Metro Vancouver buildings in most need of restoration / renovation
 

I wanted to start a thread to bring up for conversation the heritage buildings in Metro Vancouver that are most in need for restoration or renovation.

To start us off, I nominate the Cobalt Hotel and the two buildings on either side.
This could be a great block if it was taken care of, but it's disgusting and dilapidated at the moment.

Front:
https://www.google.com/maps/@49.2764...FXYYSDCduw!2e0

Behind:
https://www.google.com/maps/@49.2762...gIiVKQOLAg!2e0

Side:
https://www.google.com/maps/@49.2768...BDjLcvLKtw!2e0


I look forward to yours posts of well known buildings in need of investment, and little known gems barely still standing.

All of Westend. :rolleyes:

Agreed, I love the residential streets, the mature trees, the setbacks and overall 'soul' and charm of the West End, but if you look beyond the foliage and atmosphere, most of the buildings look to be in terrible shape and many nearing the end of their useful life.

Many of the 3 - 4 storey 50's wood-frame walk-ups are a mess, with literally some bulging at the sides along with giant cracks in the facades.

Most of the classic 60's rental buildings need paint, new windows and likely much more. I guess, however, many are still providing relatively affordable rental housing so they're serving a needed purpose for now.

I know developers are salivating over much of the West End so I expect we'll see major change in the next decade or so.

Gabriola Mansion could use a bit of a renovation. i quite like the look of the house and all the custom stone work.

nothing a good earthquake can't fix

Mole Hill houses around Arbutus

Mac-Blo building. Aren't there pieces of exposed rebar on the beast?

I know it's not heritage but I'd love to see this POS renovated or demolished.

I don't know how it has been left in such poor shape considering it's across the street from City Hall.

In terms of heritage structures, I think the Burrard Street Bridge still needs a lot more money put into it to restore it to it's former glory.

EDIT: Another set of buildings that I would love to see fixed up would be the ones south of the VIA rail station. Seen here.

Will most likely turn into the garbage littering the rest of Terminal :D

I'd be shocked if anything happens to the building kitty corner to City Hall anytime soon. The owner is a little bit of a loose cannon, there are major issues with that building, from mould to structural (there is at least two balconies separating from the building). I'm pretty sure 80% of the respectable finance companies in the city and then some have been through there to look into the risks of financing. The owner to sell wants a ridiculous amount of money, and the last I had heard planning wasn't overtly receptive to rezoning the site to allow the density that would be required to justify the number to buy.

When I was in town last week it seemed to be mostly patched up.

Of the big office buildings I would like to see fixed up Scotia is at the top. The overall massing is nice, but the brown glass and panels with visible blinds looks just awful. Recladding it with black glass and panels would make it one of the more handsome office buildings in the city IMO.

The building your referring to, the old Plaza hotel, is currently being renovated by the owner. It will end up office space on the lower floors with condos in the higher floors.

When?

I live in the area and walk by this place at least a couple of times per week. There has been 0 movement on this building in at least a year - save for some orange fencing that went around some of the trees facing Cambie, ooh, 6 months ago?
There are no construction people, no surveyors, nothing on this site.

There was previous discussion on this board at least 12-18 months ago (when the demo/reno suddenly halted) that the owner ran out of money when the workers discovered asbestos on-site so the costs went way above their budget. Then there was talk on here that the city was going to ?expropriate? the project and possibly turn it into low-income housing. Perhaps it was all speculation from this board's posters, but at least some of those posts seemed plausible.

Offices and condos you say, eh? Source please?

This is the last I heard anything:

January 22, 2013:
http://www.vancourier.com/news/old-p...uites-1.385391

January 29, 2013:
http://www.vancourier.com/news/plaza...suits-1.383223

The decision was made but funding has halted. From what I've heard from the information floating around my office things have resumed, but they are still deciding on what to do with their huge asbestos issue. We had received some information from the owner that this was the current direction they wanted to go in, but this was two months or so ago. The company I work for was involved when the asbestos was discovered, and we've been off site for a year plus now.

I nominate the old hostel 'Dunsmuir International Village' building at Dunsmuir and Richards: https://www.google.com/maps/@49.2823...-Q!2e0!6m1!1e1

It doesn't look to bad in this shot, but it's filthy and no doubt bedbug ridden.

Nice to see this article in the G&M yesterday about one needy building getting a full-on restoration:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/...ticle19742886/

It hasn't been renovated for quite sometime. Vanbots was the original contractor, Carillion took it over in their purchase of Vanbots. I was in the building probably 2.5 years ago, if not 3 with the last Carillion Superintendent on a tour of the building and the condition it was in. There were numerous issues with the building including asbestos, mould (the mould was the bigger issue); structural deficiencies (there are several balconies that are separating from the structure), envelope issues etc.

My recollection was the bank/former prime consultant wanted all the windows replaced due to an on-going mould issue, the bank stopped funding and told Popat that he needed to put in more equity, he refused, they called their loan and it shut down. I've been speaking to several commercial mortgage lenders who have looked at funding the completion of the renovation for rental/office and they have all declined to fund based on some of the issues mentioned above.

I wish that these these WWII Quonset hut like buildings would be restored and put on the heritage register.

https://www.google.ca/maps/@49.28266...!3m1!1e3?hl=en
https://www.google.ca/maps/@49.28122...1w6g!2e0?hl=en

My old high school out at UBC (University Hill) has a giant Quonset-style gymnasium. Here's a pretty good interior shot: http://images.glaciermedia.ca/polopo...lass-notes.jpg, but it's it's a bit hard to see from Google StreetView's view: https://www.google.ca/maps/@49.26216...qIaA!2e0?hl=en

U-Hill is now a middle school named Norma Rose Point Middle School. U-Hill moved right into the heart of UBC (http://beaconnews.ca/wp-content/uplo...-secondary.jpg) into a renovated NRC building that, I understand, is partially shared with UBC's education program in order to permanently integrate UBC's teacher's college with their petri dish practicum school into the future teachers' education.

The old U-Hill got extensive renovations and the Quonset gym got a full renovation, so that's kind of like your desire for heritage status and renovations. Here's an in-progress renovation photo: http://www.jarviseng.com/site_assets...normarose3.png It's kind of surreal: I used to hang out in that hallway (the exposed wall) during lunch hours with my first friends at high school during grade 8. The stairwell on the left goes down to the girls' change room while the stairwell on the right leads down to the boys'.