Reference to Project 200 and Granville Square below gives me a chance to feature the “Then and Now Images” from Changing Vancouver – a great website by Andy Coupland and John Atkin.
In particular, their entry on The Second CPR station at West Cordova and Granville:
Here’s the newly completed CPR station in about 1900. … This one sat right at the foot of Granville Street, and despite its grandeur it only lasted fifteen years before being replaced by the one still standing today.
The designer was a German immigrant, Edward Colonna (whose) station design was only partly complete when a severe downtown in the economy saw construction halted. The building’s final appearance was completed in 1899 by Montreal based (and born) architect Edward Maxwell, who reworked Calonna’s design but stayed true to its Gothic style. …
Today the site consists of a parkade that’s associated with the offices in the replacement station and the office tower at Granville Square built in the 1970s as one of the few completed parts of Project 200, a huge urban renewal scheme that would have seen Gastown swept away (with far fewer heritage buildings left to feature on this blog).
You can happily spend time on their blog with many more before-and-after shots, carefully positioned for maximum effect, along with a host of details on the original and contemporary buildings that so well document the history of our place.
great shots….
“You can happily spend time…”
Happily? I find most of them make me weep.