As the MNP Tower rises behind the Marine Building, the classic view looking west down Hastings Street is being irretrievably altered. From this:
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To this:
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To this:
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It’s not unprecedented. The same thing happened in New York City, where the New York Central Building (later the Helmsley Building) occupied a prime location on the centre line of Park Avenue, as part of the Grand Central Terminal complex:
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Then, to take advantage of air-space rights, the Pan Am building was erected immediately behind it:
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Some think it an abomination; others as a classic view of a contrasting and vibrant New York. The same, I expect, for the Marine Building
I’ll take the MNP building over the Pan Am / MetLife Building any day. MetLife is leaden and oppressive at ground level too.
Amen to that. While an unfortunate impostion on a classic and beloved skyline, the MNP cannot do as much irreparable harm as the PanAm monstrosity does. I hope it will appear as neutral and respectful a background building from this vantage point as the image suggest.
I think we need to rationally weigh costs and benefits.
Do the costs to society of our city’s damaged aesthetic really trump the benefits to society of the MNP tower? The benefits can be counted in billions. I doubt the costs amount to that.
This line of reasoning should be applied to all the many onerous restrictions we have on construction in Vancouver.
In the 1950s, my father operated a travel agency on the ground floor of the Marine Building, facing Burrard Street. I visited that place in February and found– to my delight — that I could have an excellent coffee in the very place where he sat at his desk. For my money, as long as it stays there and I have at least two landmarks on Burrard Street, I am relieved.
One foggy, rainy day, about ten years ago, a friend from North Van dropped me on Burrard. I found myself in tears when I could not orient myself or navigate — initially, I could not find any landmarks. Then I found the Marine Building. The Marine Building is part of my “landscape of memory”. Vancouver has destroyed a lot of my childhood map. The “real” Vancouver lives in my memory. At least the Marine Building is still standing.
There are some very serious implications to exceeding design restrictions. See here an example from Philadelphia, where a gentlemen’s agreement not to exceed the height of William Penn’s hat atop City Hall brought ruin to the city for decades. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_Billy_Penn
But in all seriousness, there are more egregious examples — see Independence Hall:
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=philadelphia&hl=en&ll=39.950643,-75.149582&spn=0.007164,0.013937&sll=49.257735,-123.123904&sspn=0.19427,0.445976&hnear=Philadelphia,+Philadelphia+County,+Pennsylvania&t=h&z=17&layer=c&cbll=39.950643,-75.149582&panoid=HBmN1EGjp3nIQbB1WQNFOQ&cbp=12,193.72927700000002,,0,-5.587631&photoid=po-95826834
The MNP tower is my favourite building currently under construction in Vancouver…particularly if the glass panels turn out to be sky blue as in the conceptual drawings.
Unfortunately, what could have been a stunning new landmark tower is showhorned a few metres away from the most iconic building in the city….
Well I may have a different perspective since I am a newcomer to Vancouver. I am pretty familiar with the PanAm building in New York, it is one of my favorites. I think that the MNP Tower will add to our skyline here with its distinctive shape, just wish that the tower sat a little more elegantly next to the Marine Building.The PanAm building has a more symmetrical relationship to its surroundings, it seems to me. I am going by your photos since I don’t think I have seen the Marine Building yet. But then, like you often do on this blog, you have given me a new building to explore this weekend!
I have a confession to make as well. I think that Pan Am has it moments as well, it just doesn’t work in its location. Big slabs like that don’t work as vista terminators. They’re vista eliminators. Just big walls. And it is heavy handed at ground level.
The Marine Building…the viewcone along Hastings from one end of the CPR townsite to the other has barely changed in 85 years. .
1927….Happy days are here again. Woodwards is expanding, again The long delayed Canadian National Hotel is , and a littlle bird told me that Townley and Matheson are designing a new CN office building for the N/W corner of Georgia & Granville , and a new Royal Bank tower for the site of the old BIrks building.
http://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/uploads/r/null/8/6/869900/a860742f-72bd-4be7-9934-722964cf6686-A09759.jpg