We looked at another comparison with this ‘before’ picture in 2019. The Archives image was taken in 1927, so the privately built Lion’s Gate Bridge to the North Shore was still being planned – and there wasn’t a lot to do once you got there except the forest, if you did manage to cross on the ferry. The picture was taken by Pacific Airways, apparently for the Union Steamship Company.

Most of the area in Vancouver’s West End had been developed as houses in the early years of the 20th century, often by the city’s elite of the day. They soon moved on to occupy the Shaughnessy subdivision, south of False Creek, leaving their former mansions to be divided up into rooming houses or apartments.

On Georgia Street the huge Vancouver Arena was on the north side of the street, and the Horse Show Building on the south side, closer to the Stanley Park causeway.

The more recent image was published by Trish Jewison in October 2022, who took it from the Global traffic helicopter. It shows The Norwegian Jewel about to head to Alaska with up to 2,300 passengers and 1,100 crew aboard. Having been quarantined for covid, the ship was refurbished before coming back into service not long before this picture was taken.

Stanley Park appears as green as ever, but that is misleading, and is certainly not the case today. Several years of drought, and an infestation of looper moth has killed tens of thousands of western hemlocks, (many of them relatively young trees). Some western red cedar and Douglas fir have also been affected – altogether the estimate is that over 30% of around 600,000 trees in the park’s forest have died since 2019. A huge logging operation is now underway to remove around 160,000 of the dead trees that pose the greatest threat for potentially devastating fire, or damage to buildings or power lines if they fell.

In the five years since the previous image, five new residential towers have been built. All over on the right of the picture, Kengo Kuma’s Alberni tower, another designed by Henriquez Architects for Bosa, a rental tower on Robson for GWL and twin towers next door have replaced the 1970s Empire Landmark Hotel. Two more are now under construction on West Georgia, and ten more have been proposed in the same area of the West End, permitted by the new West End Community Plan that was approved in 2017, and that was expected to add at least 10,000 more people (to the 45,000 already living there) over 30 years.

On the waterfront on the right hand edge of the image, the tower of the Bayshore Hotel can be seen. The hotel was bought some years ago by Concord Pacific, so no doubt redevelopment and additional towers can be anticipated there too.

Image source: City of Vancouver Archives CVA 374-181 and Trish Jewison on twitter.

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Fifty years separate these images, and this modest two-storey walkup has had a major ‘do-over’ in the recent past. It was developed in 1926 by Victoria Estates Ltd., and built by Moxam and Tod for $45,000.  This was the only project by that developer, but by no means the only one with the same architect, Richard T Perry, the same builders, and almost the same design as four others in the West End built in only a year. The builders set up the development company a month before the building permit was submitted.

We’ll look at the history of the developers in a future post. They arrived from Winnipeg in the mid 1920s, and bought a series of houses in the West End, most of them on Barclay Street, (and in Fairview) which they redeveloped into 2-storey walk-up apartments. They were bankrupt by 1929,. In some cases they had already sold the buildings, but others were part of their business. The Florida was sold off, and then again in 1953 when several of their former properties were offered for sale.

The tenants here generally avoided the limelight, There were frequent accounts of burglaries in the 1920s, through to the 50s, usually of cash or jewelry. In 1933 Arthur Huddell spotted two men syphoning gasoline from his car, parked outside. In the 1940s and early 50s suite 5 was the home of W G Hulbert, who was a Doctor of Divinity and a Metaphysician, and leader of the Universal Health Institute, offering ‘Health through Mental Science’ Generally they met in hired halls or rooms in Downtown hotels, but his suite was home to ‘a special seance’ in 1942 by a visiting speaker.

In 1952 Joyce Hughes, aged 39, was found dead in a gas-filled suite. She lived elsewhere, but was visiting her estranged husband, Harold, an accountant, who was 10 years older. He was also found in the suite, in another room, ‘woozy’, but as his wife was judged to have been dead 10 hours, he was promptly arrested. A coroner’s jury recorded an open verdict on Joyce’s death, and her husband was released from custody without facing any charges.

In 1954 Patrick Fitzgerald had someone enter his apartment and steal a pair of pants and a cheque for $100. A year later Herrick Duckworth was getting out of a car in the lane, coming home to his suite here, when a ‘tall, youthful thug’ punched him to the floor and stole $85 in bills from his pocket, and car keys.

In 1968 Eugene Sorochan, who lived here, was found in posession of marijuana when he crossed the Douglas border crossing from the US, and was given a 9 month prison sentence. Our image shows the building in 1974. A fire in 2015 caused extensive damage, and Hearth Architectural were hired to design a re-built structure with 2 new floors and additional units, increasing the count from 16 to 28.

In 1951 a beautifully furnished 3-room suite, for a ‘quiet couple’ was $80 a month. The newly completed and rebuilt apartment rents today are a little higher. A 692 Square Feet 2 bed, 2 bath apartment was listed for rent at $3,850 per month, and a 460 square foot 1-bed rents for $2,850 per month. The building is described as ‘a brand new 4 storey, luxury, heritage apartment building’ (although many listings inaccurately say it has 6 storeys)

Image source: City of Vancouver Archives CVA 1095-01346

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This recent Trish Jewison image is a perfect match to one taken in 1986. The earlier image must have been taken on the same flight that also took an image of Downtown South that we posted over three years ago. Although the contemporary shot was posted this year, we think it shows the city around September 2021. A more recent shot would see the new St Paul’s Hospital as a more substantial presence behind Citygate, at the end of False Creek, but in this image there appear to be piling rigs operating, creating the watertight tank that the new building is being constructed over. On the right, the tower crane is up for Tesoro, the last of Concert’s condo buildings, which has now been completed.

Some landmarks haven’t changed in 35 years. Sience World is still there – although in 1986 it was the Expo Centre, one of the main attractions of the 1986 fair, showing a movie called A Freedom to Move in the OMNIMAX theatre. The only other remaining remnant of Expo 86 is the glazed BC Pavilion on the north side of False Creek. Its days are numbered, as a redevelopment has now been approved, and the casino that occupied the space for many years has moved into a dark tower that wraps around BC Place Stadium.

That has had a dramatic makeover. When it was completed in 1983 it had a fabric roof held up by air pressure, (the world’s largest at the time). In 2007 the Teflon Fibreglass roof tore after a snowstorm, and while it was patched up in time for the 2010 Winter Olympics, a long-term replacement was installed immediately after the games, with a series of massive steel columns supporting a retractible fabric roof under a web of cables with integral lighting.

In the years following Expo, most of the site was sold to one developer, Concord Pacific, who started development of the area in the late 1980s. They sold part to Henderson Development who started developing International Village (the cluster of towers above the stadium in these views), While Bosa developed Citygate, the row of towers at the end of the creek. Concord will have taken over 40 years to complete the entire project, which still has six infill developments built soon which will finally complete earlier phases, and the whole of North East False Creek, including a final waterside park. That will finally fill in the space between the stadium and Citygate. George Wainborn Park, at the bottom of the image, and David Lam Park, to its east (next to the red roof of the Roundhouse Community Centre) cover the most polluted parts of False Creek, that was once an area of heavy industry.

Image source: Trish Jewison in the Global BC traffic helicopter, published on twitter on 22 January 2024.

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We have looked at several of the individual buildings in this image, but not the streetscape. The image is from the City Engineers collection, and is dated between 1980 and 1997. We can narrow it down a bit, because we can make out the roof of the Gospel Hall, that was demolished in 1991, and there’s no New Continental further north, completed in 1992, so it most likely dates from the 1980s.

On the corner is the Federal Motors building, designed by Bedford Davidson as a truck showroom and dealership, which today is a Shoppers Drug Mart. Next door in the 1980s image was Luv-a-Fair, a nightclub that started life as another truck dealership, in 1937, for the White Motor Company, designed by McCarter Nairne. It was replaced in the early 2000s by ‘Elan’, a Cressey condo tower designed by Paul Merrick. The heritage designation of the Federal Motors building allowed extra density to be transferred to the tower from the heritage building. Before the White Motor Co building Dixon Brothers had a stable here.

As well as the Luv-a-Fair, Elan replaced a narrow 1933 building at 1257, and then another garage at 1255, this time from 1921 and developed by G Trousdale, built by Snider Brothers. Rolston Motor Co occupied the building with Rollins Motor Shop. Fred Rolston had previously managed Federal Motors, so he didn’t have to change his commute from his home on Blenheim Road.

Next door was was 1241 Seymour, home to United Motors and Seymour Auto Metal Works, developed by Mrs. P Shackleton in 1923 and expanded a year later, and rebuilt in 1950. Mr. Shackleton ran the National Garage on Nelson Street in 1919.

Acoss the street to the east, the larger of the two new Covenant House housing and shelter buildings has been completed recently. They replaced the previous Covenant House building that dated to 1980, originally built as a modest office building and then converted to a residential facility for at risk street youth. It started with 12 beds in 1997, and  expanded to 18. Originally there were four small houses on the lot, developed in the 1890s

Image source: City of Vancouver Archives CVA 772-1341

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This is a 1958 image in the BC Archives photo collection. It shows the old Cambie Bridge, and the previous Georgia viaduct on the right, the railyards and industrial operations along both shores of False Creek at the bottom, (and under the bridge) and the still modest cluster of office and hotel buildings in the Downtown core. Downtown South, the area to the south was mostly warehousing and commercial buildings, as was Yaletown, the area of CPR land released for warehouse and industrial construction in the early 1900s in the middle of the picture. That’s the area of Downtown that has changed the least, as it’s a heritage area that allows modest increases in height (and changes of use), but so far almost no redevelopment to towers.

The freight yards and tracks seen in the 1950s were abandoned, and acquired by the province, who sponsored Expo86 and then sold off the land, much of it to Concord Pacific. They have developed it steadily over thirty years, and they have sites for three more buildings, with another three recently designed as non-market housing. They also own some of the land to the east of Cambie Bridge, in the Area known as North East False Creek. It includes the Plaza of Nations (owned by London and Metropolitan Properties), and that area is planned for future development too.

The most contaminated areas of former industrial use have been left undisturbed, covered and capped, and turned into a series of parks, with the residential tower and podium projects surrounding them. David Lam Park has the large grass space centre left of the picture.

On the south shore of False Creek a small part of the False Creek South neighbourhood can be seen. Regarded as a model of progressive urban planning in the 1970s, the City of Vancouver bought much of the industrial land here as the former mills closed down, or burned down, in the 1960s. A planned community with a public seawall, a marina and residential developments with a couple of commercial nodes were designed. Some of the buildings are co-ops, and others were developed on 60-year leasehold land, that will start to expire from the 2030s on.

The buildings closest to Cambie Bridge were developed in the 1980s, and are not on City-owned land. A plan is being developed to allow some further development in the area, but to date no Council has supported dramatic redevelopment to higher densities, although the area now seems underbuilt compared to areas that were built in subsequent decades.

Image sources: The contemporary image was published by Trish Jewison in February 2023, and taken from the Global traffic helicopter. The historic image is BC Archives I-21716.

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Almost exactly 40 years seperate these two images, taken from almost the same altitude and position. Trish Jewison shot the contemporary image (from the AM730 traffic helicopter), and posted it on her twitter feed in May of this year, while the earlier image was taken in 1983.

In the 1981 census 37,000 people were living in the West End (in the tidy rows of apartments on the upper left of the peninsula). In 2021 there were over 10,000 more in the same area. In the rest of Downtown the population jumped from 6,200 in 1981 to 69,700 in 2021. In the 40 years from 1982 to 2022 the office floorspace Downtown doubled, from 16 million square feet to 32 million.

In that time Downtown added a second stadium, a new roof on BC Place stadium (which was just opening in 1983), a cruise ship terminal, two convention centre buildings and a longer pier. The Marine Building is still standing, but new office towers hide all but the top of the tower, even from this altitude, but the Dominion Building still stands out, as Victory Square stops it being hidden.

In the next 40 years – and probably in only 20, there are already submitted proposals that could add another 10,000 people in the West End, and around 15,000 Downtown. Some of them will be living in the area south of BC Place Stadium, where the Plaza of Nations, built as part of Expo86, should finally be developed as housing, offices, retail and a waterfront dining and entertainment complex.

In the background, although Stanley Park looks green, over a quarter of the trees have died from a combination of drought and a looper moth infestation. 160,000, mostly younger, smaller, hemock trees are being cut down, and replaced with a mix of more resiliant native species.

Image source: BC Archives I-21786, and Trish Jewison, AM730 traffic helicopter.

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We saw the first wooden building for St Paul’s Hospital in a previous post. In 1903 ‘Mr Blenchert’ was shown applying to expand Mother Joseph of the Sacred Heart’s 1894 building. He added an addition to the west, behind the original building. He was Jean Baptiste Blanchet, by then living in Spokane, Washington, and he’d also been involved in designing the original building. The permit said C F Perry’s construction work would cost $25,000, but by the time it was reported in Contract Record and the local press it was costed at $40,000.

As well as the addition, the operating theatre was totally rebuilt with all the surfaces tiled ‘to keep the room absolutely clean and free from the dreaded microbe‘. Some of the floors were installed by Mr. C A Carpenter of San Francisco, using asbestolith. The work was complete by September 1904, and a who’s who of the city’s political and medical establishment were at a reception to celebrate the opening, although patients were already using some rooms. “A second building is practically completed to the rear of the main building, and as soon as the painters are through will be ready for occupancy. It is for the reception of contagious cases, and is detached altogether from the large hospital, being in fact to the other side of the laundry building.” Our postcard (from c1910) shows the 1904 addition.

At the end of 1911 new plans were revealed for major changes. The number of beds was planned to double to over 300, and a new cross-shaped building costing $250,000 was designed that would allow the first hospital to remain in operation, and then be moved to the back of the site once the new reinforced concrete framed building was in operation.

Robert F Tegan was hired to design the hospital, and the Norton Griffiths Steel Company won the construction contract, worth $200,000. The style of the building was described as ‘Italian renaissance’. “In designing the building the architect, while forming a complete structure, has made provision that, should exigencies demand additional accommodation such can be readily given by making the hospital the center of a still more costly building.”

There was a dispute over whether the contract included dam-proofing the cellar, and the architect held the final construction payment. The dispute went to arbitration, and the builders won a payment of $38,190.70, which was an additional $6,617 more than the previously calculated final payment to cover additional work that had been added to the contract.

Here’s a postcard, probably from the early 1920s, in the SFU collection, showing the completed building. Only a very small part of the 1912 building is visible in the contempory picture – the hospital was indeed extended further with wings on either side and a further addition towards Burrard Street on the 1911 building. A fragment of the facade of the northerly side of the cross can just be seen.

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There’s a row of warehouse along Water Street in this BC Archives image (which is dated 1962, but we think was part of a 1952 photography flight for the Ministry of the Provincial Secretary and Travel Industry, Film and Photographic Branch). They’re still there today, following the original city shoreline. All the land to the north of the buildings was added between 1886 and today. The town of Granville had been surveyed and sold before Vancouver (and the railway) came into being. As a result the railway and the first station were on piles in the shallow waters of Burrard Inlet. Some of the warehouse lots were originally in the water at high tide, and many of the first buildings on the north side of the street were also constructed on piles, over the water in the 1870s.

Described originally as having a rocky shoreline, it was extended and filled for the ever-expanding Canadian Pacific tracks and piers. The Marine Building used to have a front-row view of Burrard Inlet, over the tracks, perched on top of a cliff. So was 325 Howe, an earlier ‘skyscraper’ from 1911, still standing today. Now the Fairmont Pacific Rim hotel and condos is in front, with the more recent Convention Centre addition in front of that, where Freight Sheds A and B were once located on piers. We saw the piers looking in the opposite direction in an earlier aerial shot.

The Canadian Pacific Station was completed in 1914, the third and final location for trains to the east. Today it’s the entrance to two SkyTrain lines, the West Coast Express commuter trains, and the SeaBus to the north shore. Beyond it, over the tracks, is the Granville Square tower, designed by Francis Donaldson and completed in 1972. It was the first (and only) tower of the ill-fated Project 200 scheme that would have seen a wall of towers (and a freeway) replacing much of Gastown. Today there are several other office towers, including one completed at the end of last year.

Image source: BC Archives I-27902 and Trish Jewison, Global BC traffic helicopter, twitter April 2022.

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We have looked at most of the buildings in this 1968 image, but not seen a full street view like this. It’s a timely post because there are (once again) moves to review the role of Water Street, and whether to restict traffic some, or possibly all of the time. The street surface that gets installed will be a reflection of that decision. Currently the brick pavers and stone setts are in a mess, and have become worse over the past decades since the 1972 paving program. Every water main break and new pipe connection sees the street dug up, and an asphalt patch. Our image dates back to 1968, before the street trees, cluster lights, bollards and chains were installed.

This image was also from before the addition of the Harbour Centre tower, so Spencer’s departmental store was the biggest building in the area (taken over by Eaton’s in 1948, before they moved on to the new Pacific Centre mall on Granville Street). Once Eaton’s moved out, Sears replaced them. Later, Sears moved to Pacific Centre, replacing Eaton’s, only to be replaced in turn by Nordstrom, who have also now left the building (and Canada).

More recently Bosa’s new Granville street office tower has been completed, and can be seen from here, replacing a parkade developed in 1969, but invisible in the 1968 view. On the left the Edward Hotel is on the corner of Cambie. It’s recently been approved to add a 2-storey contemporary addition, and become a boutique hotel.

Image source: City of Vancouver Archives CVA 780-687

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We initially took a while to line this shot up. The before image was shot by Arthur Collier, and is labelled as being shot somewhere between 1955 and 1957. All of the buildings along Beach Avenue today were developed later than that, so we couldn’t line any of them up. We were able to identify Tudor Manor, some of it still standing, but some redeveloped as a tower today. The mountains also line up! (The image is available at a larger size if you click on it).

There’s a white, modernist 8-storey building on the western side of the picture. We’re pretty certain that’s The Pacific Beach, designed by Gerald Hamilton and completed in 1959, which would seem to be just completed when this picture was actually taken. The houses in front on Beach Avenue, were replaced by (from left to right) the 11 storey Penthouse Tower in 1965, 8-storey Ocean Villa in 1993 and 11-storey Beach Terrace in 1964. Those block the view of the building, and the Barafield Apartments which are behind the Pacific Beach, on Harwood street, seen as a grid of recessed balconies, not yet completed. The building was first leased at the end of 1959.

In the background, the tallest building in the centre of the 1950s image, with a red brick rear elevation is Holly Lodge, at a high point of Davie Street. It’s also possible to see Royal Mansions, developed in 1910, with a solid 5-storey red brick facade. That’s now hidden by The Tallin, completed in 1969, with 1133 Beach, even taller at 21 storeys and completed in 1973. The tallest tower, Sunset Plaza, on the right hand edge of the image today, has 26 floors and 176 apartments. Developed by Block Brothers, and completed in 1969, it had Lort and Lort as architects. In the gap between the towers the red roof of Pacific Horixon can be seen, built in 1978 and designed by Waisman Architectural Group.

Image Source: City of Vancouver Archives CVA 1415-154

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