Moving a little west on Robson Street from The Orillia, David Banks submits some images of the northwest corner at Granville:
The northwest corner of Granville/Robson April 13 1969. The closing out sign on the East/West Gift Centre suggests the end is near for the 1906 Granville Mansions.
Granville Mansions was also the home of Vancouver’s longest serving mayor at the end of his life: Louis (L.D.) Taylor.
Another shot, with the Orpheum Theatre (not the current one) next door:
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An earlier shot with the whole of the west-side of the 700 block can be found at here at Changing Vancouver. You’ll notice in the above image from May 4, 1969 that all the shops are vacant, awaiting demolition – to be replaced by this:
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Unfondly know as The Urinal, this blank white box designed by Cesar Pelli was originally home to Eaton’s. It and the underground mall at Pacific Centre contributed to the failure of Granville Mall in the 1970s – while the department store itself would eventually become a victim of changing retail patterns.
Good news: the blank walls are comin’ down, to be replaced by this, as part of the refit for a Nordstroms:
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The original box did serve a useful function, even as a helpful bad example of what not to do. From then on, the City’s designers were adamant that there be no blank walls on major commercial streets and that awnings and canopies for rain-protection be required above storefronts.
Another good piece of news that’s coming with Nordstrom: according to the VanCity Buzz article, Vancouver City Centre Station will be getting a second entrance on Robson street. The fact that so many Canada Line stations were built with only one entrance was just plain stupid. The fact that Robson Street, one of the city’s most important street (and with a station right there) didn’t get an entrance on it, was beyond dumb. This is a welcome fix (the first of many) to one of the silly issues of the Cheap Line’s cost-cutting-at-all-costs mentality.
I suspect that the “second entrance” will simply be a more direct entrance from the Robson & Howe corner down into the Pacific Centre mall to access the existing station entrance in the mall.
The station box is very constrained at Granville & Robson – the only way to provide a viable corridor would be to take some of the Sears basement level and use it for the station passageway – which could be the case – with a “storefront entrance” on Granville in the Sears/Nordstrom facade.
You may well be right, I don’t know nearly enough to even hazard a guess as to the mechanics of it. I do however, feel that even a storefront entrance at the Granville and Robson corner would be a big improvement, both for this station and for Robson Street.
Why is the blank face of Eatons worse than the faux windows of the Bay? Nobody can see out of those either. I agree that the street level of the store should have had more glazing, but above it is irrelevant. I’d be surprised if you’ll be able to see out of Nordstroms windows. When you own a department store you want the customer looking at the merchandise, not out the window,
The Granville Mansions c. 1907. To the north the 1891 Opera House is clad in its second facade.
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In 1913 761 Granville became the 3rd Vancouver Orpheum with yet another facade.
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Demolished in 1969, one of 5 movie palaces we lost between ’68 and ’74. It would have been 6 if not for the “Save The Orpheum” campaign.