Which Vancouver buildings do you hate the most?

[delboy]

Originally Posted by vanman

I've always liked the Blue Horizon. I think it represents the era that it emerged from well. That blue tile that you loathe is what makes the building unique and stand out. I would hope this building one day is protected for it's heritage value and never torn down.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/1959557...59871/sizes/l/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/hambox/458028757/

Now the Aquatic Center, Sears, and Chateau Granville should all be imploded ASAP!

My god that tile must be everywhere. I used to rent a place in the west end that had the same tile in the bathroom!

[delboy]

Originally Posted by BCPhil

The Chateau Granville is also pretty ugly. It looks like one of those public housing ghettos they used to build in the 70's. You know? make it look so depressing that it motivates the people in it to move out. I also don't like it because of it's location. It seems so out of place on that stretch of Granville.


source Chateau Granville site.

I hate it - looks like Russian Soviet Era - public housing! We should rename it the "Leningrad"

[deasine]

Originally Posted by delboy

My god that tile must be everywhere. I used to rent a place in the west end that had the same tile in the bathroom!

Hey mosaic tile is popular now... well at least glass mosaic. The base of Scotiabank (not Scotia Tower) at Burrard & Nelson uses a similar tile, from that same era.

[red-paladin]

Looks like a 1950s pee-wall.

Then again, everyone complains Vancouver is too boring with lots of towers that look the same. So maybe we should appreciate the odd ugly ones.

[ambiguoustraveller]

Originally Posted by nova9

What would you have people put in place? I'm not sure how diversity of the citizens will change the look of a single-family dwelling. I'm not sure I understand, please elaborate.

I was simply referring to the fact that many of the most culturally interesting neighbourhoods in Vancouver are not as aesthetically pleasing or as dense as they could be. The southern stretches of Main St, for example, provide lots of very interesting window shopping and amazing food options. But do Vancouverites from other parts of the city regularly make visits to Main and 52nd, for example? Do tourists? No, because the look of the neighbourhood is kind of bland and suburban. Perhaps it's simply the reality of modern immigration that "bland and suburban" is what people want, but when you compare these areas to "old school" ethnic enclaves, like Chinatown or Commercial drive, they simply don't have the same drawing power (despite being just as interesting behind the surface). I would imagine that flexibility in zoning could change this dramatically.

I wasn't stating that the "diversity of the citizens will change the look of a single-family dwelling", I was simply lamenting the fact that so much of the city was allowed to be filled with bland, stucco, single family houses. In my ideal world these would be replaced with rowhouses and apartment buildings. Now that the Canada Line has been built, this seems like an especially urgent issue. When you compare the changes that have happened in Burnaby and Richmond along skytrain lines, they are miles ahead of Vancouver. We often forget that the "city" is not just downtown.

[nova9]

I see.

In terms of the stucco houses though, isn't that just a cheap, affordable form. Considering the new-immigrant market that we enjoy, what is another form that would be as affordable (in terms of new construction)? Keeping in mind that a rental suite(s) would be highly sought after.

In my layman's opinion, stucco houses are the result of the need by the many families that don't want or don't have the funds/skills to remodel new houses and the need of wanting a rental suite (mortgage helper).

I'd love for someone to find another form that fulfills those requirements because I'd want to get one of those rather than a stucco house.

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by red-paladin

Looks like a 1950s pee-wall.

Then again, everyone complains Vancouver is too boring with lots of towers that look the same. So maybe we should appreciate the odd ugly ones.

Wouldn't it be even better if the stereotyped bland ones were offset by a scattering of exceptionally beautiful, striking ones? (dream on... dream on... dream on...)

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by delboy

I hate it - looks like Russian Soviet Era - public housing! We should rename it the "Leningrad"

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by vanman

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hambox/458028757/

That Scotiabank is in the Electra (old BC Hydro Building).

[trofirhen]

Wouldn't it be grand to REBUILD, from scratch, using the original plans .... The Birks Building?

It was Edwardian, one of the classiest buildings in town ..... and then .......

I know finding a location is a problem (unless we demolish the Scotia Tower, hee hee), but we could build a Birks Building, and then add another profitable, high-rise component behind it, much the way they are doing with the Georgia.

Losing the Birks Building was almost criminal.

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by entheosfog

Put me on the list of people that like 1500 West Georgia, especially considering it was built in the late 1970s. Compare it to other buildings of the same vintage.

Sears is in my bad books, as well as the London Drugs on the corner of Granville & Georgia, formerly Birks, and at one time, the original Birks building sat there until it was demolished for the crap that sits there today.

Original Birks building:

(pic from the Vancouver Public Library website: vpl.com)

And now:

(pic from the LD website: londondrugs.com)

Could we do it? Could we? There is nothing as remotely elegant in the city today, at least in period architecture.

[officedweller]

Nothing as large. The Rogers Block is a bit further north of Granville, as is the Royal Bank Building and Sinclair Centre.

[Stingray2004]

Originally Posted by trofirhen

Wouldn't it be grand to REBUILD, from scratch, using the original plans .... The Birks Building?

It was Edwardian, one of the classiest buildings in town

Would that also include the same original elevators, which included the "elevator boy" whereby he opened and closed the cage gate at every floor and who also asked for which floor everyone wished to depart on? (until its demolition) My mom's dentist was situate in the Birks Building.

But you have a good point. While the interior was just an antiquated office building, I could see the exterior Edwardian facade reconstructed as a higher-end condominium building called "The Birks" albeit on another site.

Not much different than the massive rebuilding of Dresden's pre-1945 Baroque Neumarkt still underway:

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=250017

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by Stingray2004

Would that also include the same original elevators, which included the "elevator boy" whereby he opened and closed the cage gate at every floor and who also asked for which floor everyone wished to depart on? (until its demolition) My mom's dentist was situate in the Birks Building.

But you have a good point. While the interior was just an antiquated office building, I could see the exterior Edwardian facade reconstructed as a higher-end condominium building called "The Birks" albeit on another site.

Not much different than the massive rebuilding of Dresden's pre-1945 Baroque Neumarkt still underway:

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=250017

Thank you, Stingray2004, for your customary insight. Yes, that's largely what I had in mind. It's the elegant exterior shell I'd love to re-create, and using it as the basis for a high-end project ("The Birks" is a fine name, too) is just what I had thought of.

[Millennium2002]

All these photos make me think... how many "nice" buildings have we lost to depressing designs like the Sears Building or London Drugs? =S

I also wonder.... on the other hand... if these buildings were kept... would there have been issues running Pacific Centre and various other subterranean malls all over the place (as well as tunnels for rapid transit?

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by delboy

I hate it - looks like Russian Soviet Era - public housing! We should rename it the "Leningrad"

Yes; the Chateau Granville - YECCH!! But your description and nickname fit it perfectly! ! (I wonder if there's some way we could find to have it torn down? Wouldn't that be great?)