The buildings include some that are old, some that are new, many with ideas that were borrowed and a few whose color is blue. Many represent "high" ("polite") arhitecture--architect-designed buildings that emulated trends of the time and overtly strove to make important statements. Others are "vernacular" buildings that follow "folk" traditions with little conscious effort at design, yet are just as expressive of the cultures that produced them, although in a more passive way. (These are the "high road" and "low road" buildings identified in How Buildings Learn, a fine new book by Stuart Brand, editor of the first Whole Earth Catalogue). The thoughtful reader will have little trouble differentiating the two streams.

Much of the information on buildings in Vancouver and the North Shore appears in Exploring Vancouver, by Harold Kalman, Ron Phillips and Robin Ward published by UBC Press in 1993. it is used here with the generous permission of Ron Phillips, Robin Ward and the publisher. Additional material has come from the informative heritage inventories that have been prepared by most municipalities (many funded in part by the British Columbia Heritage Trust) as well as published histories of the region's communities, descriptions in architectural periodicals, guides and brochures, and my A History of Canadian Architecture (1994). Information on many buildings was kindly provided by architectural firms, municipalities, government agencies and the buildings' occupants. New research for The Greater Vancouver Book was undertaken by Meg Stanley. My very warm thanks to all who helped.

VANCOUVER: GASTOWN, CHINATOWN, STRATHCONA, DOWNTOWN EAST SIDE Byrnes Block 2 Water Street, Vancouver Elmer H. Fisher, 1886-87

In many ways the symbol of Gastown, this commercial block, resplendent in its pilasters and pediments, rose shortly after the Great Fire of 1886. One of the city's first brick buildings, developed by Victoria realtor George Byrnes, it stands on the site of the second saloon of Gassy Jack Deighton, whose chief legacy to Gastown was his nickname. The ornament advertised the relative opulence of the Alhambra Hotel, one of the few in town then charging more than a dollar a night. A dedicated fire truck chaser, architect Fisher soon smelled smoke in Seattle and rebuilt that city's Pioneer Square district after its fire of 1889. The phoenix-like role of the Byrnes Block was repeated in the late l960s when it became one of the first buildings in Gastown to be rehabilitated--this time by realtor Larry Killam. The face-lift helped to turn around the then- shabby district.

Hotel Europe 43 Powell Street, Vancouver Parr and Fee, 1908-09 The Hotel Europe was the first reinforced-concrete structure in Vancouver. So foreign was the technology that it had to be built by contractors from Cincinnati, Ohio--the Ferro-Concrete Construction Company, which six years earlier had built the first tall concrete building in the world. Italian-Canadian hotelier Angelo Colari built this flatiron block as the best commercial hotel in town. The flat brick walls and sparse decoration contrast with the ornate Alhambra Hotel (Byrnes Block) across the street. Architects J.E. Parr and Thomas A. Fee developed a highly successful--and pragmatic--Vancouver practice. Many of their plain, glazed-brick commercial buildings remain throughout the Downtown area. The firm advertised that they specialized in the production of buildings that will pay: "Utilitas is their motto, and revenue their aim."

Four Sisters Housing Cooperative 133 Powell Street, Vancouver Davidson and Yuen, 1987 The Downtown Eastside Residents Association (DERA), a community advocacy group that represents the many needy people in this inner-city neighborhood, has been admirably active as a developer. DERA has renovated and built several blocks of what the city calls "social" housing. The Four Sisters Co-op is one of the many success stories. Largely new wood-and-masonry construction and partly rehabilitated warehouse (facing on Alexander Street), the award-winning building was constructed with the help of public-sector funding and is managed by its residents.

Chinese Cultural Centre 50 East Fender Street, Vancouver James K.M. Cheng, with Romses, Kwan and Associates, 1981 Chinatown remains the focus of Vancouver's strong Chinese-Canadian community, as it has been for more than a century, although the neighborhood has recently been challenged by commercial centres in Richmond and other suburban areas. The Chinese Cultural Centre was erected to celebrate the community's achievements and reinforce the primacy of Chinatown. The frontispiece of the concrete post-and-beam structure is a traditional gateway, made in China, and erected here after having first been installed at Expo 86. Aspects of the plan follow the principles of feng shui, the traditional Chinese practice of topology and geomancy Behind the Chinese Cultural Centre is the exquisite Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden (Joe Wai, 1986) which recreates the retreat of a scholar of the Ming Dynasty and is based on a prototype in Suzhou, China's "City of Gardens."

Ballantyne Pier North foot of Heatley Street 1921-23; Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership, 1994-95 Although only a cargo-storage and loading facility for Vancouver's busy port, the original Ballantyne Pier was designed more as a triumphal gateway to the city than a warehouse. Seen by Vancouver Port Corporation as an aging symbol that was inadequate for today's seismic (earthquake) requirements and functional needs, the Pier's storage sheds were mostly demolished and redeveloped with a large new addition that respects (and discreetly recedes from) the restored original facade. A small part of the attractive original concrete structure has been retained inside. The new complex combines a cruise ship terminal on the upper level with general cargo-handling facilities at ground level.

Former American Can Company Building 611 Alexander Street C.G. Preis, 1925 rehabilitated, Bruno Freschi, 1988 Old and new are superbly mated in this industrial building, built as a container factory and retooled to become a chic design centre. It features showrooms for Vancouver's emerging clothing designers as well as offices and studios' occupied by architects and others in the design industry. The original modern reinforced-concrete building, whose large windows are enclosed by spandrels and piers with a soupçon of Gothic and Art Deco, has been enhanced by the insertion of a large internal atrium. The entrance is marked by an elegant filigree tower and spire of steel and glass which contains a new elevator.

St. James's Anglican Church 303 East Cordova Street Adrian Gilbert Scott, with Sharp and Thompson, 1935-37 This extraordinary church is at once traditional and radical--reflecting its congregation's adherence to the conservative Anglo-Catholic liturgy while practising an active and liberal program of delivering social services to the area's needy. Designed by a member of the British architectural dynasty founded by cathedral-builder Sir George Gilbert Scott, St. James's provides an ingenious solution to a constricted corner site where it is squeezed between adjacent parish buildings (Clergy House and St. Luke's Home on Cordova Street and the Rectory on Gore Street, all designed by Sharp and Thompson in the 1920s). The overall impression recalls both Romanesque and Gothic churches yet without any literal quotations from historical styles. The Central sanctuary is almost Byzantine in feeling with its deep arches supporting a wood ceiling and octagonal tower. The structure is monolithic reinforced concrete with inner and outer walls separated by a 60-centimetre space and internal concrete trusses buttressing the tower. Most radical is the exposed concrete both inside and out, making the building somewhat of a pioneer of the modern movement in Canada.

Sun Tower 100 West Pender Street, Vancouver W.T. Whiteway, 1911-12 Vancouver has produced several claimants to the title of tallest building in the British Empire (or Commonwealth), among them this 17-storey (84-metre high) skyscraper, which outreached the previous title-holder, the nearby Dominion Building (207 West Hastings Street, 1908-10). It was eclipsed in turn in 1914 by the Royal Bank of Canada's 20-storey Toronto offices. The Sun Tower was built for the Vancouver World--and, for nearly 30 years. occupied by the Vancouver Sun. The developer in this case was newspaper publisher and sometime mayor Louis D. Taylor, a man not noted for modesty. The bombastic Beaux-arts copper dome is complemented by nine risqué maidens ("caryatids"), half-way up the building. The slender shaft rises from a broad base, much like Seattle's renowned Smith Tower (1910-14), which boasted of being the tallest building in the world outside New York City. It will soon be overwhelmed by a sea of highrises in adjacent International Village, whose towers are emerging as this is being written.

VANCOUVER: DOWNTOWN AND WEST END Canada Place 999 Canada Place, Vancouver Zeidler Roberts Partnership; Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership; Downs/Archlamboult and Partners, 1983-86 Resplendent with its bright white fabric sails, this cheery harbor landmark--our answer to the renowned Sydney Opera House--was built as the government of Canada's pavilion for Expo 86. It encloses a trade and convention centre and a cruise ship terminal, the latter mostly serving the popular Alaska run. Both uses have already outgrown their space, leading to current discussions over where to build additional facilities. (The new addition to Ballantyne Pier has provided more berths for cruise ships.) The superstructure at the landward end contains the Pan Pacific Hotel and Vancouver's World Trade Centre while a domed IMAX theatre rises at the prow (which is also the name of the restaurant at the end).

Christ Church Cathedral 690 Burrard Street, Vancouver C.O. Wickenden, 1889-95 The oldest surviving church in the city, this stalwart sandstone structure was built as the Anglican parish church for what was once a residential neighborhood and is now the city's commercial core. The pointed-arched windows, buttresses and steep gabled roof recall the cozy Gothic parish churches of England. This association continues inside with the marvellous timber framework and hammer-beam roof warmly illuminated through superb stained-glass windows. Christ Church became a cathedral in 1929 and a year later the bright and spacious chancel was added (by architects Twizell and Twizell). A generation ago the diocese intended to demolish the cathedral and replace it with an office tower and underground sanctuary. A happier solution was found in the transfer of unused density rights to the adjacent property to the north, giving extra height and bulk to the adjacent Park Place tower (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership, 1984) and providing the diocese with cash for social programs and building maintenance.

Cathedral Place / Canadian Craft Museum 925 West Georgia Street and 639 Hornby Street, Vancouver Paul Merrick Architect, 1990-91 Reflecting a building's context is a prime doctrine of Post-Modernism and it's a doctrine well- heeded in this fun-to-visit complex. The name acknowledges Christ Church Cathedral next door. The massing, ornament and sculpted nurses are reminders of the Art Deco Georgia Medical Dental Building which the tower replaced, while the roof and gargoyles respond to the Hotel Vancouver across the street. The lobby offers a delightful potpourri of Art Deco-inspired features. Behind Cathedral Place is the Canadian Craft Museum and its serene grassed cloister (Christopher Phillips and Associates), two gems too often missed by passers-by.

Hotel Vancouver 900 West Georgia Street, Vancouver Archibald and Schofield, 1928-39 As Canadian as bangers and mash are British, imposing chateau-style hotels were built by the nation's railways in resorts and cities from coast to coast. Inspired by the picturesque castles of France and Scotland, the steep-roofed hotels cater to our fantasies of palatial living. Vancouver's version, resplendent in its gargoyles, Renaissance detail and fine relief sculpture, was built by the Canadian National Railway. Delayed by the Depression it was rushed to completion in 1939 for the Royal Visit of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. The rival Canadian Pacific Railway co-operartively closed its own, earlier, Hotel Vancouver (on the site of the present Eaton's store, two blocks east), lent the name and entered into a joint-management contract. Today the well- patronized hotel is part of the large chain of Canadian Pacific Hotels and Resorts (as is the new Chateau Whistler).

Robson Square 800-block Robson Street, Vancouver Arthur Erickson Architects, 1974-79 This extensive complex combines the glass-roofed Law Courts, defined by the distinctive bold shape of its steel space frame, with landscaped public spaces (Cornelia Hahn Oberlander and Raoul Robillard, landscape architects) that invite public activity on several levels inside and out. The rightist Social Credit provincial government of the early 1970s was determined to build an aggressive 55-storey office tower here. The New Democratic Party government that won the 1973 election dismissed the proposed big-business image by changing architects and architectural programs, laying the tower on its side and producing a low, multi-block courthouse that is symbolically and physically more accessible--so accessible that we can walk on it! All this shows how architecture can provide a powerful political symbol. The classical former courthouse (F.M. Rattenbury, 1906-12) on Georgia Street at the north end of the site was adapted at the same time to become the home of the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Marine Building 355 Burrard Street, Vancouver McCarter and Nairne, 1929-30 It's "the best Art Deco office building in the world," exclaimed poet laureate and architecture aficionado, the late Sir John Betjeman, to this writer. Encrusted in terracotta ornament, the 21- storey buff-brick building is a monument to Vancouver's maritime presence. Relief panels near the base depict the history of discovery and transportation along the Pacific coast. A frieze featuring waves, sea horses and marine fauna wraps around both fronts of the building. Over the main entrance on Burrard Street a ship's prow sails out of the sunset and Canada geese fly across the sun's rays. Scallops, swirls and zig-zags continue the Art Deco treatment in the bronze grilles. In the dramatic lobby one finds green and blue tiled walls, a beamed ceiling illuminated by lights recessed within ships' prows and colored floor tiles (replaced in kind in a 1989 renovation). The architects' own description reveals how they thought of building and ornament as one: "The building ... suggests some great crag rising from the sea, clinging with sea flora and fauna, tinted in sea-green, touched with gold, and at night in winter a dim silhouette piercing the sea mists."

B.C. Electric Building 970 Burrard Street, Vancouver Thompson, Berwick and Pratt, 1955-57 rehabilitated by Paul Merrick Architects, 1994-95 Built as the headquarters of the B.C. Electric Company (now B.C. Hydro) this attractive tower was the first highrise building south of Georgia Street. The dynamic collaboration between B.C. Electric chair Dal Grauer and forward-thinking architect Ned Pratt (ably assisted by Ron Thom and others in his office) produced a tapered, lozenge-shaped tower whose plan placed every desk no farther than five metres from a window and natural light (a poor advertisement for the power utility!). The floors are cantilevered from the central concrete service core like branches from a tree, with only slender perimeter columns offering additional support. The blue, green and black mosaic tiles (by B.C. Binning) are an integral part of the design. The building was recently adapted, and the exterior curtain wall replaced, to become a condominium residence called The Electra. The adjacent Dal Grauer Substation (Sharp and Thompson, Berwick, Pratt, 1953-54) is even more uncompromisingly modernist with the brilliantly colored workings exposed behind a transparent glass wall--which, following a minor explosion. was replaced with opaque glass.

1100-blocks Comox and Pendrell Streets Vancouver Various builders and architects, 1890s-1910s; subsequent alterations This block--"Nelson Park South"--boasts the best-preserved collection of early houses in Vancouver. Their survival did not come about by accident. The city began to buy the houses decades ago, intending to demolish them to double the size of adjacent Nelson Park. Times have changed and public open-houses held in 1995 as part of a study of the block's future revealed that the community now values heritage conservation and the retention of affordable housing more than park expansion. Deferred maintenance has seen many of the houses deteriorate but it now seems likely that the city will commit itself to the long-term preservation and management of the block. The oldest cluster is at 1137-1173 Pendrell (two have been altered), built 1893-97; nos. 1163-69 are verandahed "gable-front" houses with ornate brackets at the second-floor bay windows. The houses at 1110-1122 Comox, built 1904-05, are broader in proportions and more classical in detail. The remodelled exterior of 1104 Bute may mask an 1888 house built only two years after the Great Fire.

Orpheum Theatre 884 Granville Street, Vancouver B. Marcus Priteca; Frederick J. Peters, 1926-27 The 2,800-seat Vancouver outpost of the Chicago-based Orpheum vaudeville circuit was once the largest theatre in Canada and the Pacific Northwest. The lavish interior decorative scheme, derived from the Spanish Baroque, features exuberant arches, tiered columns and interlaced mouldings executed in marble, travertine, cast stone and plaster. Priteca was the chosen architect of the rival Pantages circuit and a master of theatre design; Vancouver's long-demolished Pantages Theatre (1916-17, later the Majestic) was also his. Opened in the year in which "talkies" were introduced, the Orpheum was used more and more for movies. In the early 1970s former owner Famous Players wanted to divide the by-now tired theatre into several small cinemas. With strong community support the city bought the Orpheum and rehabilitated it for use by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (Thompson, Berwick, Pratt and Partners, 1975-76). Recent changes to the beautiful auditorium (Architectura, begun 1995), driven by acoustic and other functional considerations, have unfortunately compromised the original design.

Terry Fox Memorial East end of Robson Street, at BC Place Franklin Allen, 1984 When Coquitlam runner Terry Fox died in 1981, after having to cut short his cross-Canada ‘Marathon of Hope' that raised money for cancer research, communities across Canada rushed to erect memorials to his memory. Vancouver's competition-winning contribution was this curious caricature of a Roman triumphal arch--widely unloved for its lack of a representation of Fox. Popular or not, the Memorial has been credited as the city's first example of Post-Modern ("PoMo") architecture, a style that readmitted historical forms and messages after years of banishment by the dogma of modernism. The pastel-shaded brick, tile, and steel arch is capped by four fibreglass lions, traditional symbols of strength and heroism. images etched onto reflective steel plates were subsequently installed within the arch, and public outrage eventually subsided.

Library Square 350 West Georgia Street, Vancouver Moshe Safdie and Associates; Downs/Archambault and Partners, 1993-95 Vancouverites liken their new public library to the ancient Roman Colosseum, pointing to the look-alike circular walls and tiers of arches, despite architect Safdie's denials. Historical associations aside the post-modern landmark is a real crowd-pleaser, having been selected in an open competition that included substantial public input. The seven-level library is actually a square inserted within a circle. Acrophobes gingerly cross the elegant bridges that span the atrium and provide access to the serene reading galleries along the Homer Street perimeter. The ambitious complex includes a 21-storey federal government office building at the northeast corner, two floors of provincial offices atop the library, retail shops at the southeast corner and three levels of underground parking. All are clad in warm brown precast concrete. The same architects collaborated on the Ford Centre for the Performing Arts (1994-95) across Homer Street, a flashy venue for commercial theatre developed by Toronto impresario Garth Drabinsky.

Sylvia Hotel and Annex 1154 Gilford Street, Vancouver W.P. White, 1912 1861 Beach Avenue, Vancouver Henriquez & Partners, 1987 Still popular after all these years, the Sylvia Hotel (and the wildlife inhabiting the vines that ramble over its brick walls) has become an English Bay landmark. Originally built as apartments, the hotel displays timeless classicism that still looks good. Architect Richard Henriquez capitalized on this in his condominium annex whose design partly mimics the Edwardian prototype but peels it away at the corner to allow a bold, glazed, angled extrusion. This witty post-modern solution alludes to the newcomer's historical and contemporary contexts while providing expansive suites with superb views of the water.

Pacific Heights Housing Cooperative 1000-block Pacific Street. Vancouver Roger Hughes, 1983-85 Of the many attempts to preserve a cluster of old West End frame houses while responding to high land prices and the need to intensify development, this may be the most successful. Eight early residences were moved--first backward to build garages beneath them, then forward and closer to the street than when originally built and sideways to read as four pairs--and converted into duplexes. One had to be rebuilt entirely. A medium-rise infill building containing stacked two-storey apartments was erected behind them. providing a backdrop. Additional density provided by the city to encourage preservation allowed the creation of 91 units where once there were only eight.

Science World 1455 Quebec Street, Vancouver 1984-86; refitted and extended by Boak Alexander, 1988-89 This shiny sphere, its stainless-steel skin held in place by a white-steel external geodesic frame, is the most evident legacy of Expo 86. It marked the main entrance to Vancouver's much-admired world's fair and served as Expo Centre. The "golfball" was later adapted to become Science World, an immensely popular science centre that attracts hordes of local and touring children and adults. The central domed space contains an Omnimax theatre. Most of the Expo site, which occupied existing and newly filled land along False Creek, was purchased from the province by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing and is being developed as Concord Pacific Place, a dense residential community.

VANCOUVER:WEST SIDE AND UBC Granville Island Johnston and Duranleau Streets, Vancouver Begun 1913; rehabilitation plan by Norman Hotson, 1977 Food market, arts and crafts, restaurants, theatres, marine industries, an art college, a brewery, the author's office--all thrive at Granville Island, mostly in rehabilitated industrial buildings that have been well adapted to their new uses. It was developed in the 1970s by Canada (then Central) Mortgage and Housing Corporation which had acquired the tired 15-hectare industrial island from the National Harbours Board. Granville Island has become the region's most successful retail and entertainment emporium. Architects Norman Hotson and Joost Bakker produced an inspired master plan that encouraged the mix of uses and the retention of an industrial vocabulary in building and landscape improvements. They also rehabilitated the former BC Equipment and Wright's Ropes factories to become the Granville Island Public Market (1979-80) while retaining the travelling cranes that hang from the rafters. Nearby Ocean Cement, built around 1920 for Diether's Coal and Building Supplies, and Micon Products (a forge that makes chains) are the last remaining heavy industries.

Vancouver City Hall 453 West 12th Avenue, Vancouver Townley and Matheson, 1935-36 The City of Vancouver annexed the municipalities of South Vancouver and Point Grey in 1929 and built this new city hall near their common boundary (actually Cambie Street and 16th Avenue) to symbolize the amalgamation. The hard-edged geometry of its dynamic cubic massing resembles the "totalitarian classicism" seen in government buildings of the day from Munich to Moscow. The zig-zag ornament atop the blocks and beneath the windows is vintage Art Deco, although the style is best called "Moderne." A four-storey annex was built to the north in 1968-70 (Townley, Matheson, and Partners).

Walter C. Nichol House 1402 The Crescent, Vancouver Maclure and Fox, 1912-13 The CPR realized a superb development opportunity by opening Shaughnessy Heights as an exclusive residential enclave for Vancouver's power elite. The area was laid out with curved, tree-lined streets and boulevards by Danish engineer L.E. Davick and Montreal landscape architect Frederick Todd, and the first lots were sold in 1909--just as a new Granville Street Bridge was completed. Many of the city's newly rich fled the West End which was being sullied by apartments and streetcars. Walter Nichol, publisher of the Province and subsequently lieutenant-governor of British Columbia, was one of many who chose to build in Shaughnessy. His half-timbered Tudor Revival manor was designed by talented Victoria architect Samuel Maclure and his Vancouver partner C.C. Fox, the darlings of high society. It and its neighbors around The Crescent set a high tone for the area.

Glen Brae (Canuck Place) 1690 Matthews Avenue, Vancouver Parr and Fee, 1910; rehabilitated by Downs/Archambault and Partners, 1994-95 A pair of domed towers distinguish "Glen Brae"--"Valley by the Mountains"--built by tycoon William Lamont Tait as a reminder of the castles of his native Scotland. The mansion has some remarkable interior features including fine stained-glass windows, exquisite wood and tile finishes and a sprung dance floor on the third floor. The house was bequeathed to the City of Vancouver in 1991--a gift which helped establish the City's Heritage Conservation Foundation-- and re-opened in 1995 as Canuck Place (sponsored by hockey's Canuck Foundation), a hospice for children with life-threatening illnesses. The redesigned garden (by Harold Neufeldt) forms a central feature of the children's experience and remains defined by the superb wrought-iron fence made by Walter McFarlane of Glasgow.

2900-3000-blocks West 5th Avenue,Vancouver Fred Melton and Cook & Hawkins, 1919-21 The favorite middle-class house in the newly developing suburbs during the 1910s and 1920s was the California bungalow (also called the Arts and Crafts or Craftsman bungalow) which spread from the U.S. in readily available pattern books. Promoted as a home for everybody, the bungalow provided the venue for an informal, servant-less lifestyle, with intimate rooms, sleeping porches and no halls. The Kitsilano neighborhood abounds in bungalows. These represent the basic version--a single storey high with a gabled roof, verandah, abundant wood trim and cobblestone or brick posts and chimneys.

Horace G. Barber House 3846 West 10th Avenue, Vancouver Ross A. Lort, 1936 Architects of the 1930s sought a modern expression by rejecting period styles and simplifying forms. This "Moderne" house, originally white, features sheer concrete walls relieved by asymmetrically placed windows and sparse vertical articulation. The abstract rectilinear geometry parallels some European painting of the day. The house has been rehabilitated and a compatible infill dwelling built at the rear (both by Robert G. Lemon, 1990).

D.H. Copp House 4755 Belmont Avenue, Vancouver Sharp and Thompson, Berwick, Pratt, 1951 Ron Thom, a partner in Vancouver's premier firm, was a gifted architect with a special talent for houses. In this beautifully sited residence above Spanish Banks he translated his admiration for Frank Lloyd Wright and other modernists into something fresh, exciting, and appropriate to the West Coast. A massive brick chimney acts as a fulcrum from which spread the horizontally composed wood-and-glass wings, exploiting the contours of the terrain. Vancouver and the North Shore retain many of Thom's houses but nearly all are hidden from public view by their maturing landscape settings.

UBC Library 1956 Main Mall, UBC Begun by Sharp and Thompson, 1923 Several generations of UBC architecture are revealed in the university's main library. The central portion (1923-25) features the stone walls and medievalizing detail of the Collegiate Gothic style originally intended for the entire campus. The wings at either side (Sharp and Thompson, Berwick, Pratt, 1947-48) adopt a cheaper, watered-down version of the style with frame construction and stucco finish. The Sedgewick Undergraduate Library (Rhone and Iredale, 1971- 72), located in part beneath Main Mall and sprouting conical skylights, represents the mature Vancouver Modernism of its day. And the new first phase of the Walter C. Koerner Library (Aitken Wreglesworth Architects--now part of Architectura--and Arthur Erickson, 1995-96), which closes the composition of the ensemble, will surely be appreciated as a grand statement of the post-modern age. The only campus style that is missing is the early Modernism of the International Style, seen just to the left in the low, adjacent Buchanan Building (Thompson, Berwick, and Pratt, 1956-58, with later additions).

Museum of Anthropology, UBC 6393 Northwest Marine Drive, UBC Arthur Erickson, 1973-76 The post-and-beam form that characterizes West Coast Modernism is here rendered in concrete. A series of graduated frames, inspired by Kwakwaka'wakw (Kwakiutl) longhouses, encloses the entrance and glass walls of the Massive Carving Gallery. From within they create a dramatic setting for the artifacts, which include huge totem poles displayed against a spectacular backdrop of water and mountains. The lower exhibit and open storage galleries to one side are now balanced by Erickson's Koerner Ceramics Gallery (1970). More totem poles, log houses and native flora fill in the cliffside site, offering a sense of a coastal native village.

First Nations House of Learning 1985 West Mall, UBC Larry McFarland Architects, 1991-92 Used as a meeting place and support facility for native students, this impressive building has been inspired in its shape and structure by the long houses of the Coast Salish, while the gabled roof, supported by massive cedar logs, recalls the traditional cedar housing of all coastal native groups. The 280-square-metre Great Hall features carved house posts that support the massive roof beams. Nothing directly imitates the historical sources, yet everything is clearly inspired by them. Architecture has come full circle in a half-century--from denying history in the post-war obsession with Modernism to embracing and reinterpreting it in the post-modern era.

VANCOUVER: EAST SIDE Collingwood Branch Library 2985 Kingsway, Vancouver Semmens and Simpson, 1950 The Vancouver Public Library operates 21 branches in addition to its large central library. This is one of the first suburban branches and the oldest to survive unaltered. It is also distinguished for being a design by Semmens and Simpson, the much-admired modernists who also created the previous central library (750 Burrard Street, largely rebuilt to become a retail emporium by James K.M. Cheng Architects, 1995-96). The Collingwood branch's uncompromising rectilinearity and industrial products (such as the mass-produced steel-sash windows from England) are tempered by local fieldstone and brown-stained wood to produce a regional West Coast version of the modernist style.

Little Mountain Public Housing 33rd to 37th Avenues, between Ontario and Main Streets, Vancouver Sharp and Thompson, Berwick, Pratt, 1953-54 The post-war baby boom produced a demand for housing and the federal government's new Canada (then Central) Mortgage and Housing Corporation responded by financing rental projects for low-income families. This was Vancouver's first. Architects may have admired the modernist expression but residents would have felt isolated by the sterility of the design, site plan and landscaping, which set the project apart from its neighbors. Newer developments of this kind (La Petite Maison, Champlain Heights) have attempted to integrate the residents physically and psychologically into the community-at-large.

Nat Bailey Stadium 4601 Ontario Street, Vancouver 1946 While many Vancouver baseball fans may long for a major league franchise, Triple-A baseball flourishes in this perfect little ballpark. The 6,500-seat facility was built by Sick's Capilano Brewery who named it Capilano Stadium and donated it to the city. It has since been renamed to honor the late Nat Bailey founder of the White Spot restaurant chain and an inveterate fan who sponsored the team during lean years. A later owner and brewer, Molson's, called the team the Canadians, after its beer. and the name has stuck.

William H. James House 587 West King Edward Avenue, Vancouver Probably by Ross A. Lort, 1941 A cozy English Tudor cottage provided the model for this cute fairy-tale residence, one of three put up by builder Brenton T. Lea. (The others are at 3979 West 9th Avenue, Vancouver, and 885 Braeside Avenue, West Vancouver.) The undulating shingle roof convincingly imitates thatching. This portion of King Edward Avenue (25th Avenue) marks the transition from the historically affluent West Side to the more basic amenities of the East Side. To the west the roadway is divided (with boulevard trees and buried services) and picturesquely curves beyond Granville. To the east the roadway narrows and powerlines replace the publicly planted trees. The different landscapes reflect the respective aspirations and tax bills of the former municipalities of Point Grey and South Vancouver.

Bloedel Conservatory Queen Elizabeth Park, Vancouver Underwood, McKinIey, Cameron, Wilson and Smith, 1969 Futurists inspired by the late American visionary R. Buckminster Fuller have dreamed of creating artificial environments within enormous glazed domes. The Bloedel Conservatory (built shortly after Fuller's spherical U.S. Pavilion at Expo 67) represents a tiny step in that direction. Lush tropical plants and birds thrive beneath the "triodetic" dome assembled from aluminum pipe triangles and 1,500 plexiglas bubbles (designed by Thorson and Thorson, structural engineers). The conservatory sits atop 152-metre-high Little Mountain, the highest point in the city. It and its abandoned basalt quarries have been planted and transformed into Queen Elizabeth Park, a favorite spot for wedding pictures. The nearby decks cover one of two reservoirs on the mountain. The same architects designed the attractive wood restaurant nearby (1972-73).

Value Village 6415 Victoria Drive, Vancouver McKee and Gray, 1960 In this day of sprawling mega-stores we sometimes forget that the post-war common supermarket represented an ambitious architectural program. The Super-Valu chain, which originally erected and operated this building, developed the best local solution. Large glued-laminated timber arches provide a broad expanse of unobstructed, column-free space. Note the remarkably small metal connectors which bear the full weight of the structure where the arches meet the ground. The building is now a discount outlet that sells used articles.

Vancouver Specials 6100 and 6200 blocks Elgin and Ross Streets, Vancouver Various builders, 1970s-80s Around 1970 builders developed a new model for mass-market housing which maximized floor area and site coverage at an attractive price. Principal living and sleeping spaces were located on the second floor, with utility rooms, garage, often an "in-laws suite" on the ground floor and no basement. The type may have originated in Richmond where the high water table encouraged living high above the damp ground. The "Vancouver specials," as they quickly became known, spread like wildfire throughout the Lower Mainland. They nearly as quickly achieved widespread unpopularity among architects and aesthetes who channelled their reaction to the threat they posed into denouncements of their boring flat fronts, boxy shapes and low-sloped roofs.

Sikh Temple 8000 Ross Street, Vancouver Erickson/Massey, 1969-70 This deceptively simple landmark is the central house of worship for Vancouver's large Sikh community. A simple white block is capped by a series of stepped, diagonally interlocked square sections, and crowned by an open steel onion-shaped dome. The design was influenced by the formal geometry of Indian religious symbols. The Khalsa Diwan Society occupies the lower floor. The architectural gem originally stood unpainted and in isolation, but it is now crowded by look-alike additions to the east (1995).

La Petite Maison Housing Cooperative Talon Square, off Matheson Crescent, Vancouver Hawthorn/Mansfield/Towers, 1978 Champlain Heights, the name given to this southeastern corner of Vancouver, was the last undeveloped acreage within the city limits to be built up. The showcase residential community was planned in the early 1970s with curved roads and cul-de-sacs serving a mix of housing types and income levels. The city retained ownership of the land, leasing it to developers. This stucco- and-wood housing co-op, inspired by the idea of European townhouses around a public square, provides a comfortable, human scale. The first co-op was DeCosmos Village (East 49th at Boundary Road, by Francis Donaldson, 1972). Other projects include subsidized rentals (e.g. 3200-block East 58th Avenue, by David Crinion of CHMC with Downs/Archambault, 1972-73) and market condominiums.

2400 Motel 2400 Kingsway, Vancouver, 1946-47 This period piece belongs in a Raymond Chandler novel. Virtually unaltered--from the tall neon sign to the immaculate lawns that could be used as putting greens--the "motor court" offers 65 units on a seven-and-a-half-hectare site. White stucco, green siding and hipped roofs provide a domestic look while the flat-roofed office is a more commercial affair. The project was announced as housing, to obtain scarce post-war resources, but immediately went into use as a motel. Kingsway, the historic road from New Westminster to Vancouver, was a motel strip a generation ago.

Broadway SkyTrain Station East Broadway and Commercial Drive, Vancouver Allen Parker and Associates, 1984-85 Expo 86 was a catalyst for a number of regional improvements, most notably SkyTrain, an ALRT (Advanced Light Rail Transit) system linking downtown Vancouver with New Westminster (and subsequently Surrey), partly over the old interurban streetcar right-of-way. Small, driverless four- car trains, produced in Ontario, ply the route, partly overhead (as here), partly underground and partly at grade. The SkyTrain stations adopted a standard appearance featuring tubular-steel hoop trusses that wrap around the station, and metal mesh rather than glazing. Architektengruppen U-Bahn of Vienna served as design consultant for the project.

Kurrajong 1036 Salsbury Street, Vancouver, 1908 Alderman John J. Miller, who was the creative force behind organizing and operating the Pacific National Exhibition, built this ostentatious mansion which he named after a shrub from his native Australia. The property remains aloof within its reclusive boundary wall and ample landscaping. Kurrajong was one of many substantial homes built in this Grandview neighborhood; another is the W.H. Copp House, distinguished by a domed corner turret, at 1110 Victoria Drive (J.P. Malluson, 1910-11).

Vancouver East Cultural Centre 1895 Venables Street, Vancouver 1909; rehabilitated by John Keith-King, 1973, and Derek Neale, 1977 The former Grandview Methodist (subsequently United) Church, which closed its doors in 1967, was adapted to become a theatre, recital hall and community facility for its then culture-starved neighborhood. Founding director Christopher Wootten co-ordinated municipal, provincial and federal support programs to make the ambitious project happen. The intimate audience chamber, with its good sight-lines and acoustics and feeling of warmth, has made "The Cultch" (which can seat up to 350) a popular performing-arts venue that attracts people from far beyond East Vancouver.

Alberta Wheat Pool North foot of Cassiar Street, Vancouver C.D. Howe Company, 1927 The ships that are regularly seen at anchor in English Bay include many grain carriers awaiting their turn to load at Burrard Inlet's elevators. The reinforced-concrete terminal elevators are a series of linked silos loaded with prairie wheat that arrives by train (and is "elevated" by conveyors into bins). The Alberta Wheat Pool is a farmer-owned cooperative that distributes most of that province's grain. This early elevator was designed and built by the engineering firm founded in 1916 by C.D. Howe, best known as Canada's minister of munitions and supply during World War II. The company was responsible for several others in Vancouver Harbour, including the mammoth, fully automated Saskatchewan Wheat Pool elevator across the water in North Vancouver (1966-68). The harbor's first grain elevator, built in 1914 at the foot of Woodland Drive, was "Stevens' Folly"--the brainchild of local MP H.H. Stevens, who saw the opportunity to the local economy provided by the Panama Canal. The Alberta Wheat Pool has been enhanced by a high-tech, aluminum-clad office addition (Wright Engineers, 1991) whose design responds to that of the brute concrete elevator.

SEA-TO-SKY HIGHWAY: HORSESHOE BAY TO WHISTLER Union Steamship Company Store Government Road, Snug Cove, Bowen Island 1924 The Union Steamship Company, which provided passenger and freight service between the communities along Burrard Inlet and Howe Sound, built a large resort on Bowen Island in the 1920s, in part to attract traffic to the line. The company's store on Government Road in Snug Cove survives as a community facility. as do a handful of the 100-odd cabins that were constructed in 1928. The large hotel is gone. Much of the site has been absorbed into the GVRD's Crippen Regional Park, a 243-hectare facility that features lakes, beaches, walking and cycling trails and large picnic areas that retain some of the character and landscape features of the former resort.

Former PGE Car Shop West Coast Railway Heritage Park, Government Road, Squamish 1914 The Pacific Great Eastern Railway, now BC Rail, ambitiously began its line from North Vancouver to Prince George in 1913 not knowing it would take more than 40 years to complete. Until 1956 Squamish was the southern terminus and the yard facilities included a large wood- frame car shop, some 24 by 46 metres in plan. In 1991 the car shop--touted as the largest building in the province ever to be moved--was hauled the short distance from the BCR yards to the new West Coast Railway Heritage Park. It forms the centrepiece of the almost-five-hectare railway museum, which features a fine collection of locomotives and rolling stock representing the railways that have operated in British Columbia.

Concentrator Mill British Columbia Museum of Mining, Highway 99, Britannia Beach 1921-23 One of the world's richest copper deposits was found high in the mountains behind this site. In the early 1900s the Britannia Copper Syndicate (later renamed) extracted low-grade ore and transported it down the mountain by aerial tramway and electric railway, where it was then crushed and concentrated. The company built a substantial townsite here, some of whose buildings survive as part of the British Columbia Museum of Mining--a provincial and national historic site. The steel, concrete and glass concentrator, a masterpiece of engineering, climbs 61 metres up the side of Britannia Mountain in eight stages. The mine railway entered at the top and deposited the ore into the building. Gravity carried it through the various processing stages and the concentrated ore was then shipped to the company's smelter at Crofton on Vancouver Island. The structure stands in disrepair, used only as an occasional movie set, while the museum tries to secure funds to restore it.

Chateau Whistler Resort 4599 Chateau Boulevard, Upper Village, Whistler Musson Cattell Mackey, Downs/Archambault and Stockwell Architecture & Planning, 1989 Chateau-style resort hotels in scenic locations were introduced by the CPR in the 1880s with the Banff Springs Hotel. Within a few decades they became the signature pieces of the nation's railways across the country. The Chateau Whistler, operated by Canadian Pacific Hotels and Resorts (although built with offshore money), continues the tradition after more than a half- century hiatus. It revives all the features of the earlier Canadian castles: steep roofs with dormer windows, picturesque massing and memorable service. The contrast between it and the cabins of Whistler's first resort, Rainbow Lodge, show the change in recreational lifestyle brought about by the development of Whistler as a world-class ski centre.

CITY OF NORTH VANCOUVER Lonsdale Quay Market 123 Carrie Cates Court, North Vancouver Hotson Bakker Architects, 1985-86 Responding to the success of the Granville Island Public Market--and even retaining the same architects--the Lonsdale Quay Market was developed in an effort to revitalize the lower Lonsdale area. The glazed and galleried interior successfully recalls 19th-century iron-and-glass industrial architecture. The market is also a transportation hub where North Shore bus passengers transfer to and from the SeaBus, initiated in 1977 as an integral ferry link in the region's transit system.

North Vancouver Civic Centre 121 West 14th Street, North Vancouver Downs/Archambault, 1974 In this municipal hall and library for the City of North Vancouver, designer Barry Downs translated the West Coast residential style into a pair of separate, but integrated, public buildings. The two low, reinforced-concrete structures, partly clad in cedar, nestle in the hillside, looking as if they had grown out of it. Most of the site is given over to park space, leaving the buildings so understated--perhaps a reflection of the talented architect's modesty--that some visitors have trouble finding them.

Versatile Pacific Shipyard Lonsdale Avenue and East Esplanade, North Vancouver, Begun 1912 Shipbuilding was long the mainstay of North Vancouver's economy. Production peaked during World War II when this shipyard (formerly Wallace Shipyards and Burrard Dry Dock) built more than 130 vessels and employed as many as 15,000 people. The yard's many other products include the RCMP schooner St. Roch (1928; kept in the Vancouver Maritime Museum, 1905 Ogden Avenue) and several vessels for BC Ferries. Shipbuilding began here in 1906 but a 1911 fire destroyed its first structures. The decaying industrial site contains a wealth of fine structures including lofts, erection shops and derricks. It offers many opportunities for creative re-use--a topical conservation issue--but finding the solution will be a challenge.

St. Paul's Roman Catholic Church 424 West Esplanade, Mission Reserve, North Vancouver 1884, 1909 The French Oblate missionaries came to British Columbia in the 1850s and erected the first chapel here (formerly known as Ustlawn) around 1866. A frame church built in 1884 was enlarged in 1909 to become the present Gothic Revival church. The vertical proportions, culminating in twin spires (formerly the official landmark for ships entering Vancouver Harbour), recall the churches of French-Canada and France, although the wood siding with the "Carpenter's Gothic" ornament is more characteristic of the West Coast, The church was recently restored.

DISTRICT OF NORTH VANCOUVER Thomas Nye House 3545 Dowsley Court, North Vancouver Harry Blackadder, 1912 A returning Boer War veteran, Thomas Nye, took district lot 2026 as his grant for military service and made his fortune in the land boom that followed. He promptly lost it by building this imposing Tudor Revival home, known as "Nye's Folly." It remains the centrepiece of the North Lonsdale area, which abounds in fine old houses. The landscaping includes a stone retaining wall and a row of holly trees. The lot has been subdivided allowing two new Tudor-ish houses (Dick Goldhammer, 1989) to be built. Nye's realty office (c. 1909, now a private house) survives at 3311 Lonsdale Avenue. His brother Alfred Nye also received a vet's grant; his fine Craftsman house at 940 Lynn Valley Road (1913) remains in the family.

Julius M. Fromme House 1466 Ross Road, North Vancouver 1900 Lumberman Fromme built this, the first house in Lynn Valley, facing the skid road used to drag logs from the nearby forest to his mill. A sometime reeve of the district, he built the Fromme Block at 3066-96 Mountain Highway and Lynn Valley Road (1912), a two-storey commercial- and-residential block near the mill operated by his Lynn Valley Lumber Company. Although erected a generation later than the Boothroyd House in Surrey, the Fromme House has the same plain pioneer form--one room deep, called an "I"-house by geographers. (The verandah is a later addition.)

Dollar Mill House 571 Roslyn Boulevard, North Vancouver c. 1920-24 Robert Dollar's sawmill, the Dollar Mill, was located just south of here. The company built housing for its senior employees. This one survives substantially unchanged--a simple shingle cottage with a projecting entry porch and a "jerkin" roof (a popular 1920s feature). The mill office (c. 1916-20) survives at 518 Beachview Drive, somewhat altered and used as a residence.

WESTVANCOUVER Ferry Building 101 14th Street, West Vancouver Thompson and Campbell, 1913 This picturesque clapboard structure was built as the West Vancouver ferry terminal. The Lions Gate Bridge challenged the ferries' viability and service was discontinued in 1947. The terminal was subsequently used by buses and in 1988 it was rehabilitated (Howard/Yano Architects) to become an art gallery. Complemented by the rebuilt pier, water sculpture (by Don Vaughan. 1989) and attractive landscaping, it forms a key component of the Ambleside public waterfront.

John C.H. Porter House 1560 Ottawa Avenue, West Vancouver J.C.H. Porter, 1948-49 A small group of Vancouver-area architects--including the relatively unknown John Porter-- developed a distinctive West Coast Modernism a half-century ago. Since willing clients were hard to find, many of their early buildings were residences for themselves. The principal elements were the use of wood post-and-beam construction, open planning, large areas of glass opening onto the landscape and an attention to detail. Influences included the houses of Frank Lloyd Wright, Japanese architecture and coastal native architecture. Porter's attractive home, which opens onto one of the North Shore's many creeks, uses cedar for its structural members, exterior siding and the low-pitched roof. Winner of a Massey Medal, it was lauded as the "best house in Canada."

St. Francis-in-the-Wood Anglican Church 4797 South Piccadilly, West Vancouver Harry A. Stone, 1927; Underwood, McKinley, and Cameron, 1957 This charming building, designed to look like an English village church, remains a popular spot for weddings as well as being a place of worship for its suburban parish. The original small sanctuary, illuminated by stained-glass windows by Morris and Company of London, was enclosed by Percy Underwood's A-frame roof some thirty years later at which time the granite- and-cedar parish hall was erected. Piccaddilly was the main street of the picturesque Caulfeild subdivision planned by English university professor and developer Francis Caulfeild.

Point Atkinson Lighthouse Lighthouse Park, West Vancouver Colonel William Patrick Anderson, 1911-12 This hexagonal reinforced-concrete lighthouse, characterized by its six external buttresses, guards the outer entrance to Burrard Inlet and Vancouver Harbour Its two-tone fog horn is very familiar to the many residents within its range. The wood-clad buildings around it remind us that this is one of relatively few lighthouses on the coast to remain staffed. It replaced an earlier lighthouse built in 1875.

Smith House 5030 The Byway, West Vancouver Erickson/Massey, 1965 Cedar posts, projecting beams and large expanses of glass define four wings that seem to grow upward in a "square spiral" around a central courtyard. The design fuses the natural, "organic" houses of Frank Lloyd Wright with the minimalist houses associated with the International Style, all done with powerful respect for the landscaped site. Architect Arthur Erickson declared: "I wanted the Smith house to reveal the site in the same way that I had found it revealed to me when I first walked onto it." A studio addition (Russell Hollingsworth) was built in 1990.

BURNABY Bob Prittie Metrotown Burnaby Library and Civic Square 6100 Willingdon Avenue, Burnaby James K.M. Cheng Architects, 1990-91 This attractive new facility--the main public library for Burnaby--and its adjacent public square are the first components of a large civic complex intended to complement the existing commercial-oriented core of Metrotown. The library is well illuminated by a skylit central atrium and large windows that open onto the civic green. The two-storey public portion is distinguished from the three-storey administration wing and both are united beneath the sculpted roof, which provides an identifiable image to ground level patrons and to passing travellers on the SkyTrain.

Ismailia Jamatkhana Centre 4010 Canada Way, Burnaby Bruno Freschi, 1985 The home of Canada's first Ismaili congregation, the Jamatkhana (prayer house) combines Islamic architectural principles with the finest in contemporary design and materials. From the landscaped courtyard the visitor passes through a grand white and red arch into the entrance loggia and finally to the square prayer hall. The building's geometry is based on the square (the plan of the principal spaces) and the octagon--seen in the pavement pattern of the courtyard, the turret-like corner staircases and the richly decoratjve domes and ceiling coffers. The fortress-like sandstone exterior is plain by comparison. This is the first building of its kind in Canada and a remarkable addition to Greater Vancouver's fine repertoire of religious architecture.

Simon Fraser University Burnaby Mountain, Burnaby Begun by Erickson/Massey, 1963-65 SFU was one of many new universities founded across Canada as the baby boomers reached college age. The concept of Arthur Erickson and Geoffrey Massey, with the former as principal designer, was chosen by competition. The linear scheme, sited along the ridge of Burnaby Mountain, organizes the university by use, rather than by faculty or college. The broad Central Mall, designed by Erickson/Massey, is the principal walkway and meeting place. It is covered by a glazed roof supported by deep girders made of Douglas fir beams and steel tie-rods. To either side are the exterior walls of integrated campus buildings, including the W.A.C. Bennett Library (Robert F. Harrison). To the east, up a broad staircase, is the Academic Quadrangle (Zoltan S. Kiss). The planning forces student interaction and was blamed for student unrest in the late 1960s--a tribute to the power of architecture to influence our actions.

Burnaby Art Gallery (Fairacres) 6344 Deer Lake Avenue, Burnaby Robert Percival Twizell, 1910 Deer Lake provided a scenic setting for gracious pre-war "country" residences of Vancouver and New Westminster's social elite. "Fairacres," a handsome twin-gabled Tudor Revival house, was built by Grace and Henry Ceperly, a Michigan heiress and a Vancouver realtor. Subsequent owners included the brothers of the Benedictine Order who resided here from 1939 to 1955 until they built their present home at Westminster Abbey, Mission. The Municipality of Burnaby bought "Fairacres" for use as the Burnaby Art Gallery, which opened in 1967 as the nucleus of a recreational and cultural complex.

Burnaby Municipal Hall 4949 Canada Way, Burnaby Fred Hollingsworth, 1956 South Burnaby was the original population and economic centre of Burnaby and so the first municipal hall was built at Kingsway and Edmonds in 1899. By the time the building was outgrown, North Burnaby had become a force to reckon with. Since neither neighborhood would agree to building a new municipal hall on the other's turf, the compromise saw the new facility being located in the geographical centre of Burnaby near Deer Lake. The design was no compromise at all. Fred Hollingsworth, one of the pioneers of the new West Coast style, produced an understated masterpiece of Modernism, a two-storey structure whose crisp rectangular design symbolized Burnaby's progressive leadership.

Overlynn 3755 McGill Street, Burnaby Maclure and Fox, 1906 North Burnaby developed rapidly in the pre-World War I real estate boom, particularly when it acquired streetcar service to Vancouver in 1913. The Vancouver Heights subdivision was marketed to the wealthy. Some responded including dry-goods merchant Charles J. Peters who retained Maclure and Fox, the firm of talented society architect Samuel Maclure, to design him a grand Tudor Revival manor. The house spent a generation, from 1930, as Seton Academy, a Roman Catholic girls' school. In the 1970s it was overshadowed by the Seton Villa Retirement Centre built on a portion of its original property. "Overlynn" is now leased by British Columbia's Children's Hospital for use as an outpatient clinic. It retains much of its superb interior decorative detail (the first heritage interior in the province to be legally protected) which--true to the arts and crafts tradition--always formed an important part of Maclure's houses.

PORT MOODY Port Moody City Hall 240 Ioco Road, Port Moody James K.M. Cheng Architects, 1995 In many early North American communities, formal civic functions and community activities (and sometimes religious worship as well) occurred in the same building. That tradition has been successfully revived in the attractive Port Moody City Hall, the first component in a proposed new town centre. The maple-lined round council chamber doubles as a community theatre, and the committee room in the cupola-like space above is available for private functions. They and the municipal offices are connected to a library by a spacious semi-circular galleria whose arched steel trusses are intended to recall the imagery of railway stations--a reminder that Port Moody was, for a short while, the CPR's western terminus. The entrance and council chamber are directly on axis with a residential-commercial development across Ioco Road, emphasizing the link between municipal government and the community.

Port Moody Station Museum 2734 Murray Street, Port Moody 1907 The CPR originally chose Port Moody, at the head of Burrard Inlet, as its Pacific terminus but William Van Horne, the line's general manager, recognized the greater commercial and scenic potential of Vancouver. He ordered the line extended down the inlet relegating Port Moody to just another stop along the line. This is the CPR's second station which remained in passenger service until 1978. The Port Moody Heritage Society has restored the building and some of its early functions (e.g. the telegraph office and station agent's kitchen) and maintains exhibits on a number of interesting themes.

NEW WESTMINSTER Irving House 302 Royal Avenue, New Westminster 1865 Captain William Irving, an early riverboat captain on the Fraser, built this fine residence, described in a newspaper of the day as "the handsomest, the best and most home-like house of which British Columbia can yet boast." The steep roof and central verandahed gable, featuring fine "gingerbread" ornament, certainly distinguished it from the plainer cottages more typical of pioneer days. The house was purchased from descendants of Captain Irving in 1950 by the City of New Westminster at the instigation of the Native Sons and Native Daughters. It has been attractively restored inside and out and is now the home of the Irving House Historic Centre and the New Westminster Museum.

Burr Block and Guichon Block 411-19 and 409 Columbia Street, New Westminster G.W. Grant, 1892 and 1887 New Westminster, the "Royal City," was British Columbia's first capital, surveyed and carved out of the rainforest by the Royal Engineers beginning in 1859. Columbia Street, along the Fraser River, has always been its main street. The city has suffered many setbacks beginning with the relocation of the capital to Victoria in 1868 and including major fires and economic collapses. These two commercial buildings, both designed by New West's leading architect of the day, are the only ones to have survived the fire of 1898. They give us a hint of the character of the late 19th century brick structures that lined the street. The four-storey Burr Block is notable for its Romanesque Revival arches and the three-storey Guichon Block for having been the Queen's Hotel, once the city's leading hostelry. Columbia Street remains a tired commercial strip, its retail stores barely showing evidence of the revitalization efforts that have been directed here since its last boom, in the 1950s, when it was known as the "Miracle Mile."

Westminster Quay Public Market Westminster Quay, New Westminster Musson Cattell and Partners, 1986 The phasing out of the Pacific Coast Terminals and other docks along New Westminster's waterfront in the 1970s led to a major public-private venture by the British Columbia Development Corporation and the First Capital C