Hastings West Historic Walk – Part 9 | Sophia Books (not part of the tour)

Sophia Books still on Google Maps

The Vancouver Heritage Foundation‘s Historic Walking Tour of Hastings West continued past Harbour Centre and across Richards Street to the Standard Building.

However, I am going to make a huge personal divergence here.  One of my favourite bookstores used to be beside the Waves Coffee at Hastings and Richards.  It was Sophia Books.  Sophia Books was not part of our tour, but it was an important little bookstore in my life.

Sophia Books (credit: Jeremy Hood)

I first encountered Sophia Books when it was down on Nelson Street just off of Granville.  It was a tiny bookstore that my friend took me to when we were in elementary school.  This bookstore specialized in Japanese books at the time and my Japanese friend naturally took me down there to show me all the neat anime art books and comics.  I couldn’t read anything, but I remember leafing through all the Japanese manga and anime art books.  I even ended up buying some Macross posters from Sophia Books as a kid.  Posters were a “good” buy since I couldn’t read any Japanese, but I could definitely appreciate the art.

In the 90′s, Sophia Books closed shop, or so I thought.  I never did go looking for it.  However, around 2003, my sister said she went to a place called Sophia Books to buy French books for her kids.  The name instantly caught my interest.  She told me that it was right by Harbour Centre on Hastings and Richards.  I asked her if they had Japanese books too.  She asked how did I know they carried Japanese books.  A name like “Sophia” doesn’t suggest Japanese, does it?  I told her I had gone down to the original Sophia Books as a kid when my friend and I were all over anime and manga.  To a certain extent, I still am.

A Kyoto guidebook bought at Sophia Books

So before Sophia Books closed down to 2010, I would frequent the store on Friday afternoons and check out some of the books.  I bought a few books from there over my short re-acquaintance with the store.  I purchased a Japanese-published guide to Kyoto book from there before my big trip to Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe in 2009.  I also bought some French books for my niece and nephew to encourage them in their French immersion studies. I also wish I bought a copy of Octonauts and One Thousand Languages when I saw them there.

Further reading:

• Books On Radio – Goodbye, Sophia Books! Vancouver Loses Another Independent
• Vancouver’s Sophia Books closes on Vimeo – Monica Martinez tells us why small book shops, like Sophia Books, are becoming a thing of the past

Happy New Year – Welcoming the Year of the Dragon

Happy New Year to all those who celebrate the Lunar New Year.  Some of you who do celebrate may adhere to some of the more interesting traditions like cleaning on the 28th day of the last month of the year and having a year end dinner with family on the Lunar New Year’s Eve.  Almost of all us do the red pocket giving and receiving during this time of year.  One other tradition I’ve heard of is wearing new PJ’s to bed to ring in the New Year.  Whatever you do, I hope you have a happy and prosperous Year of the Dragon.

Red Chinese lanterns hung up in Aberdeen Mall in 2009

Hastings West Historic Walk – Part 8 | The Standard Building

Hastings West Historic Walk Route - the pin marks the location of 2nd CPR building

After Harbour Centre, the Vancouver Heritage Foundation‘s Historic Walking Tour of Hastings West continued down Hastings Street to the home of the Foundation, the Standard Building. I’ve walked past this building many times along Hastings.  All I know is that there’s the Italian Consulate inside.  But again, Maurice had us step into another lobby to take a look.  It’s not the Marine Building, but it is a gem of a lobby on its own.

The Standard Building - 510 West Hastings

The lobby was small and tight for our large tour group.  We basically took over the whole lobby and we lined up against the walls as we took Maurice’s words.  He pointed out the clocks along the top of the walls.  These clocks are a sign of business and commerce.  I guess you need to know what time it is for your clients around the world as you wait for the elevator.

Standard Building lobby

The walls look like they are lined in marble.  Indeed some of the walls are, but some of the walls simply look like marble.  In particular, there was a concierge’s desk right by the staircase.  He asked us to knock on it and it clearly sounded like wood.  The desk was another example of trompe l’oeil deceiving our eyes.  The wood ceiling with it’s little details is also a nice piece of eye candy to feast upon.

Standard Building elevators and mail chute

The elevators reflected a brilliant gold colour back into the lobby.  There were two sitting symmetrically at the end of the lobby and another pair of elevators just to the right. I love the giant mailbox between the first two elevators.  You can see a chute that runs down from all the other floors.  In it’s earlier days, people would have been able to put mail down the chute from the other floors.  All of that mail would have simply dropped into the mailbox in the lobby.  The mailbox has a giant coat of arms on it. It makes me think of something royal or imperial.  It adds to a touch of grandeur to this tiny lobby.  It may be tiny, but it is worth stepping in and just looking around.

P.S. It’s also recommended that you walk up the stairs to the side for a little peek.

Further reading:

• Vancouver Heritage Foundation

Hastings West Historic Walk – Part 7 | Hastings at Seymour

Hastings West Historic Walk Route - the pin marks the location of 2nd CPR building

Our Vancouver Heritage Foundation‘s Historic Walking Tour of Hastings West continued down Hastings Street to Seymour Street.  We stopped at Price Waterhouse Centre, which is now officially known as Grant Thornton Place.

Maurice invited us to think back to the 1970′s and what this building must have felt like going up on Hastings Street.  A lot of the buildings we’ve seen thus far are pre-WWII and built in classic, revival, Edwardian, or art deco styles.  If you know the Price Waterhouse Cooper building, it’s like a giant upside down glass bowl just of the corner of Seymour and Hastings.  It’s completely modern, maybe even post-modern.

tiles on a fishbowl at Grant Thornton Place

Maurice took a quick poll by the raising of hands.  He asked who likes this building.  A few hands went up.  Then he asked who doesn’t like this building.  About 20 hands went up.  Then he asked who doesn’t really have an opinion one way or the other.  My hand with a couple others went up.  So obviously this is a historic and heritage walk. Most of the people will not like the postmodern style.  I can’t say I’m a big fan either.  However, if you think of the context of when this building was finished, it would have been very different from most of the buildings in this stretch and would have caused a stir.

On the other side of Seymour is another postmodern, this time brutalist, building in the form of Harbour Centre. Harbour Centre is a Vancouver icon.  We tout it as a tower, but it’s a really short one by world standards.  However, the Vancouver Lookout atop Harbour Centre does offer great views of the city.

Looking up at the Lookout at Harbour Centre

I’ve visited Harbour Centre on many occasions.  As an ESL teacher, I took my conversation classes on a field trip there.  The Vancouver Lookout has prepared lesson plans for teachers who’d like to take students up for a 360 view of the city.  The other times I’ve been here have been for free public lectures at Simon Fraser University’s City Program.  I love that SFU took over the bottom part of Harbour Centre for their downtown campus.  It’s a great use of the space there and it’s easy to get here by transit.

Across from Harbour Centre on the south side of Hastings is the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue.  This building started life as a branch of the Toronto-Dominion Bank.  TD stopped using the building in 1984, after which the building was left vacant.  The developer who eventually purchased the building was planning to replace it with a hotel.  However, SFU imagined a different use for the building. The building was donated to SFU and the building was restored on the outside and totally remade on the inside.

Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue

The Wosk Centre for Dialogue hosted the Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform in 2004 when 2 citizens from each riding in British Columbia was picked to help choose what electoral system we could have to replace the current system. Maurice says it’s a beautiful meeting room inside.  It feels almost like a mini UN congress on the inside.  I’m just waiting for an interesting event at the Wosk Centre and I’ll likely pounce on it and have a chance to sit in there.

Further reading:

• Vancouver Heritage Foundation
• SFU – City Program
• Vancouver Lookout blog

Hastings West Historic Walk – Part 6 | Hastings at Granville

Hastings West Historic Walk Route - the pin marks the location of 2nd CPR building

Our Vancouver Heritage Foundation‘s Historic Walking Tour of Hastings West resumed it’s regular route back onto Hastings Street after making to take a peek at Waterfront Station.

Birks Clock

We stood on the southwest corner of Hastings and Granville.  On the southeast corner, there is Birks Clock.  This classic landmark for a time sat at the corner of Granville and Georgia.  It was removed completely in 2006 for Canada Line construction along Granville Street.  It was re-installed at Hastings and Granville in 2009 as Canada Line construction wrapped up.

There is apparently a saying that goes like: “I’ll meet you under the Birks Clock.”  I’m not sure where that comes from, but it is a handy landmark to find and meet folks under.  I’m pretty certain people my age and younger have heard that phrase.  I remember $1.49 Woodward’s jingles but not much about the Birks Clock.

Kitty corner from our spot stands the grand temple bank building of the Royal Bank Building. This is one temple bank building that is still occupied by it’s original owner.  We crossed the intersection to get into the bank.  Maurice really encouraged us to step into the lobbies of some of these buildings because the real wow factor is sometimes on the inside.

Royal Bank Building - a temple bank on Hastings and Granville

The RBC Building definitely has a big wow factor on the inside.  Because it is still a fully operational bank, photography is not permitted inside.  Let me give you a rundown of what I saw.  The first thing that struck me is how tall the ceilings are in the main hall.  The ceiling was easily three stories above the floor.  The ceiling was decorated with what look like images sculpted into the ceiling.  However, upon closer inspection, it is all an optical illusion.  Maurice said this kind of imitation is called a “trompe l’oeil,” which literally in French means “deceive the eye.”  Even though there looks to be a buttress flying up even higher, it is simply painted that way to give the impression.  The images of people are painted to give the sense that they stand out.  Shadows are painted to give the impression that the lights are actually striking a three-dimensional object.

There is a small photo exhibit off to the corner of the main hall that shows historic photos of the building itself and the surrounding area. Below the main hall in the basement is the busy part of this bank.  This is where the daily banking still happens in this grand building.  Tellers stand serving customers behind the old counters from the previous century. This building is really worth re-entering when I have a chance.

Further reading:

• Vancouver Heritage Foundation
• Miss604 – Birks Clock Back Again
• Vancouver Sun – Vancouver Birks clock returns after labour of love
• Emporis – Royal Bank Building data

Hastings West Historic Walk – Part 5 | Waterfront Station/CPR Building

Hastings West Historic Walk Route - the pin marks the location of 2nd CPR building

Our Vancouver Heritage Foundation’s Historic Walking Tour of Hastings West made a slight detour from Hastings Street to take a peek at Waterfront Station.

Waterfront Station (photo by Zhatt on Wikipedia)

We walked along the elevated walkway above Granville Street in the direction of the Vancouver Sun/Province building.  We could see Waterfront Station and the old Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) building down on Cordova Street.  However, this CPR building is not even the original train station that stood in this area. The current building is the third incarnation of the CPR railway terminus building.

The Second CPR Building

Maurice passed around pictures of the second CPR building that used to sit right at the foot of Granville Street.  It was a gigantic rail-gothic building.  Just look at those spires.  The first time that I found out about this building was when I watched historic Vancouver streetcar footage from the documentary, City Reflections.  As the 1907 streetcar made its way north along Granville Street, this large building appeared at the end of the street.  I had no idea what it was.  It just seemed to tower as the streetcar got closer and closer to the waterfront.  Well, now I got my answer from Maurice.

excavation for the Third CPR Station beside the Second CPR Station

This photo from the Vancouver Archives shows the excavation of the current CPR building.  Cordova Street is on the left, Burrard Inlet on the right, and the second CPR building is just in the back.  Through the process of extrapolation, we can “proudly” tell you that a multi-story parking lot now sits on the site of what once was a grand railway station building.  Oh progress.

Opening and Construction Starts Planned for 2012 « The Transport Politic

Opening and Construction Starts Planned for 2012 « The Transport Politic.

The Transport Politic is one of my favourite blogs to follow.  Most of what he covers is about the United States since he’s based there.  Also, he provides what seems to be an inside look at the financing side of transportation projects across North America.  He’s just released his newest graphic/map for 2012.  It’s a map showing where all the major transit projects in North America are and what stage they are at.

Vancouver is on the top of my personal interest list.  We can see that construction is starting on a metro rail system.  That would be the Evergreen Line from Lougheed Town Centre in Burnaby to Coquitlam Town Centre.  It starts this year and opens in 2016.  Another city of interest is Seattle.  Seattle has a few projects on the go.  A new Bus Rapid Transit line is due to open this year.  Construction continues on the Link LRT and a new streetcar line.  Then further down the I-5 in Portland, the Portland Streetcar Loop will open this fall and bring streetcar service east of the Williamette River.

Up here in Canada, Edmonton and Calgary continue their LRT expansions.  Toronto is building the extension to the Spadina Line to Vaughn.  Then Montreal is opening more commuter rail.

Now I’d love to see a map of projects on other continents as well.

Hastings West Historic Walk – Part 4 | Sinclair Centre

Hastings West Historic Walk Route

The next building on our Vancouver Heritage Foundation’s Historic Walking Tour of Hastings West is one that many in Vancouver have visited, but probably ever only go there once every few years.  It’s Sinclair Centre.  Sinclair Centre is a historic gem, but a commercial anomaly Downtown.

Sinclair Centre actually consists of four separate heritage buildings that were amalgamated into one.  The original buildings are the Winch Building in the southwest block, the Customs Examining Warehouse in the northwest block, the Federal Building in the northeast block, and the Old Post Office in the southeast block.  The laneways between the buildings have either been covered over and made interior lanes or simply filled in.  The first building we entered on our tour is the Winch Building.  It makes up the southwest block of Sinclair Centre and is occupied by Leone, a high end clothier.

We were entering via Leone and Maurice warned us not to take any pictures inside since it is a private luxury brand store.  However, I managed to take one shot before going through the doors.  The entrance to Leone off of Hastings Street still has the original tiles.  I couldn’t fit the entire tile work into a photo, but I got the first half – the Winch half of the Winch Building words.

Inside the store, some of the original molding and tiles are still there as well.  So you can still walk through the old Winch Building during Leone’s business hours, just don’t be surprised if they ask you to try on some very high end brands.

We then entered the atrium walkway between the Winch Building and the Customs Examining Warehouse.  On the floor, you still see evidence of this previously being an outside area.  There are glass tiles on the floor.  These glass tiles used to line many a Vancouver street.  There are still some that exist.  Many of them are actually tinted purple and some are covered up now.

glass tiles on the floor of the atrium inside Sinclair Centre

Maurice said that the basements of many of these buildings didn’t have windows, so the glass tiles were one way to illuminate the underground floors.  Either Maurice or another tour participant said that when they did an Underground Seattle tour, there was a different reason given for the existence of these tiles.  In Seattle, at least, ladies of the night used to purposely stand over these tiles. Then prospective clients were able to examine from below which lady they would like to spend the night with.  Whether this juicy piece of trivia also applies to Vancouver is unknown.

the original Post Office bell and clock timepiece

In the centre of the atrium, just above the food court, is the original bell from the Old Post Office building.  According to Wikipedia, the bell and clock were made in 1909 and is the largest clock movement in Western Canada.  Plus, it still is in working condition.  So anyone in the atrium at the top of the hour can hear it.

We made our way out past an empty store front.  It’s an ominous sign of how quiet and unused this historic gem is.  We walk out onto Granville Street and go back up to Hastings Street.  From here, you get the best on-street view of the Old Post Office and it’s clock tower.  The Old Post Office is built in the Edwardian style and houses Service Canada offices, including the Passport Office. This spire is absolutely the symbol of Sinclair Centre and is a very noticeable landmark from the street.

The Old Post Office clock tower

Sinclair Centre has existed in its current restored form since Expo 86.  However, I’ve been in Sinclair Centre a few times over the years either for lunch or to get my passport renewed.  I’m always struck at how quiet the retail shops are.  It makes me wonder how commercially viable Sinclair Centre is.  Even though it has a direct connection to Waterfront Station, it is unable to draw rapid transit commuters through its halls and shops.  If Leone ever leaves the premises, what other retailer would be able to be the anchor in this complex.  What happens then to this historic gem?

Further Reading:

• Sinclair Centre website
• Wikipedia entry on Sinclair Centre
• Miss604′s blog post on Sinclair Centre

Hastings West Historic Walk – Part 3

Hastings West Historic Walk Route

After leaving the Marine Building on our  Vancouver Heritage Foundation‘s Hastings West Historic Walk, we went east along Hastings.  Our first stop was the Vancouver Club, an exclusive club that has been a part of Vancouver since 1889.  The club’s website touts its members as people who have influenced the growth of Vancouver and BC.

The Vancouver Club

The Club is in an A-Class heritage building in the middle of the business district.  The current home to the Vancouver Club was built in 1912 according to Maurice, but it probably didn’t officially open its doors until 1913.  If you look at the date above the door it clearly says 1913.

Hastings Street entrance of the Vancouver Club

We just walked to the end of the block after the Vancouver Club.  There on the southeast corner of Hastings and Hornby was the Credit Foncier building.  It’s another “temple bank” building of the hey days along Hastings Street.  According to Emporis, the building was completed in 1914 and is an Edwardian style building.  The cornice (the decorative molding that crowns the building) is a distinct copper green that contrasts with the stone facade below.

Credit Foncier Building

Maurice mentioned that in the early days, the waterfront came almost right up to Hastings Street.  The Marine Building was just on the cusp of land’s end when it was built.  You can see the much larger windows on the top floor.  Obviously, some early day execs had a great view of Burrard Inlet and there weren’t so many buildings in the way then.  I can’t remember if Maurice said that the pillars in this building showed up on the inside or not.  I think it was this one, but I’m not entirely certain.

Just behind and above Credit Foncier in the photo above is the Norman Foster designed Jameson House.  It’s a residential tower that’s popped up in the middle of a central business district.  Is this the sign of the times ahead where the commercial properties are pushed out of the area or is it a one off?  Looking at the four giant cylindrical projections on the west side of Jameson House, it makes me think we could park George Jetson’s aerocar in one of those spacious balconies.  Also, this is probably one of the pricier residences in town now, especially since it is a Norman Foster project.

Next stop on our West Hastings Walk is the Sinclair Centre.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all of you who read my blog. I don’t get to update much, but my blog is just a hobby and personal soapbox. So thanks for reading.

Well, for Christmas Eve, my PC’s hard drive decided to call it quits. So it’s going to be interesting for the next little while until I can get a replacement up and running. Thankfully, I keep most of my stuff on two external hard drive that still work. One of the hard drives is even older the hard drive that just died . Oh well. Now I’m pondering the PC vs Mac debate. I don’t play a lot of games like I used to, so the switch may make more sense nowadays. I’ll let you all know what happens.