Mid-century/contemporary furniture Owner Richard Domenco offers Vancouverites a little bit of New York SoHo at his West 4th Avenue location in Kitsilano, and by that we mean his space has a hip and upscale vibe without being pretentious. A mix of vintage mid-century, Danish modern and contemporary home furnishings is what you’ll find here as well as large scale art pieces Read more...

Mid-century vintage fashion Carrying a unique selection of men’s and women’s finery from the 1970s, 60s, 50s, hell, all the way back to the turn of the century as a matter of fact, this small Main Street  boutique offers wearable vintage items and accessories you can coordinate with your contemporary closet for a real original look. Their mission is to “woo” Read more...

Mid-century architecture museums Through their educational programs and compelling exhibitions, the West Vancouver Museum’s mandate to “foster awareness and understanding of art, culture and history” has always been at the forefront when it comes to shining the spotlight on west coast mid-century artists and architects. This modest institution, located on the North Shore in West Vancouver, houses works by the region’s foremost Read more...

Mid-century residential buildings From streamline moderne to dingbats to high-rises (including the Ocean Towers) and everything in between, the seventeen square block area “West of Denman” – bordered by Stanley Park, Beach Avenue, Georgia Street and Denman Street – has arguably the largest concentration of mid-century residential buildings in all of Vancouver, and for good reason… Prior to the Second World Read more...

Mid-century modern buildings Located in downtown Vancouver just blocks from Coal Harbour hangs – yes, hangs! – one of the city’s most iconic late-1960s structures, the West Coast Transmission Building. Engineer Bogue Babicki used suspension bridge principles and hung the building’s 9 occupied floors from thin steel cables draped over a 12-story concrete core giving it greater earthquake resistance, clear views Read more...

Mid-century neon signs At one time Vancouver boasted over 19,000 neon signs. That’s not a misprint. In 1953, Vancouver reputedly had more neon than any other city on earth, except for Shanghai. One of the world’s leading sign manufacturers, Neon Products ltd., was based in Vancouver and led production from the 1930s through the 60s, but when values later shifted and Read more...

Vintage diners & restaurants Restaurants come and go, in foodie-centric Vancouver especially, which is why it’s nice to see a handful of mid-century joints still doing what they do best. We’ll keep adding to this list, but for now here’s a sampling of our favorite vintage eats in Vancouver… click on addresses below for Google map locations. Save on Meats Read more...

Modern home/design accessories Named for the under appreciated architectural style of home design popular in Greater Vancouver throughout the 1970s – the Vancouver Special – it’s no wonder this busy Main Street shop is popular with local architects and design enthusiasts. In fact, its owner Anne Pearson is a founder of P4A (Party for Architects) and an organizer with Vancouver Design Week. Read more...

Mid-century vintage fashion Billed as the largest vintage clothing store in Canada, what better place than upscale Robson Street to showcase this diverse collection of retro “couture” dating back to the mid-century. You’ll find everything here from 1950s house wife sun dresses, colorful Aloha shirts and a very nice selection of vintage sunglasses. They even have kitschy accessories from the Read more...

Mid-century buildings The campus at the University of British Columbia is a modernist’s dream, so pack a lunch and spend an afternoon getting schooled. Founded in 1908, UBC moved to its current Point Grey location in the 1920s where it began with only 3 permanent buildings. After World War II the student body tripled and continued to grow, as did new Read more...

Vintage mid-century fashion Many Vancouver vintage clothing stores have come and gone over the years but True Value Vintage has endured as one of the first and best places for mid-century fashion finery. Having relocated from downtown to its spacious Main Street location in 2011, they still pack ’em in by offering affordable ladies and gents gear and accessories from the 1950s – Read more...

Tiki Culture/Polynesian Pop If you’re a Tikiphile and looking to get your Polynesian Pop on, Vancouver has a couple of options… The Shameful Tiki Room (4362 Main Street ) – Situated in the heart of eclectic Main Street where you could easily do some vintage shopping before dropping in for a tropical cocktail or pupus, this lively yet intimate place is relatively new but Read more...

Mid-century residential buildings Located southwest of downtown and bordered by the waterfront, Georgia Street, Burrard Street and Denman Street – although historically, everything “West of Denman” is also considered the West End – this neighborhood’s landscape is ripe with mid-century architecture as well as construction from the turn-of-the-century… the turn of both centuries! The last 150-odd years have seen posh mansions, row Read more...

Mid-century brutalist buildings Designed by noted architect Arthur Erickson in 1973 for the province’s Court of Appeal and Supreme Court, this stunning concrete and glass brutalist monument was originally designed as a 50-story high-rise until a change in provincial government rejected that plan. Erickson re-conceived the building as a 7-story horizontal high-rise; part of the ground-breaking Robson Square complex spanning Read more...

Mid-century accommodations The Burrard Motor Inn, centrally located in downtown Vancouver across from St. Paul’s Hospital, opened its doors to guests in 1956 as a typical 3-story, garden courtyard-style motel. Today, now known as The Burrard, its a hip, retro boutique hotel that’s been freshened up a lot since the days of Elvis and The Beatles, yet still retains that Read more...

Mid-century vintage furniture Permanently Closed, as of May 26, 2024 If you happen to find yourself in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond, specifically the fishing village of Steveston – also known as Storybrooke on the TV series Once Upon a Time – then drop into this cozy little shop and you may come away with more than just a fairytale Read more...

Mid-century/brutalist buildings A series of low lying, linear, Brutalist structures so well integrated into their surroundings atop Burnaby Mountain that one might think they were placed there centuries ago by an alien race (or by a Hollywood set designer), Simon Fraser University is quite a sight…and quite a site! At once ancient and futuristic, the campus plan was designed by Read more...

Mid-century/contemporary furniture If you don’t mind owning a knock-off, Rove Concepts could save you a lot of money. Manufactured in China, these imitation pieces don’t have the cache that a vintage original would but with a little creative mixing and matching who’ll ever know? Their showroom is located in the Fairview Slopes neighborhood, 2 blocks north of Broadway near the bottom Read more...

Vintage mid-century antiques Voted best vintage/retro furniture store in Vancouver (2015) by readers of the Georgia Straight, this fun, busy Main Street location is packed so full of mid-century treasures that you’re bound to find something you can’t live without. Even film industry set decorators are frequent customers, and for good reason, Refind Home Furnishings boasts classics, kitsch, Tiki and Read more...

Mid-century modern buildings & art Currently home to the Vancouver Opera and Ballet BC, the Queen Elizabeth Theatre (1959) was the result of an international architectural competition held by the City in the mid 1950s when Vancouver asserted itself as a major player on the world’s cultural stage. The winning Montreal firm of Affleck, Desbarats, Dimakopoulos, Lebensold, Sise  used period Read more...

Mid-century/contemporary furniture Located in the lively and eclectic neighborhood of Mount Pleasant, Parliament Interiors offers affordable mid-century reproductions and originals with an eye towards style. Specializing in space-saving furniture and accessories for modern living (that means you, apartments dwellers & condominium owners!), this stylish showroom includes contemporary modular and multifunctional furnishings along with inexpensive reproductions of classic pieces by Eames, Read more...

Mid-century/brutalist buildings Built in 1967 on the grounds of Exhibition Park – home to Hastings Racetrack, Playland and the Pacific National Exhibition – the Pacific Coliseum is an exercise in Brutalist minimalism; a simple circular building boasting a ring of convex concrete panels and warm natural stone at its entry ways.  Inside it’s large and open and the entire structure Read more...

Mid-century & vintage collectibles For nearly 40 years, Bob & Linda Blaise have been peddling an eclectic collection of vintage wares not only to the public, but also to top Hollywood set decorators. One step inside their modest shop and you’ll see why; the place is packed with treasures dating back to the mid-century and beyond. With vintage Life Magazines, View Read more...

Mid-century modern buildings/plaza The best thing about this downtown mid-1970s Miesian office building’s namesake is its plaza. Sure, the 26-story, glass curtained tower – designed by Charles Paine – evokes an elegantly timeless mid-century modern vibe, and it’s a gorgeous structure to be sure, but it’s the open concrete plaza at its base (also by Paine) tying it all together with Read more...

Mid-century residential buildings Before 1956 if you’d wanted to build an 18-story waterfront tower in Vancouver’s residential West End it wasn’t possible, but adjustments to the city zoning regulations by a progressive City Council changed all that and by 1958 the first residential high-rise at English Bay  went up. And what a building it was… and still is! Designed by Rix Reinecke of the architectural design Read more...

Mid-century modern buildings The North Vancouver City Hall is a great example of how to save a vintage building through restoration, renovation and repurposing while also using recycled and natural elements to help keep the structure sustainable. In 2013, a vacant library next to the 1970s City Hall heritage building was repurposed as staff offices and meeting space while a Read more...

Mid-century heritage Not only is the Museum of Vancouver a great place to learn about the city’s heritage, but it’s also located inside one of Vancouver’s most jaw-droppingly awesome mid-century modern structures, the H.R. MacMillan Planetarium building, c.1968 (now called the H.R. MacMillan Space Center). Inside, the three museum wings are clustered around a central core (the planetarium) that house permanent Read more...

Brutalist buildings Located at the University of British Columbia, the Museum of Anthropology is world renowned for its collection of Northwest Coast First Nations art and artifacts and is definitely worth checking out. Architecturally speaking, however, it’s all about the award-winning building that houses said artifacts, and for that reason this 1975 Arthur Erickson designed glass & concrete brutalist monument Read more...

Mid-century modern buildings & art There are over 20 branches of the Vancouver Public Library  with only a handful from the mid-century still serving their original function and one, the former Central Library, which was repurposed. The best are listed here in no particular order with corresponding photos… click on addresses below for Google Map locations. Central Library (750 Burrard Street Read more...

Mid-century modern buildings Vancouver Fire & Rescue currently has twenty-two Fire Halls serving the city, a handful of which were built (or, rebuilt) during the 1950s and 60s. Here’s a quick run down of these modest mid-century structures with corresponding photos… click on addresses below for Google Map locations. Fire Hall No. 2 (199 Main Street ) – Clean, simple, compact and Read more...

Mid-century modern buildings As construction boomed in the post-war years so too did the number of places to worship. Modernist A-Frames dominated the religious landscape on the West Coast but there were also more unique structures being built. We’ve listed a handful here (along with some A-Frames) with corresponding photos, and will continue to add more… click on addresses below for Read more...

Mid-century modern buildings Within a few blocks of each other in downtown Vancouver are a handful of nice mid-century structures originally built to house the Western headquarters for some of Canada’s national banks… just click on addresses below for their Google Map locations. Bank of Canada Building (900 West Hastings Street ) – Designed by Thompson, Berwick & Pratt and Read more...

Mid-century vintage fashion Don’t let the small entrance fool you, for inside this former hardware store lies over 3,000 square feet of vintage mid-century attire that might just blow your mind. Men’s and women’s coats, jackets, blazers, pants, dresses, shirts, ties, hats, foot ware, jewelry, accessories and more from the refined 1950s to the glam 1970s are here for the Read more...

Mid-century modern furniture PERMANENTLY CLOSED Established in 1984, Metropolitan Home was one of Vancouver’s very first stores to specialize in vintage mid-century modern furniture & home decor and is still at the top of the list for those seeking out well crafted, unique vintage pieces that tell a story. Owners Mary Watson & Dana Coburn are friendly, knowledgeable and have connections that Read more...

Mid-century modern buildings Located at Vanier Park – a few minutes walk from the modernist H.R. MacMillan Planetarium – the Maritime Museum has been a fixture on Vancouver’s Kitsilano waterfront since 1958 when Raymond O. Harrison and CBK Van Norman designed the modest low lying concrete and brick building (which holds a collection of historic maritime art, artifacts, a library Read more...

Modernist home furnishings If you want high end mid-century classics from the likes of Herman Miller, Knoll or Artimide, look no further than Inform Interiors in historic Gastown. Their 3-story showroom feels more like an interior design museum with classic pieces by Eames, Nelson, Bertoia and Saarinen displayed to appreciate, or covet, as well as offering a decent-sized area devoted Read more...