Given Vancouver’s crazy real estate market it’s not surprising that so many interesting and unique bits of architecture get consigned to the landfill. So it’s a delight to find that all five of the houses (and a garage) designed by Dutch-born architect Jan Adriaan Pauw during his short time in Vancouver have survived. Jan Adriaan… Continue reading It’s Not Just Five Houses: The Architecture of Jan Adriaan Pauw
Historic Colour Analysis and the True Colours Palette My colleague Elana Zsyblat and I are presenting a workshop on paint and historic colours for the Vancouver Heritage Foundation on April 4th at Rodde House in the West End. Apart from the fabulous 19th Century interior of the house, Elana and I will be talking colour,… Continue reading Throwing Paint Around
Doing a bit of research recently I came across a picture of lovely looking Craftsman style house in the December 6, 1947 edition of the Vancouver Sun but instead of a house surrounded by a garden this house was was sitting on a flatbed trailer. This was the home of Mr C. L. Bennett and… Continue reading Moving House With Breakfast
Blood Alley Square an evocative name that conjures up brawls and murders, or slaughter houses and butchers, the hangman’s noose, and of course ghosts. Blood Alley Square was the name officially given to the recently created space in the 1970s, a part of the renovation and beautification of the newly minted heritage district of Gastown. In… Continue reading What’s in a Name?
The recent fire and demolition of the Winters Hotel at Water and Abbott Streets was a shock and is a loss for Gastown and the city. Designed in 1907 by W.T. Whiteway for Mrs Alice Winters, the hotel welcomed travellers and businessmen to Vancouver. For its day it was a good hotel with 120 rooms,… Continue reading The Winters Hotel, John McAfee and a Trunk…
It was a one paragraph item in the August 8, 1955 edition of the Vancouver Sun noting that a house formally owned by Ezak Nep at 878 SW Marine Drive had been wrecked by people looking for a supposed fortune hidden somewhere in the house. I made a note in my book of perpetual research… Continue reading Treasure House Ransacked
A 120 year old house is stripped of its 1960s era stucco. Underneath, original siding with an uncommon profile is revealed and looked to be in great shape. The next day the siding is ripped of the house and tossed. The house is gutted and all of the interior fittings hit the disposal bin. The porch… Continue reading Volumetric Preservation maybe ’cause it sure isn’t heritage or conservation
This summer we’re looking at some quirky and interesting bits of the city. Walks start at 7:00pm and cost 10 bucks. No reservations needed, just show up at the location listed. Walks go regardless of the weather. July 13 – Strathcona: the other side of the tracks The area between the CN tracks and Clark… Continue reading Wednesday Night Heritage Walks!
Sometimes the third time isn’t lucky. The Beedie Group has revamped their proposed tower at 105 Keefer yet again. But they really haven’t learned much in the intervening months since pulling their previous design. If you are going to build on the edge of a nationally significant community, it pays to understand the place and… Continue reading Around and Around We Go…
The vast majority of homes built in Vancouver and the surrounding municipalities were not the work of local architects but from designs found in plan books. Published in the US and Canada, these books illustrated a variety of designs that were available in plan form from the publisher. Companies such as Radford, Keith, Wilson and others… Continue reading Plan Books and Vancouver
What Floats to the Top of My Desk 