Joe Wai needs no introduction to Vancouverites-this extraordinary advocate, citizen and architect has shaped how we think about place, culture and our responsibilities to our city. If Joe saw you walking by on the street he would run across to say hello, shake your hand, and ask you how you and your family were doing. He quite simply personified all that was good in community and neighbourhood, and worked hard to make good things even better.
If you were to check Joe’s “Linked In” profile, he has written very simply “I have been around for a while“. That is typical Joe Wai and also a very typical understatement. Joe received his bachelor’s and master’s in architecture from the University of British Columbia and worked for iconic architects in Vancouver and in London England before setting up his own practice in 1978. Joe was involved with the Strathcona Owners and Tenants Association (SPOTA) who successfully challenged the expropriation of housing for the creation of a public housing project and a freeway that would have carved into Chinatown.
Joe’s energies and interests were legendary. As The Tyee notes “Joe has been involved with senior/social housing and a volunteer in Chinatown community issues for over 40 years. He is also the architect of the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, the Chinatown Millennium Gate, the Chinese Cultural Centre Museum and Archives, the Chinatown Parkade and Plaza, and the Commemoration of Block 17 as well as many restorations of the early Chinatown Society buildings.”
Henry Yu has written a memory of Joe Wai that describes more of Joe’s work and philosophy. You may also want to leave your own thoughts and stories about this extraordinary Vancouverite below. He will be greatly missed.
Joe exemplified the best values of Vancouver in his life and architecture, especially of that generation which did so much in the early 1970s to fight for preservation of neighbourhood and community while accommodating the pressures of growth and changing character, particularly for those who might otherwise be overlooked or disregarded.
He was a gentleman in the best sense: a gentle man with dignity and respect for others, even in his forceful advocacy for a better city that lived up to the best expectations we held for ourselves. The kind of life that Joe led.
RIP. A modest man whose buildings were self-effacing and modest – his was good architecture, responding to real needs without destroying its surroundings.
Mau Dan Co-op and Dr. Sun Yat Sen Gardens (and other civic projects) … social conscience and urban beauty. That’s a fine and very humane legacy.
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Reblogged this on Sandy James Planner.
Among everything else that can can be said about this wonderful man and hero of our city, he was inherently dignified. Just the way he carried himself, how he listened closely to what was being said. How he kept his cool, no matter what. Yet there was always humour not far away. Somehow or another one trusted him, took him at his word. He was the very embodiment of a citizen architect and activist. Like all others who had the opportunity to know and work with him, I feel blessed.
A great legacy in Strathcona from the 60s and 70s – “Joe Wai Specials” – a Chinatown version of “Vancouver Specials”.
Here’s an article I wrote in 2012 on a “Joe Wai Special” in Strathcona: http://spacing.ca/vancouver/2012/01/02/a-vancouver-extra-special-in-strathcona/
Yuri – Nice piece and a fitting reminder of Joe’s contribution to a more modest version of “Vancouverism,” one we all could (once) all aspire to.
A very informative article, Yuri. The original Specials, like Wai’s, were indeed designed and built with practicality in mind, and they were very modest compared to some of the monsters built later. Another advantage is that the wood-based building materials used in the 70s were superior to today’s OSB and other products using tonnes of glue. It’s common to open up the walls and ceilings and discover high-strength Douglas fir studs, joists and plywood sheathing. D. fir is now the price of oak.
RIP Joe Wai, you designed the housing co-op in Strathcona where I spent quite a few pleasant years living, and still have a lot friends who live there. It takes a village to raise a child, but it takes an architect to raise the village.