Vancouver's Worst Eyesores

As a follow-up to Heritage Vancouver's list of the ten most-endangered buildings in the city, we thought we'd try and come up with a list of those buildings that we'd like to see torn down as quickly as possible - preferably before they're granted heritage status.

From where we sit, there are plenty of ugly buildings in Vancouver that would be ripe for replacement with a 600 to 800 foot skyscraper.

At the top of our list would be that God-awful Sears building at Pacific Centre. Apparently its 'toilet white' colour was considered an 'architectural disaster' when it first went up in 1972.

Another would be the ScotiaBank Tower, even though we know that it does have some friends and supporters.

Third on our hit-list would be the Sapphire, although that eyesore hasn't even been finished yet.

Any other candidates out there? Perhaps you secretly loathe the Aquatic Centre? We know that many of you hate that triangular green building in Kits, just off the Burrard Street Bridge.

Meanwhile, BC Place seems to have earned a few enemies of late as well.

Comments

[tempel1]

The Masonic Lodge at 1495 West 8th Avenue has to be one of the ugliest and strangest buildings in the city...unless the freemasons know something about an impending nuclear disaster that the rest of us don't.
Come to think of it, they probably do!

[Paul Hillsdon]

Ugh, definitely the Sears and that ugly Aquatic centre!

[cat]

sears needs to go ASAP - robson and granville is a great area, but it's totally overwhelmed and smothered by the sears building.

[Gordon Price]

My nomination for the worst: The Academy of Music on Vanier Point. Not too many people know about it, thankfully, since it's another of those 70s-style bunkers they built back then, like the Archives. What makes it my top choice is the lost opportunity. Shouldn't an Academy of Music be a graceful, inviting, significantly placed icon in the fabric of the city? This is none of those.

[JJ]

The ugliest is the Empire Landmark. Though I actually don't mind the Sears building.

[Clauf]

I do hate the Sears Building. There's that one side on Robson that's the worst: the entire wall is toilet white. And that green building, in a shape of many Las Vegas hotels look gross too!

[JackLonsdale]

I actually like BC Place Stadium in terms of esthetics (I think the big marshmellow serves as a good anchor for the downtown core), as well as ScotiaBank Tower (a good, hard-working 1970s office tower... reminds me of Denver, for some reason).

On the other hand, I'm not a big fan of our two university campuses (SFU and UBC), nor do I appreciate Robson Square.

[Lawrence]

Sears has to go - I'll agree with you on that. Personally, I think that the Scotia Tower and BC place (Among others listed) aren't that bad. Kinda retro in a way, you know? Vancouver is getting swamped in new residential architecture styles, so the old styles are becoming rarer and more unique here.

Two places I would add to my list of the worst - the HR MacMillan building (That one on Georgia which looks like a sideways waffle-iron) and Wall Centre. Wall Centre was actually going pretty well until they decided to change the glass colour halfway up...

Worst. Construction. Ever.

[Toby]

I would hate to see ScotiaTower go just because it's a huge part of the skyline. I would rather not see another slim, short glass building in its place - well, unless it was REALLY archictecturally significant. As for Sears, I can't see how they could get rid of it but how about improving it and making it more vibrant - say, by adding Shinjuku-tokyo style video boards across the breadth of the building? Lol. Just a thought.

[ron]

Agreed on the Masonic Temple.
Paramount/Electric Avenue is high on the ugly list.
I don't mind the green 60s tower south of the Burrard Bridge, nor the angled one at Granville & 16th. Vancouver is demolishing its 1960s modernist buildings quite readily these days.

I don't mind Sears - at least its clean looking and not drab biege. Unfortunately, the recent exterior renovation (itself only half completed) from Eatons to Sears suburbanized/big boxified the building away from its original clean modernist lines. It could have easily been updated in a modernist style. The glass spandrel panels above the original entrance alcoves LIGHT UP - but I've only seen then lit once - in the dying days of the original Eatons - and those panels are imprinted with a banner of ...EATONSEATONSEATONSEATONS... along the bottom edge - only visible when lit. Those glass panels could have been replaced with colourful backlit glass. Stainless steel fins could have been added to provide texture and break up the facade. The Garnville side could host huge video panels, under the Granville Street sign bylaw. And who knows why they moved the vertical signs? That did nothing but provide an excuse to remove the original terrazzo cladding and replace it with aluminim siding.

[Richard]

Darren Barefoot visited this issue in 2005, and his vote was for the Aquatic Centre as well: http://www.darrenbarefoot.com/archives/2005/07/the-ugliest-building-in-vancouver.html

[Chris]

I don't mind the Sears Building, I like the video Billboards idea. On the other Hand I think the best Vancouver has to offer is Yaletown edge, in particular the Grace Building on the corner of Richards and Drake, the Metropolis Richards and Davie are both unique and spectactular!

[Sears fan]

Sears had to remove the large display signs on the corners of the building because of bylaws that Eatons was grandfathered into and Sears actually is in the process of being approved to put up new adverts hopefully before summer ends. That will help to make the toilet look a little more 2009.