At 2:00 pm on Sunday March 24, 1974, a group of about a 100 people, many of them students and professors from the UBC School of Architecture, came together in a mock funeral for the Birks Building, an eleven storey Edwardian masterpiece at Georgia and Granville with a terracotta façade and a curved front corner.
Story from Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History (also the cover photo). Photos by Angus McIntyre
And the band played:
They marched from the old Vancouver Art Gallery at Georgia and Thurlow, led by a police escort and accompanied by a New Orleans funeral band playing a sombre dirge. The mourners assembled under the “meet me at the Birk’s clock,” an ornate iron timepiece that stood more than 20 feet tall and for decades had been a local landmark and familiar meeting place. For generations of Vancouverites, “Meet you at the Birks clock” was a common phrase.
An act of architectural vanalism:
On this day, it was too late to stop the demolition—it had already begun—but not too late to protest what author and artist Michael Kluckner and others have called an egregious act of architectural vandalism.
The crew working on the new building across the road shut off the air compressors and laid down their tools. Reverend Jack Kent, chaplain of the Vancouver Mariners Club officiated. He was accompanied by a choir.
Angus McIntyre then 26, grabbed his Konica Autoreflex T2 35mm camera and rode his bike downtown to record the event.
Ceremony:
“There was a Gathering, a Sharing of Ideas, a Choir performance and a Laying of the Wreaths,” Angus told me. “A small group of people wearing recycled videotape clothing put hexes on new buildings nearby. As soon as it came time to return to the Art Gallery, the band switched to Dixieland jazz, and the mood became slightly more upbeat.”
And just like that, the beautiful old Birks Building—well not that old really—only 61 in 1974—was killed off to make way for the Scotia Tower and Vancouver Centre mall.
The only positive thing to come out of the loss of this much-loved building was that it mobilized the heritage preservation community in Vancouver and saved many of our other fine old buildings such as the Orpheum Theatre, Hudson’s Bay, Waterfront Station, the Hotel Vancouver and the Marine Building—from a similar fate.
Related:
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26 comments on “We held a funeral for the Birks Building”
Love the history of Vancouver. At least some good came out of the demise of the Birks building. There used to be a number of movie theatres in Vancouver too, and love the Sinclair Centre.
Would have loved to have seen a movie at the Strand!
Yes Eve, I did as a kid. Think ‘Steelyard Blues’ was the last film to play at The Strand. Dont ask my how I remember that, just a memory and trivia freak I guess. If I am wrong, somebody please correct me.
I saw Mary Poppins at the Strand
It was first movie I ever saw & I still remember it. It was a grand theatre and the movie still sticks with me.
That was one of the first movies I saw….I thought it was the first one, maybe because my Dad bought the soundtrack and I played it continually memorizing all the songs. Still know them. Don’t know what I had for breakfast but remember all the words to Chim Chim Chiree. The theatre was gorgeous, slight less ornate than the Orpheum, I think it only had one balcony, not sure.
Then the next year we saw the Sound of Music at the Ridge, where it played forever.
It was hardly a good trade to get the soul-less Scotia Bank Tower as a replacement to the gracious, and classicly styled Birks Building. Payments made on sales on the floors of the Birks building, were put into a vestibule in a container. Suction would rocket the container to a secured Cashier Station in another part of the building, where change was made, receipt provided and then it was fired back to the sales floor in the tube, all within a couple short minutes. It was slick and secure. More people used cash in those days!
I believe the Bay had the same pay system at one time.
What happened to the wonderful clock ? Was it saved I hope ?
Yes! It’s at Granville and Hastings
Yeah I can remember watching the demolition of the old Birks building it was a long slow death that took a few months. It looked like a pretty solid building with steel and concrete that could have lasted to this day. I remember a little Bobcat front-end loader machine driving around on the floors that’s how strong it was built! They pulled it down floor-by-floor one piece at a time with jackhammers because “Death By A Thousand Cuts” because the close proximity to other buildings precluded explosive demolition like the Devonshire Hotel a few year later.
good god, this just makes me so sad
If I had magic powers I would go back in time and save the Birks building, the Strand theatre and the second Hotel Vancouver at Granville and Georgia. Then today we would have a centre of town with real character, the Bay on the north included. Cadillac Fairview, I guess I would let you have the NW corner, although I’m still mad about James Inglis Reid, lost in your creeping takeover of our streetscape. My magic powers have their limits.
Can I add the Devonshire Hotel and Georgia Medical and Dental Building to the list please!
Why yes, of course. This is our sadness list.
Jamie Reid’s the Scottish butcher with sawdust on the floor oh it smelled so yummy!!
I remember attending the funeral. I was 14 and had thing for old buildings. My parents kindly gave me a charm of the old building for my charm bracelet, which I thought was pretty cheeky of Birks to produce, under the circumstances.
I saw an ad for those charms. And, I agree, seems a bit like a slap in the face
Skip you are so right. You could say our Penn Station in a way. This town has never had a master plan nor any mayor a vision of how the city would grow like Robert Moses in New York or Georges Haussmann. Granville street from 16th could have been a boulevard like Cambie and King Edward. That second Hotel Vancouver was magnificent with the roof a garden that looks oval in some pics. I have a pic of 4 men sitting on the head of one of the Buffalo heads that ringed just under the top with Moose heads. Wish I could put it here but I can see why not. And that bank is horrid thats there. The nicest building is the elipticle apartment on Harwood on the 12 or 13 hundred block with its movable steel panel that shade areas.
[…] didn’t have the elegance of the Birks Building, the grandeur of the second Hotel Vancouver or the presence of the Georgia Medical-Dental Building. […]
[…] But it wasn’t until several years ago when I saw a 1924 photo showing the Strand Theatre, the Birks Building and the second Hotel Vancouver lined up along Georgia at Granville, that I realized how much we had […]
[…] The Birks Building went up around the same time as the Bay on the opposite side of Granville and Georgia, but sadly only managed to survive for just over 60 years. Designed by Somervell & Putnam, it was so beloved, that the people of Vancouver held a mock funeral in 1974. […]
[…] We Held a Funeral for the Birks Building […]
I erected the scaffolding around the exterior of the Birks Building for the demolition process. It’s not a proud memory.
[…] We Held a Funeral for the Birks Building […]
[…] We Held a Funeral for the Birks Building […]
[…] office buildings designed by Bruce Price in the 1880s morphed into the Strand Theatre and the Birks Building. And, an even worse travesty, those buildings were replaced in the early 1970s by the Scotia Tower […]