There is nothing wrong with building in a style of the pre-modernist past, if that style is pleasing in context. Perhaps a majority of people, if asked, would propose the Renaissance as the finest moment of Western art history, and the Renaissance, as a period, was quite programmatically one of revival of the past – in its case the Classical past. Other revival styles also build well. Vancouver’s finest church, Christ Church, is Gothic revival – and this is the style of many of the city’s other fine churches.

The problem with the West End is exactly the problem bought about by using contrasting design – the proliferation of faceless concrete cubes, like the one in which I live, which have imperialised and defaced the traditional neighborhood. A post-modern design that respected traditional character would be fine; but the one proposed for Mole Hill is not respectful enough.

West Coasters in general remain provincial about this. In Europe, which has a more successful history of urbanization, new buildings in older neighborhoods usually do conform largely to the style in which the neighbourhoods were built. Indeed this is the common practice in the 100-year-old neighborhoods of Montreal, where I lived for many years. Vancouver should follow this practice in the West End.