Our work 2019 www.heritagevancouver.org | December 2019 www.heritagevancouver.org | December 2019 To the members & donors of Heritage Vancouver We are growing, more historic buildings important, but it’s become clear that what makes the retail of Mount focused, and dedicated Pleasant Mount Pleasant is also tied to things like small local businesses, affordable rents, to creating a diverse and the nature of lot ownership, the range of inspiring future for city. demographic mix, and the diversity in the types of shops and services. In our experience, there is a view that heritage In last year’s letter, I discussed some of the has shifted to intangible heritage versus best practice approaches starting to make its tangible heritage. way into local heritage and into the upcoming The dichotomy between intangible heritage planned update to the City of Vancouver’s and tangible heritage certainly does exist. aging heritage conservation program. But it is important to point out that this Meanwhile, the City of Vancouver’s new dichotomy was introduced in the heritage field Culture plan Culture|Shift: Blanketing the as a corrective to include the things that the city in arts and culture includes a large focus protection of great buildings did not protect or on intangible heritage, reconciliation, and recognize. culture. While what all this will look like in What may be more useful for us is that heritage policy still isn’t completely clear, what we begin to care for the interrelationships is clear is that heritage in Vancouver is and will between things that are built, and the human be undergoing great change. experiences, perceptions and interpretations Heritage conservation has moved to that provide the context for why and how they issues beyond its traditional boundaries- are important. sustainable development, climate change, Certainly, many of us can agree that we equity, the housing crisis, and the spread value places on our recent Top10 lists like of monocultures. There is also increasing Commercial Drive, Dunbar Theatre, attention to things that make places work that mansions in First Shaughnessy, Chinatown, have traditionally been considered incidental. Punjabi Market, the Fairmont Building, Think about the retail aspect of the heart of False Creek South, Powell Street, and Mount Pleasant, number one on this year’s South Granville for more than the buildings Top10 list. Not only is the form and the older themselves (which at times may not be well www.heritagevancouver.org | December 2019 known or well understood). And to protect next few years and translate our guiding these places as places will require a variety of principles directly into strategic actions. different approaches in addition to building For those interested, we will also be preservation and restoration. introducing Reading Room next year. These A different way of thinking about what is will be get togethers with those interested in happening in heritage is to think of it as a shift learning and thinking about how we apply in focus from what we can observe to include these “new” concepts to situations in our city. more fully how we understand and experience As stated last year, First Nations and heritage it. All of this change is certainly not new, it’s is a major theme. To help us start our journey just happening here now. for relationship building and learning, we Given these changes, you should know that took an opportunity with Heritage BC’s Taking we have been preparing for them. Action program to help us build capacity and have access to resources where we can work Around four years ago, we started work towards diversity, equity and inclusion. We updating our understanding and formulating will report more on this next year. our guiding principles in anticipation of the local shift in heritage and update to the city Unknown to many of you are those who heritage program. are dedicated to helping us with our administrative work and helping deliver After our facilitated day-long board workshop ongoing programming. two years ago, we adopted our current guiding principles to position us for the Here I would like to especially thank Haroun, changes ahead. We continue to build upon Ben and Annie. Haroun has been with us for and clarify these principles as we experience over two years but has left for London for real-life events in heritage that prompts us to graduate studies. Ben, has been with us for live these principles. close to a year and has been taking over for Haroun. And Annie, who after returning from We have invested a lot of hard work, energy, graduate school in London, is willing to help and time over these four years to ensure that us out with her time. Perhaps we have been Heritage Vancouver is well positioned to deal able to create an organizational culture where with this shift. we are able to have good and dedicated help Early in 2020, there will be another facilitated from Haroun, Ben and Annie. Nonetheless, we day-long board workshop where we will are very fortunate to have them. solidify our organizational strategy for the www.heritagevancouver.org | December 2019 The following pages will detail what we have been involved in this year. These activities and their composition—whether obvious or not—are all a part of a larger strategy to grow and focus Heritage Vancouver into being an independent, sustainable, knowledgeable, and relevant organization regarded for being a leader. 2020 will see us continue with refining how we do things better—this is particularly true of Shaping Vancouver, our tours, and the Top10. There will also be some new advancements such as our work on 1221 Thurlow Street (and perhaps some new projects) as well as more purposeful effort on recent endeavours like Our Living City. Our intention is for these to make marks— some deeper than others—in pushing us forward bit by bit. We are proud of our vision, direction and efforts and feel that we make an outsized contribution despite being a small organization. We hope you feel the same and will continue to support us in or efforts to contribute to heritage and culture across the city. Thank you. Bill Yuen Executive Director, Heritage Vancouver Society December 2019 Cover photo Ben Geisberg www.heritagevancouver.org | December 2019 2019 A summary of our work Top10 Watch List of Endangered Sites The 19th year of Heritage Vancouver’s Top10 list once again made it onto the cover of the Vancouver Courier the week of June 20. Large scale planning programs currently underway such as the Broadway Plan to deliver the subway could have major impacts on the qualities that people depend on, love and appreciate about a number of neighbourhoods. The Heart of Mount Pleasant and the other Broadway Neighbourhoods -number one and two on the list- are key areas that are beloved for the combinations of small local businesses, streetscapes, public gathering spaces, older buildings, varied demographics, and more currently sits on the Heather Street Lands but affordable spaces. should it be moved successfully, its use and role in Number 4 is Dunbar Theatre which is an important public memory and public consciousness require neighbourhood gathering space with a social much attention. Powell Street has immense historic function. Much like Chinatown which has been on meaning to the City and yet it has no specific prior Top10 lists, Punjabi Market, number 5, is an heritage area planning to bring focus on the initial invaluable part of the city’s diverse history, culture settlement by the first generation of Japanese and commercial identity. These four places all immigrants, the expulsion during the Second World have a very contemporary heritage aspect to them War, and its importance today to the variety of because they are directly tied to our lives today. people who reside, visit and depend on the area. The Fairmont Building and Powell Street, (Paeru This year’s accompanying bus tour was once again Gai), a central part of the Japanese Canadian a success and we would like to thank in particular neighhourhood, raise interesting heritage questions Angus McIntyre for driving the bus for us once around use, acknowledgement and public memory. again. The list is possible through the hard work City staff are exploring options to relocate the of the Action Committee and George, Anne, Jan, Vancouver Heritage Register “A” listed Fairmont Stewart and Jurian all made it out to speak to the Building as a part of reconciliation. The building sites that they had prepared for the list. www.heritagevancouver.org | December 2019 Special appearances by Danielle of Mount Pleasant Conversation 1 examined how culture-led plans can Heritage Group, Gulzar from Punjabi Market, and fulfill economic, social and cultural objectives set the celebrated Don Luxton really added to the for areas such as Chinatown, Punjabi Market and learning and enjoyment of this year’s tour. This is a False Creek Flats. We were grateful to have Alisha newer format for the tour and one that we find to be Masongsong of Exchange Inner City in the DTES talk working quite well. about how Community Benefit Agreements could Since 2001, our Top10 Watch Lists: potentially help maintain heritage and cultural www.heritagevancouver.org/top10-watch-lists assets. Conversation 2 , What do we do about 2019 Top10 Watch List: Neighbourhoods? explored characteristics that make up neighbourhoods. How we could engage 1. Heart of Mount Pleasant with people and conduct difficult conversations 2. Broadway Neighbourhoods around neighbourhood change and individual and neighbourhood responsibilities to the housing crises 3. Maritime Museum (1959, 1966) were major discussion points. 4. Dunbar Theatre (1935) This was followed by Is Heritage Relevant? which 5.