A Few Photos Showing Changes to Our Urban Landscape Over the Past Decade

Happy New Year!

I’m not going to devote much text to this post; it is a slideshow, for the most part. The photos are my own made in Greater Vancouver over the past ten years. The photos have a story to tell; the story is about rapid redevelopment in the Metro area.

Some for better, some not so much.

• 

  The Security guy shown here is guarding the gate to the parking garage that formerly was at the SE corner of Cordova at Granville. This structure was demolished in 2019. It will be replaced by the Bosa Waterfront residential condo (currently under construction). August 2015. MDM photo.

• 

  This is a view from inside the Commerce Bank at the SW corner of Hastings at Hamilton as it was being demolished. Dressew is visible (yellow awning) across the street. The bank has been replaced by an SFU campus: Charles Chang Innnovation Centre. This is the site where the plaque commemorating the location of the first city survey stake was placed in 1952 (and lost when the building was demolished.) It has not been replaced. February 2015. MDM photo.

• 

  The Vancouver Antique Mall is no longer at 422 Richards, but happily, the building that it occupied is. This building housed the Bank of B.C., Pitman College, and assorted other businesses over the years. August 2015. MDM photo.

• 

  It may surprise you to know that this classic directional sign is no longer near the corner of Georgia at Howe (across the street from the Hotel Georgia). The sign was quietly removed during a recent re-do to Art Gallery landscaping. March 2015. MDM photo.

• 

  This media booth (which was intended to be a temporary structure) was erected at the Vancouver Convention Centre for the 2015 FIFA Soccer match. It was demolished after FIFA was over. June 2015. MDM photo.

• 

  This ‘ghost sign’ was uncovered in 2012 at the SW corner of Robson at Granville. It showed a 1922 ad for the Harold Lloyd film “Grandma’s Boy” which was playing across Granville at the Capitol Theatre. The ad was painted on an exterior wall of the Power Building and was hidden the next year (1923) when the Farmer Building went up at the corner of Robson/Granville. The wall, together with the ad, were lost when the wall was demolished by Ledcor — the modern developer of the site — just two weeks after the sign was discovered. March 2012. MDM photo.

• 

  This New Westminster Gas Works (231 12th Street, NW) was demolished in 2018 by order of the City of New Westminster. It was in very poor shape and probably it was time for it to be demolished. But I still look for it whenever my Skytrain goes past the site. December 2015. MDM 2015.

• 

  This shows the footings of previous buildings nearby the NE corner of West Hastings near Granville. The building just visible at the top of the image is today’s Birk’s building. One of the businesses that stood on this block was Trorey’s jewellers (a predecessor of Birk’s Brothers). Oct 2015. MDM photo.