Georgia Residences work uncovers heritage surprises’
Sun
Saturday, June, 21, 2008
Part of the Private Residences at the Hotel Georgia new-home project in downtown Vancouver is the reclamation and restoration of the adjacent, and historic, hotel. That work is turning up long-lost architectural detail such as ballroom windows (above left) and generating an opportunity to burnish the reopened hotel with the ambience of its inaugural decade, the 1920s. ‘Heritage renovation is all about detective work and unexpected discoveries,’ says architect Malcolm Elliot of Endall Elliot Architects. ‘There are great surprises such as when we discovered portions of original ballroom windows well preserved and buried under the brick in the existing ballroom walls. ‘This discovery of heritage relics will assist us in the design and construction of identical replacement heritage windows to be resurrected in the reconstructed ballroom.’ Restoration projects include: • The wrought iron railing (above right) of the staircase connecting and promenade and ballroom. • The door (below) in what was once called the York Room, on the promenade. •The two fireplaces on the promenade, which disappeared from public view when the promenade was broken up into rooms.
The Private Residences at the Hotel Georgia new-home project, because it involves the restoration and renovation of a downtown Vancouver landmark, demonstrates the contribution of the past, and not a distant past, to the commercial present. ‘Heritage redevelopment allows us retain our links to the past within updated quality buildings that satisfy our changing needs into the future,’ says architect Malcolm Elliot of Endall Elliot. ‘From the very beginning, we felt the strong architectural character of this historic Georgian landmark would be a real differentiator for this development.’ The hotel opened in 1926. Shown on this page are the ballroom (above left) before a renovation eliminated windows at one end of the room; the promenade (left) before it was turned into a corridor lined with small offices and meeting rooms; and the hotel sign above the corner of Howe and Georgia, a photograph taken in 1958 on the occasion of B.C.'s centennial. The Hotel Georgia has asked city hall permit installation of a similar sign.
The promenade will be restored to its original size and made into a space that can be used as it was previously — for receptions or drinks before an event in the ballroom, which is off the promenade. The ballroom windows will be replaced. Their condition is too poor to be used as originally installed. If the discovery of long-ago covered-over windows in the ballroom was a pleasant surprise, the discovery of an originalconstruction shortcut was an unpleasant surprise. “There have been unfortunate surprises such as our discovery that the Hotel Georgia concrete structure had not been built to the strength requirements of the original 1926 design,’ architect Elliot reports. “Some of the steel reinforcing had been left out and the concrete was not of the appropriate strength. “The solution to this challenge has resulted in the wrapping of the under strength columns and beams with hightech carbon fibre to increase their strength.”
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