Hotel Devonshire, a postcard by Edward Goodall. Here’s an archival photo almost from the same vantage point, or how it would have appeared from the old Hotel Vancouver. According to Emporis, construction began in 1923 and was completed in 1924; the building was designed by the prestigious McCarter & Nairne Partners. More facts:

• Demolished on July 5, 1981 at 7:05 a.m. with 100 kilograms of dynamite, along with the famous Cave nightclub, to make way for the HSBC Building.
• Opened as an apartment building for boarders, named The Devonshire Apartment Hotel.

YMCA Building at Burrard and Barclay St by McCarter & Nairne, perspective view 1940, pencil and colour wash on illustration board. Reprinted on page 56 of Trace Magazine, July - Sept 1981. The building recently went through a complete redevelopment and is now known as The Robert Lee YMCA Building, joining forces with a 42-storey residential tower known as Patina. For those who want to read the fine print, here’s the City of Vancouver rezoning report and Heritage Revitalization Agreement from 2005. The Vancouver Observer took a tour of the facilities in this 2010 article. The numbers, briefly: 

Number of units: 256
Cost of YMCA restoration: $67 million
Total project cost: $250 million
What I’d really like to know: cost of the original building in 1940 ??

Associate Architect was the Vancouver firm McCarter & Nairne, famous architects of the Marine Building. Incidentally, the last joint project between the two original partners at McCarter & Nairne was the Vancouver Main Post Office building at West Georgia (built 1952-58).

Thanks, pasttensevancouver!

pasttensevancouver:

Natatorium and Commercial Building, n.d., by Edward Thomas Osborn

This is an architectural rendering for a public swimming pool that was never built, possibly because the City decided to go with the more modest design that was used for the Crystal Pool, which was built in 1928 on the current site of the Aquatic Centre. It’s also possible that Osborn’s design was inspired by Seattle’s Crystal Pool.

Source: University of Washington Library Digital Collections

The CIBC Building’s interior (or then as it was called, the Imperial Bank of Canada) at Granville & Dunsmuir Streets, illustration by J Douglas Hunter. Building by McCarter, Nairne, and Partners, architects and engineers. Brochure from the VPL, Special Collections, N.W. 971.133 V22i Pam

Here’s the view seen just before CIBC left the building in 2005, as well as the mural, photographed by me.

The CIBC Building, Granville & Dunsmuir Streets, illustration by J Douglas Hunter. Built by McCarter, Nairne, & Partners, architects and engineers in 1958. Brochure from the VPL, Special Collections, N.W. 971.133 V22i Pam. By comparison, see this contemporary photo by me before the bank’s conversion to a Shoppers Drug Mart.

From the Vancouver Heritage Foundation’s Mid-Century Modern map:

McCarter & Nairne designed numerous downtown office buildings during the 1950s for financial institutions and insurance companies starting with the TD Building, and the Imperial Bank is the finest of the few survivors. This striking structure is composed of an office block of white Vermont marble supported around the perimeter by elliptical black granite columns that seems to float above the glassed-in banking hall. Inside is a stunning Venetian glass mosaic mural by artist B.C. Binning, celebrating British Columbia’s industries, crafts, and natural resources. Stretching 44 feet across the powerful banking hall, the mosaic required more than 200,000 pieces of glass to complete. Elegant, clean-lined walnut woodwork, terrazzo floors, and green marble tables and counters finish the interior.