Canada Post building Archives

Sam Wiebe is the award-winning author of the Wakeland novels, a detective series set in Vancouver that includes Invisible Dead and Hell and Gone.

“When poet-turned-screenwriter Paul Ling goes missing, his teenage daughter hires Vancouver P.I. Dave Wakeland to track him down. To the shock of his family and colleagues, Ling’s body is found within days in the home of a stranger, killed by a drug overdose—and Wakeland suspects foul play. Did Ling have a secret life that finally caught up with him, or did his search for creative material for his writing take him down a dangerous path? In the world of bad television and cutthroat competition, Wakeland will need his wits about him to sort friend from foe.”—Sam Wiebe’s Hollywood North.

Sam Wiebe just released Hollywood North as a thank you to his newsletter subscribers. And I’m grateful because it’s a terrific story that’s set in Vancouver and continues on from his two Dave Wakeland crime novels Invisible Dead (2016) and Cut you Down (2018). Wakeland is a former Vancouver Police officer turned PI and his character is intrinsically involved with the city, so much so, that Sam tells me that Vancouver became a character in his books.

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And it’s not the glossy, international playground of the tourist brochures. Wakeland’s Vancouver is often the gritty streets of the DTES. Sam’s PI comes right up against the social issues of the day, whether that’s homelessness, drugs, sex workers or the missing and murdered Indigenous women.

One idea that turned up in Sam’s story Wonderful Life in Vancouver Noir (a 2018 collection of crime fiction that he edited) came from a story that Aaron Chapman wrote for the Vancouver Courier about the H Squad several years ago.

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Sam’s says he’s also inspired by Vancouver Confidential, a non-fiction book by John Belshaw featuring stories by writers such as Jesse Donaldson, Lani Russwurm, Aaron Chapman and me.

In Hollywood North, Sam tackles the vacuousness of the American film industry in Vancouver. And, I was excited to find two of my favourite heritage buildings in his story.

Royal Bank Building:

Wakeland’s office is in the Royal Bank Building on West Hastings, which also turns up in my new book Vancouver Exposed (the Royal Bank has the last elevator operator in the city).

“I just fell in love with the building and I thought if I was an up and coming PI that’s where I would shoot for,” he says. “I also liked that it was on Hastings street, because Hastings Street was so synonymous with the narrative of poverty and drugs and all that stuff and people forget that 90 percent of Hastings is either part of the financial district or bleeds into Burnaby and the suburbs. It’s a very vibrant street so I thought putting it there was important.”

The Canada Post building on West Georgia also has a role in Hollywood North and it’s part of Vancouver Exposed. Where Sam uses the building as a metaphor for bad American television and business practices, I talk about it through its art, its tunnel and its roof.

Canada Post building in 1960. Courtesy JMABC

Want to read Hollywood North? Sign up for Sam’s newsletter and enjoy!

And look out for his new novella Never Going Back which will be out by the end of the month.

One of the things I loved most about being a contributor to Vancouver Confidential was working with reporters, bloggers, artists, tour guides, actors, musicians and academics that cut across both decades and demographics. The experience made me realize what a truly diverse group we have working in the local history and heritage space.

So just for fun, I’ve asked several of my heritage heroes to tell me their favourite residential or commercial building, and to tell me the one building that should never have left our landscape.

John Atkin

John Atkin is a civic historian, heritage consultant, author and walking tour guide. He co-chairs the Chinese Canadian Historical Society of BC, sits on the board of the Friends of the Archives and is a Trustee of the Dr Sun Yat Sen Chinese Garden. In his spare time John likes to bind books and draw.

Favourite Vancouver building:

Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church on Campbell Avenue in Strathcona is a single-handed effort from the Russian Orthodox missionary priest, architect and carpenter, the Reverend Archpriest Alexander Kiziun. He died before completion, but was responsible for its design. He salvaged materials from a variety of sources which makes the church unique in its construction and character.

The one building that should never had been destroyed:

The Georgia Medical Dental building should never have been demolished. Silly reasons put forward by the council of the day, a developer with an outsized ego and a building which would have been a dramatic blend of old and new if it had survived for a few more years like the now celebrated Hotel Georgia.

Aaron Chapman

Aaron Chapman is a writer, historian and musician with a special interest in Vancouver’s entertainment history and the author of Liquor, Lust, and the Law, Live at The Commodore, and a contributor to Vancouver Confidential. You can catch Aaron live at the Vancouver Archives on March 22

Favourite Vancouver building:

The Vancouver Planetarium. The steel crab sculpture, the UFO like dome building, and the ramp that rises up to the doorway makes you feel like just entering the building is an event. The design is modern, but it’s the location for the Vancouver Museum, and therefore full of the past that makes an interesting contradiction. And there’s something of that late 60s “space-age” era architecture that not only reminds me of that design style that was so popular when I was a kid, but the whole place also likely reminds me of the elementary school field trips fondly spent there. Runner ups? The Penthouse and The Commodore Ballroom, of course!

The one building that should never had been destroyed:

The Cave. I was too young to ever go in myself before it was demolished, so perhaps I’m considering it through an odd lens of nostalgia. How wonderful would it be today to see a show that had such history to it, and knowing that you were standing in the place where so many great jazz musicians, comedians, and stars came through, especially in a place designed to look like a cave with stalactites and stalagmites everywhere as the decor. Hipsters today would have flocked to a place with such kitsch.

H.R. MacMillan Space Centre (Vancouver Planetarium)

Jeremy Hood

Jeremy Hood is the sole administrator for the FB page Vancouver: Then. “It has been a labour of love for the past two and half years and I am still blown away by some of the comments of real life Vancouver stories, some first hand, some passed down, that follow in the comments section of the photos I post,” says Jeremy. “When not working at my day job I am a photographer, a local history buff and cat lover.”

Favourite Vancouver building:

The Dominion Building wins out for me mainly for its uniqueness and how little it has changed in over 100 years. There is no building quite like it in Vancouver and it is situated in a location that enhances the magnificent stature of the building, including the mansard roof and decorated cornice. Even with a city that has grown around it, it still manages to stand out.

The "now" photo by Jeremy Hood, the "then" photo of the Dominion Building Vancouver Archives, 1944 CVA 1184-615. — The “now” photo by Jeremy Hood, the “then” photo of the Dominion Building Vancouver Archives, 1944 CVA 1184-615.

The one building that should never had been destroyed:

Two buildings that should not have been torn down are the Birks Building and the second Hotel Vancouver. The Birks Building, while majestic, handsome and a cruel loss to the city, didn’t have quite the mind-boggling ‘wow factor’ that the second Hotel Vancouver had. The sheer size of this hotel building and the fantastic detailing that went into it is almost impossible to imagine today, with vintage photographs of it likely just scratching the surface at what as treasure this landmark building once was. One can only wonder ‘what if’ and how that building would look today if it was saved.

Will Woods

Will Woods is the Founder and Chief Storyteller at Forbidden Vancouver Walking Tours and a contributor to Vancouver Confidential.

Favourite Vancouver building:

Any one of the early twentieth century buildings on Pender Street in Chinatown that have retained they recessed balconies and ornamental features. It’s really something to walk down that street and see buildings that wouldn’t be out of place in Guangdong, circa 1900-1920. And the recessed balconies are perfect for our climate here, but for some reason never caught on!

Second Hotel Vancouver on Georgia Street

The one building that should never had been destroyed:

The second Hotel Vancouver. The images that survive today show what an incredible and ornate building that was. A real tragedy it is gone, especially when the current occupant of that site is one of the city’s most bland office buildings. Fast-forward ten years and I expect I will be saying the Canada Post building on West Georgia. I’d love to see that retained and turned into an art gallery or museum – akin to the Tate in London. I think the merits of 1950s architecture will be increasingly apparent, the faster it slips into the rear-view mirror and the more of the buildings are lost. That particular building has a hint of the futuristic about it (helicopter pad on the roof for example), but also homage to tradition, with the large emblem on the front. It’s also “Herzogian” in its era, the photographer who seems to capture the ‘essence’ of Vancouver as well as anyone over the years. Almost as if the ’50s were ‘peak Vancouver’ in terms of visual richness.

When Fact Meets Fiction: Sam Wiebe’s Vancouver

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Vancouver Confidential:

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