Vancouver has never cared about heritage. As befitting a city founded on a real estate play (moving the CPR terminus from Port Moody to Granville) it has always been about flogging real estate. It's merely sunk to an even lower level lately.
Exactly. That, I think, is the only logical way to see it. If you don't detach yourself emotionally from Vancouver built heritage you're only going to get hurt. That city isn't a museum, it's a Wild West of flipping and speculation, no sense developing an attachment to something as fleeting as what's currently built there.
I made it a point to visit the Cloud 9 revolving restaurant at the top of the 42-floor Empire Landmark Hotel before its pending demolition. Here is my final tribute to this landmark building which is still standing tall for a brief moment.
Despite the small floorplate of the tower, there are 4 elevators inside. They service all floors, including the revolving Cloud 9 restaurant on the 42nd floor.
From the top the view is stunning with surrounding city basking in the late afternoon sun.
Lost of new construction in south Downtown area.
The view towards northwest is very open, extending over Stanley Park and to the North Shore. However, in couple of years this view will be lost, as the red tower in the middle will be surrounded by much taller new wow-architecture towers.
North Shore preparing for the night.
Warm summer day coming to an end with sun setting over English Bay and Stanley Park.
Afternoon traffic crawling towards Lions Gate Bridge.
Lions Gate Bridge
What a view of Coal Harbour and Downtown Vancouver!!
It wasn't just the view, but the food was good, too.
Shangri-La and Trump Tower loom over rest of Downtown.
Metrotown skyline and Burnaby in the distance. Mount Baker is shrouded in the clouds a bit left from this picture.
BC Place roof peeking at the end of Robson Street.
Time for some cheesecake dessert.
One Wall Centre and Patina.
Shangri-La, Vancouver's tallest skyscraper.
Trump Tower
Robson Street shopping corridor runs through entire Downtown.
Evening setting in.
Lush and green West End is a hidden gem on the Downtown peninsula.
GOODBYE VIEW!!!
I am so happy I got a chance to visit the restaurant on its final days before it closed down for good in anticipation of pending demolition of this landmark tower. I wish I would have made it up there more often, as the view was indeed something to behold and being a revolving restaurant it was so easy to enjoy it while indulging some good food.
I hope you enjoyed my small tribute to this building. Thank you.
Ironically, there's tons of commie blocks in these views that are much less visually appealing that this somewhat unique, sleek 1970s skyscraper (and they're also shorter).
If you picked a few random towers to sacrifice to redevelopment while keeping the Empire Landmark instead, I would think in 99% of the cases it would be a great trade off architecturally.
So I guess The Empire Landmark Hotel has to be demolished because it ain't on par with the latest construction standards? If no, why don't they just refurbish it? Will they implode the building or will they remove floor by floor? Seems to me that imploding it might be too close to neighbour buildings and retail? It's really sad if that building disappears.
The biggest irony is what a massive waste of materials demolishing this large and still structurally sound tower is in a city that loves to self proclaim itself as "The Greenest City"
Aren't hotels usually unfeasible to convert to residential in the first place? The building's structure and guts are designed around small units. This tower, in particular, is incredibly slim. I think of Toronto. The old Four Seasons was converted but, it had unusually large hotel suites. The rest were all effectively demolished with only the old Sutton Place seeing some reuse with its bare bone structure being heavily modified. The largest hotel in the country, one million square feet of built area, IIRC, is proposed to be completely destroyed.
All the converted hotels in Thunder Bay have ended up as apartments aimed to seniors and singles. One has had some units merged into larger apartments, but it's a wide, long building that was more easily converted into apartments. The few that have become large apartments are all poorly laid out, almost maze-like (I have a cousin who lives in one, it has two entrances to two different hallways) and tend to become slums.