This is one of favourite views showing how things change, and yet remain unchanged (if subtly disguised!). The image on the left shows The National Finance Corporation’s reinforced concrete building reaching the end of its construction in 1911 (pictured in the Contract Record magazine). Designed by Thomas Hooper, it very clearly shows the 3-storey difference between the Hastings Street grade and the bottom of the escarpment at Coal Harbour, with the road running in the foreground down to the beach level where the rail tracks were.
Remarkably, the building still stands almost unchanged (apart from the lost cornice), although the three lower floors are now beneath the new elevated street level of West Cordova Street. The red brick building on the left is the 1913 Customs Examining Building designed by David Ewart, which since 1986 has been part of the Sinclair Centre.
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Changing Vancouver 