We saw a similar angle to this one in a 1964 aerial shot we posted 18 months ago. This before image is earlier, from the 1930s. The eastern side of Stanley Park had far sparcer tree cover – most (but not quite all) of the park was logged over several decades. A breakwater had been built to create a safe space to swim in 1932, but the heated Second Beach Pool wasn’t built until 1995. The old pool was drained and refilled with ‘fresh’ sea water once or twice a week – with the occasional surprised mud shark or octopus ending up in the pool to keep things interesting.
Beyond the park, the West End was mostly a residential enclave of houses and low-rise apartment buildings. By the 1930s some of the grander homes had been split up into smaller apartments, or had become rooming houses, as their wealthy owners moved to smarter areas of town like Point Grey or Shaugnessey. Gradually, and then dramatically, the area redeveloped from the 1950s with midrise and then towers, and the density of population increased. By 1971 there were 37,000 residents, but a downzoning of the area meant it stayed the same for 20 years. It has steadily risen in the past 30 years to 47,000, as new density has been injected into the area – a process that is speeding up with a new West End Plan.
In the distance there are a few ‘tall’ buildings – the Marine Building on the left, the Royal Bank, the World Tower (in the 1930s the Bekins Moving and Storage Building), The third Hotel Vancouver and beyond it the second (on Granville and Georgia). Today the two towers punctuating the skyline are both hotels with condos above, the Paradox and Shangri La hotels. The slim dark shard tower is the Wall Centre, controversially approved as a ‘crystal tower’ that was built with dark glass, but approved with light. A compromise saw it completed two-tone, with clear upper glass. Some years later it was reglazed with dark glass as the mechanical systems and air conditioning couldn’t handle the solar gain from the clear glass that the developer had never intended should be used, despite that being the basis for approval.
Trish Jewison published the contemporary image on her twitter feed on 18 January 2023, having taken it in the Global traffic helicopter.
Image source: City of Vancouver Archives Air P104
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Changing Vancouver 