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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...
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Mid-century modern buildings 750 17th St, West Vancouver, BC, V7V 3T3 The District Municipality of West Vancouver‘s Municipal Hall has been an iconic landmark since its design and construction by Toby, Russell & Buckwell, in 1964. With its wall to wall glass, rectilinear open courtyards and recessed ground floor, this 3-story horizontal concrete building appears to float above its luscious Read more...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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Mid-century modern tours There are a handful of decent modernism tours in Vancouver and a couple of great resources if you’d rather go the self-guided route. The Vancouver Heritage Foundation offers walking tours throughout the year, a select number of which focus on mid-century modern architecture. Check their website for details. Additionally, Walking Tours of Vancouver are organized by civic historian John Read more...
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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...
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Mid-century modern buildings & art Beautifully rendered in precast white concrete and perhaps representing the forward thinking optimism of 1960s space exploration (is it a spaceship?), the H.R. MacMillan Planetarium and Centennial Museum complex – now known as the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre and Museum of Vancouver (MOV) – was designed by Gerald Hamilton and named for B.C. forestry magnate Read more...
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Mid-century brutalist buildings A Vancouver landmark since it went up in 1977, the Harbour Centre Tower was designed by the Webb, Zerafa, Menkes and Housden partnership employing the then, more oft-used, mid-70s Brutalist style. Its smooth unadorned concrete exterior holds two glass elevators and stands 28-stories tall – more than 40 if you include its distinctive flying saucer-shaped topper which Read more...
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Mid-century modern buildings & art Distinctive for its ocean green rectangular enamel panels that alternate with its glass facade, the Guinness Tower was designed by Charles Paine, circa 1967-69, and is one of the city’s finest examples of the International Style. The 23-story tower is located in downtown Vancouver’s financial district and adjacent to the equally modernist Oceanic Plaza. Its main Read more...
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495 W Georgia St, Vancouver, BC V6B 1Y0 Mid-century postal buildings Occupying an entire city block in Vancouver’s downtown core, the currently decommissioned General Post Office was designed by John McCarter & George Nairne and constructed between 1952-1958. It’s the city’s biggest, boldest and perhaps most distinguished mid-century modern structure still standing, so naturally it has no protective status and its Read more...
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Mid-century modern buildings When called upon to design a new downtown office building in the early 1960s, rather than go full-on high-rise, architect Gerald Hamilton designed a more intimate 8-story complex; a cluster of three towers (1 low and 2 mid-rise) artfully finished in white marble resting on green arched columns above a raised courtyard. He adorned nice minimalist embellishments on Read more...
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Mid-century modern buildings Wanting to create a functional space that would house a downtown electrical substation as well as double as public art, BC Electric’s chief in the early 1950s, Edward “Dal” Grauer, commissioned architect Ned Pratt and artist BC Binning to make it so. The result was a stunning 3-story rectangular concrete box which boasted a street-front facade of Read more...
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Mid-century modern buildings The Canadian Pacific Telecommunications Centre (currently occupied by Allstream) was the first mid-century modern structure to go up in Vancouver’s Historic Gastown, a district better known for its classical turn-of-the-century architecture. Designed by Francis Donaldson in 1968, the CP building utilized many of the New Formalist axioms such as an elevated profile, pristine columns and smooth, white, precast Read more...
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Mid-century modern buildings On the north side of West Hastings Street’s 1100 block, downtown, just past the Guinness Tower, sit three mid-century buildings constructed in the 1960s-70s by developer R.C. “Dick” Baxter. Known at the time as Columbia Centre, Baxter’s business complex boasted restaurants, offices, a hotel and was once located on prime waterfront property until Coal Harbour’s shoreline was Read more...
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West coast modernist houses Following the completion of the Lions Gate Bridge by Monsarrat & Pratley in 1937 – which linked Vancouver to the North Shore – residential construction in the Capilano Highlands and surrounding environs began in earnest and continued through the 1950s and 60s when the area saw a boom in West Coast modern post & beam and ranch Read more...
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Mid-century modern buildings Designed by CBK Van Norman in 1955, the Burrard Building was the first office high rise to go up in downtown Vancouver using new post-war modernist design and building techniques… at least on its trendy Miesian exterior. The interior holds a more traditional, less open floor plan, which the B.C. Electric/Hydro building improved upon when it went up the following Read more...
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Mid-century modern buildings Designed by Percy Underwood and completed in 1961, the Vancouver Parks Board offices are comprised of three low lying linked buildings finished with natural stone, Douglas fir and clerestory windows. Its split level interior boasts beautiful and well preserved wood paneling, custom designed lighting fixtures and vintage furniture, all designed by Underwood. Celebrated for its naturalistic approach Read more...
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Mid-century modern buildings/art Located at Queen Elizabeth Park, the Bloedel Conservatory’s triodetic dome consists of over 1400 acrylic bubbles and an aluminum frame supported by a Brutalist concrete perimeter; the first of its kind in Canada and all very futuristic when it opened to the public in 1969. Its designers, Underwood, McKinley, Cameron, Wilson and Smith, structural engineers Thorson & Read more...
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Mid-century modern buildings & art Located along Vancouver’s downtown Burrard Street corridor, the Bentall Centre holds a bank pavilion and four towers (housing established businesses and law offices) which were constructed between 1965 – 1981. Bentall One (1967) and Bentall Two (1969) were designed by Frank Musson and Charles Bentall using New Formalist principals that boast graceful precast white concrete Read more...
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Mid-century residential buildings Designed by Ojars Kalns (CBK Van Norman & Associates) and built in 1965, with a fourth tower added [to the original three] north of Harwood Street in 1968, the iconic Beach Towers follow Le Corbusier’s “towers in the park” dictum where structures are set back allowing room for plazas, parking and landscaping. Kalns also elevated his buildings (on stilts) Read more...
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Mid-century office buildings Designed by architects Ron Thom & Ned Pratt (1955-1957) to house the B.C. Electric Company – later to be merged with BC Hydro – this 23-story tower is a classic example of the International Style and, at the time, was said to be the tallest building in the British Commonwealth. Although tall – for Vancouver in the Read more...
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Mid-century art/mid-century banks Tucked away above rows of greeting cards inside a busy downtown Vancouver drugstore at Granville & Dunsmuir streets endures a visually gripping mid-century mosaic mural by renowned Canadian artist & architect, BC Binning. For real! Commissioned as a feature wall inside this former Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce building (designed by influential architects McCarter & Nairne, in 1958), Binning’s mural – measuring Read more...
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Mid-century brutalist buildings Designed in 1965 by noted architect Arthur Erickson (along with Geoffrey Massey) for the Canadian forestry company of the building’s original namesake, MacMillan Bloedel, the two offset 27-story towers that comprise Arthur Erickson Place (as it was renamed in 2022) was a landmark of minimalist modernism at the time it went up in 1968. The towers’ primary Read more...
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Mid-century residential buildings The waterfront block of Argyle Ave. and its surrounding area – especially Bellevue Avenue – between 21st and 22nd Streets in the Dundarave/Ambleside area of West Vancouver was rezoned for apartment buildings in 1959 so it’s no wonder it boasts some of the sweetest mid-century modern construction in Metro Vancouver. With names like “The Crescent,” “Villa Maris” and “The Read more...
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Mid-century accommodations Opened in 1946 as the “2400 Court,” a reference to when Motor Courts proliferated Kingsway (the main route leading in and out of Vancouver at the time), the 2400 rebranded itself as a “motel” in the early 1960s when more luxurious motor hotels (or, motels) began popping up along the busy thoroughfare. By the 1970s, new highway, bridge and Read more...