VC08 - Architecture — The Blue Print

THE EVERGREEN BUILDING

(WHERE) 1285 W. Pender St., Vancouver
(WHEN) 1978
(LOOK FOR) Descending terraces overflowing with greenery, recalling a manmade hillside; an ideal expression of architecture as landscape.
Photo by Geoffrey Erickson

THE MacMILLAN BLOEDEL BUILDING

(WHERE) 1075 W. Georgia St., Vancouver
(WHEN) 1965
(LOOK FOR) the skyscraper’s profile, which reveals Erickson’s secret homage to the forests that MacMillan Bloedel made a fortune harvesting. The tower draws ever so slightly inward as it rises, mimicking the trunk of a massive tree.
Photo by Ezra Stoller/Esto

ROBSON SQUARE

(WHERE) Two city blocks bordered by Hornby, Georgia, Howe, and Smithe streets.
(WHEN) 1973
(LOOK FOR) the “stramps” of the interior square, Erickson’s hybrid stair-and-ramp invention. Also: the secret garden knoll, accessed off Robson Street, created by Erickson’s longtime landscape designer, Cornelia Oberlander.
Photo by Steven Zhen Wang

THE SCOTIABANK DANCE CENTRE

(WHERE) 677 Davie St., Vancouver
(WHEN) 2001
(LOOK FOR) The confrontation of old and new. A metal curtain and a wall of glass cling to, or leap from, the historic façade of the Bank of Nova Scotia. Respect for architectural history, or tokenism?
Photo by Gerry Kopelow

THE WATERFALL BUILDING

(WHERE) 1540 W. Second Ave., Vancouver
(WHEN) 1996
(LOOK FOR) the tight mix of uses, with hipster boutiques rubbing shoulders with residents upstairs and an art gallery at the heart of the interior courtyard.
Photo by Gerry Kopelow

Got Wheels? Go Further Afield

SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY

(WHERE) Top of Burnaby mountain
(WHEN) 1971 and 1992
(LOOK FOR) the clean linear structures and constantly surprising views, which invite the eye to gaze upon distant landscapes. These utopian, minimalist buildings have become backdrops in more than one futurist film.
Photo by Steven Zhen Wang

UBC’S MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY
AND WALTER KOERNER LIBRARY

(WHERE) 6393 N.W. Marine Dr., UBC (seen above)
1958 Main Mall, UBC (seen below)
(WHEN) 1971 and 1992
(LOOK FOR) The influence of Haida waterfront villages at the MoA, complete with an unfortunate dry patch behind the building where Erickson wanted a pool to reflect the museum’s dramatic north façade. (Engineers insisted that water would erode the nearby cliff.)

A short walk away, the Koerner library resembles a gargantuan glass book. Erickson taught at this university for seven years.
Photos by Christopher Erickson