader publicity, this year’s ark your calendars! The second Heritage and Fair is expected to attract around 8,000. Watch for the pro- Antiques Fair is scheduled for March 24th and gram details in The Sun on March 23rd. 25th, at the , 1650 Burrard The Fair will have more participants, with the number of MStreet, from 10:00am to 6:00pm. The first Heritage and available booths up from 42 to 61 this year. Already, 55 of Antiques Fair was held back in November 1999,also at the the booths have been sold. There are also 10 display tables Armoury. The original idea was credited to Ani Feuermann reserved for heritage societies. Demonstrations and lectures of the Vancouver Heritage Foundation. The Foundation will be held every hour with two venues to choose from, as saw the Fair as a fundraiser for its activities, as well as a well as a historic fashion show! public event to expose heritage to the general public. The This year’s Fair, while still focusing on the heritage hom- specific target is heritage homeowners, with the theme eowner, will have a stronger focus on house interiors. Many titled Everything for the Heritage Home — Inside and Out. of last year’s participants are returning. Some of the more The inclusion of antiques in the Fair is meant to broaden the prominent participants that were not at the first Fair include Heritage Fair’s exposure and appeal, and to complement antique dealers from Victoria, Lee Valley Tools, Reno’s of the other components. London, and William Swatter providing an antique chair According to Robert Lemon, Co-Chair of this year’s Fair, display mounted alongside period reproduction furniture. the first Fair was considered a success, both in financial Also new to this year is a CyberCafe set up by Shaw terms and the variety of participants and types of displays. It Communications with assistance from the City Archives. drew about 2,500 with only very limited publicity. With the see Heritage & Antiques Fair back page HERITAGE V a n co u v e r M o d e r n

VancouverPRESENTS

The Air That Bites Wednesday, February 21st 7:30 pm, Vancouver Museum

Find out how nasty our air really is when conservator Andrew Todd explains the perils public art has to face outside. We may think that stat- ues like Captain George Vancouver surveying the city high on his perch at City Hall are safe, but even old

George suffers from a variety of ail- Photo: R. Moffatt, 2000 ments that need attention. Our evening presentation will throw new light on our public art legacy. A tall green Guinness Special Presentation: The Ultimate Bungalow: The Gamble House-High Art and Careful on the waterfront Craft: The California Architecture of Greene and Greene Wednesday, March 21st by Robert Moffatt 7:30pm, Vancouver Museum Guinness Tower the typically grey Vancouver skies A lecture by Edward R. Bosley, from 1055 West Hastings Street, and the waterfront and forested the Gamble House, Pasadena, CA Vancouver mountains beyond. Dark grey gran- Charles Paine 1967-69 $15 for Heritage Vancouver and ite bands wrap vertically around an Vancouver Museum members and $20 inset section of the side elevations, for non-members. Call the Museum at nterested in expanding their neatly encasing the rooftop services 736-4431 for tickets and information. business holdings beyond Great and breaking up the building’s visual Britain, the Guinness brewing mass. Expansive multi-level outdoor The Art of Dying: Behind the Ifamily established its presence in plazas offer panoramic views of the Scenes at Mountain View Cemetery Vancouver during the 1930s with North Shore, while the huge lobby Wednesday, April 18th the purchase or construction of mural by Jordi Bonet contrasts the 7:30pm, Vancouver Museum three major landmarks: the Marine tower’s cool rationality with textured Building, the images of chaotically teeming Once threatened with closure, and the exclusive British Properties coastal marine life. Mountain View has a new lease on life. subdivision in West Vancouver. The In 1976 Paine designed the neigh- Find out what’s in store for this great 23-story Guinness Tower followed bouring Oceanic Plaza, also for burial ground and get a peek at the in 1967 amid several other shiny Guinness, at 1066 West Hastings. modern world of cemeteries. We’ll also new towers rising along the edge A curved pedestrian bridge links the explore the history and heritage of of Coal Harbour. two buildings, which remain in Mountain View and check out a who’s Built about a decade too late to be immaculate condition. Ironically, who of its more prominent residents. avant-garde, the Guinness Tower their prized waterfront views will nonetheless showcases the spare, soon be at least partially obscured by - elegant design and high-quality the Coal Harbour residential develop- All Heritage Vancouver meet materials of the classic International ments now under construction. ings start at 7:30pm, the 3rd Style office tower. English architect Wednesday of each month at Paine used curtain walls of tinted [email protected] The Vancouver Museum. glass and metal panels in grey-green Free for members and colours, melding the building with $5 for non-members. well as the process of production from Mark Your Calendar The Ultimate conceptual sketches to the houses and furnishings themselves. Each step mer- ited the close scrutiny and supervision Saturday, February 17th, 1:30pm Bungalow of the architects. The Vancouver Museum presents an New research has uncovered a afternoon of memories with Michael wealth of images never before pub- Kluckner in celebration of the 15th anni- eritage Vancouver is proud lished, and many of these will be used versary of the publication of Vancouver The Way It Was. to be part of the 2nd pre- to illustrate this talk. sentation in the Vancouver $6.00 for HV , Art Deco Society and Museum’s Occasional Arts March 21st, at the Vancouver Museum. Museum members and $10 for non-members. Hand Crafts Lecture Series. In March, $15 for Heritage Vancouver and Heritage Vancouver turns its meeting Vancouver Museum members and $20 Friday, February 29th, 9am-5pm over to a special presentation by non-members. Call the Museum at Edward Bosley of the Gamble House 734-4431 for tickets and information. The City Program in Pasadena, California. Mr. Bosley’s Implementing Heritage Conservation Standards time in BC is limited and Heritage This one-day workshop will provide an Vancouver has taken this opportunity opportunity to examine the use of stan- to put aside its regular program to dards which guide heritage conservation work. Canadian and US standards will be be able to have him speak here in discussed, as well as their application in Vancouver at the Museum. Edward the municipal context using Victoria and Bosley’s lecture, The Ultimate Vancouver as case studies Bungalow: The Gamble House - High Labatt Hall, Room 1700, Simon Art and Careful Craft: The California Fraser University at , Architecture of Greene and Greene, will Vancouver,BC Fee $150 +GST

explore the work of these two influential Photo R. Moffatt For more information contact, the City architects and take an in-depth look at Douglas Simpson house II, summer 2000 Program at Simon Fraser Harbour Centre one of their best-known creations. www.sfu.ca/city; [email protected]; 291-5254 Charles and Henry Greene are proba- March 23rd –25th bly best known as legendary residential Another loss The Heritage Antiques Fair architects of the American Arts and Crafts movement through the example ancouver’s dwindling stock of Seaforth Armoury, 1650 Burrard Street Friday, March 23rd - Gala Opening of The Gamble House, one of their so- Modernist houses took a blow Reception 6:00pm- 9:00pm called ultimate bungalows in Pasadena, this winter with the demoli- $100 limited tickets available California. In this sleepy resort town at Vtion of two more houses by Harold call 685-4888 Semmens and Douglas Simpson. Their Saturday & Sunday, March 24th & 25th the turn of the last century the Greenes 10:00am - 6:00pm drew from their craftsmen astonishing- second Mitchell house (profiled in the Admission $10 at the door ly high levels of artistic beauty and June 2000 newsletter) fell last summer, ($15 for both days) integrity of construction unequalled and now the first Mitchell house and Featured Events: Over 60 booths of Douglas Simpson’s own house in antique dealers, heritage home reno- among their peers. The English design- vation suppliers and trades, interior er, C. R. Ashbee, wrote of his visit to West Vancouver have been razed and garden products and suppliers • Charles Greene in 1909, “... [he] took by new owners. Vancouver’s own Art Appraisal Clinic conducted by Maynard’s Auctions • us to his workshops where they were The first Mitchell house, at 1730 Knox Road in the UBC Endowment CyberCafe for online heritage home making without exception the best and research • Restoration demonstrations Lands, was designed by Semmens in most characteristic furniture I have • Talks on heritage buildings, antiques 1949 before teaming up with Simpson and gardens • Historic fashion show • seen in this country.” and pioneered the glassed-in entry, Heritage garden suppliers • Heritage This presentation will seek to explain rear window-walls and multi-level societies and organizations • Book table what it was that made the Greenes’ / book launch • House portraits • Raffles spatial dynamics characteristic of their work so compelling, and why their and door prizes • Kids’ area • Food Court later work. Simpson’s second house • Vancouver Heritage Foundation Gift Shop. houses and furnishings have com- was built in 1954 at 425 Eastcot Road manded similar adulation (not to in the British Properties, and here he Check out Heritage Vancouver’s Booth : mention huge sums at auction) in Look for our casino wheel, informative experimented with steel framing to displays and knowledgeable volunteers. recent years. The diverse stylistic influ- form interlocking rectangular shapes Please call Art Perret at 261-6767 ences on the Greenes’ architecture broken by varying floor and ceiling to volunteer. Show your support for and decorative arts—from Japan to heights and penetrated by huge single- Heritage Vancouver and join the fun! Scotland—will also be explored, as pane glass walls. from Heritage & Antiques Fair cover Words from the President Heritage Vancouver will have a dis- play at the Fair which promises to be one of the most interesting and enter- Who Speaks for the Buildings? taining. This includes a roulette wheel and a Name That Building competi- tion. Heritage Vancouver is looking Dear Members, for volunteers to staff the booth for Vancouver is known worldwide for its infamous blight on the landscape, 4-hour shifts on both Saturday and The Downtown Eastside. Government officials have studied our ‘open Sunday. No prior experience is neces- drug market’ to death and brought in experts to peddle solutions sary, just enthusiasm! Please call Art tried in Australia, Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland. Hardly a day goes Perret at 261-6767 to volunteer. by that the problem is not written up in one of our newspapers. Social Tickets for the Fair can be purchased service agencies are pitted against homeowners and businesses in an effort at the door for $10 for a single day or to find solutions. Everyone has become an instant expert on the subject and $15 for both days. An opening night yet the area gets worse — people move out, businesses close and vacant gala reception will be held in the main buildings are condemned. hall of the Armoury on Friday, March This unimaginable human tragedy and neighbourhood disintegration is 23rd, 6:00pm-9:00pm. This is the main being played out on the stage of one of Vancouver’s richest heritage dis- fundraising event of the Fair, includ- tricts. The core of the Downtown Eastside, Hastings Street is lined with ing a live and silent auction, cocktails heritage buildings, all in danger of demolition by neglect. The majestic Woodward’s building is covered in hoarding, the A-listed Merchant’s Bank and entertainment, and an opportunity at Pigeon Park will fall or burn down before long, and the old Salvation for patrons to meet the dealers and Army building at Gore is vacant or soon will be. The historic Pantages exhibitors. A limited number of tickets Theatre was almost torn down for a City-sponsored housing project. are available from the Vancouver Cities such as New York and Charleston, South Carolina have success- Heritage Foundation for $100. More fully turned similar neighbourhoods into thriving communities through information is available from Portfolio massive taxpayer supported heritage revitalization projects. In Vancouver at 1383 Homer Street, or call 685-4888. when revitalization is mentioned, or the possibility discussed that there is too great a concentration of social housing in the area, the poverty Hugh McLean is a Board Member of industry trots out the dreaded term gentrification, as if rehabilitation of Heritage Vancouver and a Planner our historic building stock is a bad thing. It is time for all of us with a con- with the City of Surrey. science to speak out for the heritage buildings in the Downtown Eastside. Let your voice be heard at and in Victoria!

Heritage Vancouver PO Box 3336, Main Post Office Vancouver BC V6B 3Y3

Janet Leduc 604.254.9411 President, Heritage Vancouver Join Heritage Vancouver Annual membership runs from October 1st th to September 30 . Name: Members receive a monthly newsletter, free admission to monthly Address: City: speakers’ programs and reduced rates for tours Postal Code: Telephone: E-mail: and other activities.

Charitable dona- ❑ Individual: $25 ❑ Supporting (no newsletter) $5 ❑ YES tion #1073758-52. ❑ Family: $30 ❑ Corporate: $50 I would like to volunteer Membership fees are ❑ Donation: $ ❑ Patrons: $100 for Heritage Vancouver not tax deductible.

Please send cheque or money order to: Heritage Vancouver, P.O. Box 3336, Vancouver, BC V6B 3Y3

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