Downtown Vancouver Updates

[mcminsen]

Originally Posted by Feathered Friend

1 West Hastings

http://www.millenniumdevelopment.com/downloads/1-West-Hastings-lease-info.pdf

Gastown Historic Area Planning Committee


http://vancouver.ca/files/cov/pdf/committees/GHAPC%20-%20Agenda%20-%202017-12-20.pdf

^^^ Click on the link to go to Feathered Friend's post to see info, pictures and links about the old Merchants Bank building on Hastings (at Pigeon Park) that was being restored.

Here are some pics from today.



Mar.5 '18, my pics

[mcminsen]

Originally Posted by mcminsen

July 1 '17, my pics

41 East Hastings Street, the old United We Can bottle depot site.




Mar.5 '18, my pics

[giallo]

Thanks for the pics, mcminsen. I'm looking forward to seeing how Merchants Bank turns out. It's a beautiful building.

[VancouverOfTheFuture]

Originally Posted by giallo

Thanks for the pics, mcminsen. I'm looking forward to seeing how Merchants Bank turns out. It's a beautiful building.

is anything moving in there already? it is a nice building and they've done a good job, but that park out front could be a problem finding tenants.

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by VancouverOfTheFuture

is anything moving in there already? it is a nice building and they've done a good job, but that park out front could be a problem finding tenants.

Seems to still be up for lease:

https://spacelist.ca/p/bc/vancouver/1_w_hastings_st

[csbvan]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

Seems to still be up for lease:

https://spacelist.ca/p/bc/vancouver/1_w_hastings_st

It always amazes me that trains ran RIGHT in front of the Merchant's Bank building. That image of the streetcar parked while waiting for the cargo train to pass is fantastic.

[Bdawe]

Originally Posted by csbvan

It always amazes me that trains ran RIGHT in front of the Merchant's Bank building. That image of the streetcar parked while waiting for the cargo train to pass is fantastic.

those are baggage cars, so it's probably a passenger train heading to the yards.

In-service passenger trains also used to go that way for Steveston service over the Arbutus Line before the lines (the "Vancouver & Lulu Island Railway) were leased to the BCER and electrified

[officedweller]

The wraps (?) covering the large spandrel panels look great!

Originally Posted by mcminsen

41 East Hastings Street, the old United We Can bottle depot site.

Mar.5 '18, my pics

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by officedweller

The wraps (?) covering the large spandrel panels look great!

They're glass - "Local artist Judy Chartrand was asked to create art for the 14 glass panels on the front façade of Olivia Skye, as well as for the glass canopy that will shelter people walking by". You can see Judy’s artist's statement here.

[officedweller]

Thanks.
McMinsen's earlier pics show standard gray spandrel, so they must have swapped out the standard panes when the artist finished the final ones.

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by Bdawe

those are baggage cars, so it's probably a passenger train heading to the yards.

In-service passenger trains also used to go that way for Steveston service over the Arbutus Line before the lines (the "Vancouver & Lulu Island Railway) were leased to the BCER and electrified

One of the photos in the archives prior to those ones said the line was discontinued in the 1930s:

http://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/canadian-pacific-railway-train-crossing-at-carrall-street

[Bdawe]

Yes, the line was discontinued when the Dunsmuir Tunnel was constructed, which allowed trains heading to the yards to not snarl up Downtown traffic and enabled them to run through Waterfront Station rather than having to back out.

[mcminsen]

Originally Posted by mcminsen

They're finally getting that steel frame cut up and taken down at 401 W. Georgia.

March 2 '18, my pic

Disappearing fast now.



Mar.6 '18, my pics

[logan5]

Lol.

[Changing City]

I think we may have seen the pre application for this? Now submitted as a rezoning, the next twin towers project for the West End - Bosa and Kingswood designed by Buro Ole Scheeren (with Francl Architecture as the architect of record). A few more details on the changing city blog.

[s211]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

I'd love to know what the building with the arched top (above the 6174 rail car in the picture) was for. I absolutely love its over-the-topness.

[retro_orange]

Originally Posted by s211

I'd love to know what the building with the arched top (above the 6174 rail car in the picture) was for. I absolutely love its over-the-topness.

The Rex Theatre.

[Chikinlittle]

Looks like it was the Rex Theatre at 25 West Hastings. You can see it in one of the other picture above too. Check Google Images at minimum to see a few other angles of it.

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by s211

I'd love to know what the building with the arched top (above the 6174 rail car in the picture) was for. I absolutely love its over-the-topness.

As other's have noted, the Rex Theatre, from 1913. It replaced a warehouse, and in turn had the façade knocked off in 1959 when the frame was incorporated into the Army & Navy store.

[Prometheus]

Just one of many spectacular and grand historic theatres Vancouver has destroyed. I believe this building technically still exists. The owner who purchased it in the 50s or 60s destroyed all the exterior architectural features, converted the interior into commercial space and covered the once exquisite facade with the blue aluminum siding you see today.

An even grander theatre existed directly across the street (maybe one of the greatest vaudeville theatres on the entire west coast of North America). It was destroyed and replaced with the welfare housing ghetto you see today.

EDIT: Look at that, someone just beat me to it.