[officedweller]

The Georgia-Medical Dental Building would have been too expensive to retrofit for modern office use - i.e. low ceilings, unreinforced brick, small floor plate, etc. In addition - you can't tell from the pic - the building was "L" shaped (like the Georgia Hotel).

In that pic you ca also see the Customs House building by the Marine Building. That modernist building was by the same architect at the Vancouver Public Library and I think the Burrard Building (prior to recladding of course). It was demolished in the early 1990s and 401 Burrard was eventually built referencing some of the massing and geometry of the Customs House.

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For the Georgia Hotel, the hotel part of the site is a Class B Heritage site and is currently being restored and is set to reopen well before the tower is completed. David Hawksworth of West fame will be operating a new restaurant in the hotel. Can't recall the name of the boutique hotel operator. Apparently much of the interior spaces will be restored - esp. on the second floor, which used to be a large open lounge that was later partitioned off into meeting rooms. The Ballroom (which I think was a leter addition to the hotel?) was demolished and will be recreated in its original form - including a mezzanine level that looked down onto the guests in the ballroom.