John Mackie
Sun
VANCOUVER – Two civic icons top the sixth annual list of Heritage Vancouver’s Top 10 Endangered Heritage Sites.
The Burrard Bridge is number one, followed by St. Paul’s Hospital. Arthur Erickson’s modern masterpiece the Evergreen Building is number three, followed by the Vogue Theatre and the 2400 Motel on Kingsway.
Salsbury Garden near Commercial Drive is number six, followed by the old Black Swan records building on West Fourth, and Malkin Bowl in Stanley Park. The list is rounded out by the city’s “stewardship” of buildings such as the Hastings Mill Museum and Roedde House Museum, and the Joy Kogawa House in Marpole.
The Burrard Bridge isn’t going to be knocked down. But Don Luxton of Heritage Vancouver fears the new NPA council will resurrect a proposal to add “outrigger” lanes on the sides of the bridge for bicyclists now that the new council has cancelled plans to convert two of the six traffic lanes into bicycle lanes.
The future of St. Paul’s Hospital is very much up in the air. Providence Health Care — which owns and operates St. Paul’s — has purchased a 17-acre site on the False Creek flats by the train station and is considering building a new hospital rather than renovate and upgrade St. Paul’s.
Luxton says Providence may sell the St. Paul’s site to a developer, which would redevelop it as residential condos.
© The Vancouver Sun 2006