These days the corner of Granville and Hastings has the United Kingdom Building which has sat there for over 50 years. Built in 1957 it was designed by Douglas Simpson who previously practiced with Hal Semmens for about 10 years, producing a significant set of quality modernist residential and commercial buildings, especially in the West End and Downtown, including the Main Library in 1957 (just coming to the end of it’s more recent reincarnation as a music superstore).
For over 60 years before that the MacKinnon Building (later known as the Williams Building) occupied the same spot. Designed by W T Dalton for J M MacKinnon, a land and timber broker who had arrived from Scotland in 1885 aged 22 and only 12 years later built the 5-storey stone-faced building, seen here in 1928.
Image source: City of Vancouver Archives Bu P646.1
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Changing Vancouver 