{"id":2186,"date":"2011-08-22T08:32:18","date_gmt":"2011-08-22T15:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingvancouver.ca\/?p=2186"},"modified":"2013-01-21T07:21:46","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T15:21:46","slug":"price-points-robson-and-granville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2011\/08\/22\/price-points-robson-and-granville\/","title":{"rendered":"Price Points: Robson and Granville"},"content":{"rendered":"

What’s this about?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It’s not often that I cheer the loss of another bit of Vancouver’s past.\u00a0 But this block at Robson and Granville is coming down.\u00a0 (Map here.)<\/a><\/p>\n

Yay!<\/p>\n

It’s\u00a0a non-descript white-brick block on a great location.\u00a0 Photographer Alex Waterhouse-Hayward <\/a>had his studio there – as did, no doubt, an eclectic group of tenants over many decades.\u00a0 We’ll miss the\u00a0unique boutiques\u00a0in tiny storefronts along the Robson sidewalk, and\u00a0an\u00a0alluring \u00a0retail\u00a0underworld below – a classic example of Jane Jacobs’ observation: New ideas (and ventures) need old buildings.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately this one was too fat, and not tall enough to ever command\u00a0its site.\u00a0\u00a0It squeezed the\u00a0north sidewalk past the point of congestion, never\u00a0gave this signature corner\u00a0sufficient due, and had one of the ugliest awnings in a city with a lot of competition for ugliest awning.\u00a0 Hopefully Musson Catell Mackey’s\u00a087-foot replacement will make a statement worthy of the location and animate a corner that surely many developers must have lusted after for years.\u00a0 I presume Granville Mall Optical had a very long and exceedingly attractive lease, enough to justify hanging in there without making any changes to a storefront of hyperbolic arches in cheap stucco that look like they dated\u00a0back to\u00a0the ’70s.<\/p>\n

I’m also assuming that the adjacent terra-cotta charmer next door will at least have its facade preserved, given that this polychromatic storefront was designed by Townley & Matheson – the architects of City Hall – and that the Power Block is a designated heritage building.<\/p>\n

I haven’t seen a rendering yet – not even the boys at Changing City <\/a>have posted one – but it had better be good.\u00a0 It’ll change our perception of this part of Granville and be the gateway to\u00a0Robson\u00a0Square a block away.\u00a0 And of course it’ll be on\u00a0the go-to corner whenever, one day, we win the Stanley Cup.<\/p>\n

I wonder how much glass they’ll be using.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What’s this about? It’s not often that I cheer the loss of another bit of Vancouver’s past.\u00a0 But this block at Robson and Granville is coming down.\u00a0 (Map here.) Yay! It’s\u00a0a non-descript white-brick block on a great location.\u00a0 Photographer Alex Waterhouse-Hayward had his studio there – as did, no doubt, an eclectic group of tenantsContinue reading “Price Points: Robson and Granville”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6020,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11232,35],"tags":[5531,5530,12,220,305,828,299,5532,625,2869],"class_list":["post-2186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-spacing","tag-alex-waterhouse-hayward","tag-changing-city","tag-city-hall","tag-granville","tag-jane-jacobs","tag-photographer","tag-price-points","tag-retail-underworld","tag-robson-square","tag-the-stanley-cup"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPrice Points: Robson and Granville - Spacing Vancouver<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2011\/08\/22\/price-points-robson-and-granville\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Price Points: Robson and Granville - Spacing Vancouver\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What’s this about? It’s not often that I cheer the loss of another bit of Vancouver’s past.\u00a0 But this block at Robson and Granville is coming down.\u00a0 (Map here.) Yay! 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