Above: Located at the southwest corner of Kingsway and Slocan Street, the 2400 Motel has been a previous entry on past Heritage Vancouver Top Ten Endangered Heritage Sites lists. This year, this building appears again on the list at number ten. It's easy to see why the property deserves consideration: the exuberant neon sign, the streamlined design of the Motel's main office and the cluster of white stucco tourist cottages. If it could be preserved and refurbished along the same lines as Portland's Ace Hotel or Toronto's Gladstone Hotel, the 2400 Motel could be a boutique hotel property.
Above: This is what remains of the 1896 Carleton Hall, the city's oldest one room school house and Guy Carleton Elementary's oldest building on property. A 2008 arson has left it in precarious shape. Located at the southwest corner of Kingsway and Joyce Street, Guy Carleton's status at the top of Heritage Vancouver's 2011 Endangered Heritage Sites list symbolizes the lack of heritage protection for some of Vancouver's schools as well as the lack of proper seismic upgrading.
Above: Opened in 1951, Vancouver Public Library's Collingwood library branch was designed by the illustrious architectural team of Harold Semmens and Douglas Simpson. Its nomination as the seventh most endangered building on Heritage Vancouver's 2011 Endangered Heritage Sites list highlights the growing importance of the need to preserve and reburbish buildings built in the Modernist style.
While Vancouver is celebrating its 125th birthday, it's important to recognize the value of the city's early built heritage especially in a neighbourhood like Renfrew Collingwood in East Vancouver. Bordered on the north by Broadway, on the east by Boundary Road, on the south by 41st Avenue, and Nanaimo Street on the west, the neighbourhood tends to be overlooked. Nevertheless, this area has a few heritage structures worth saving.
What YOU Can Do
To consider refurbishing or restoring the Vancouver Public Library's Collingwood branch library, email the VPL's library board: board@vpl.ca
To consider refurbishing or restoring the 2400 Motel, email the mayor and council: mayorandcouncil@vancouver.ca. This email address represents all the elected officials on Vancouver city council.
To consider refurbishing, restoring and seismic upgrading of Guy Carleton Elementary School, email the Vancouver School Board: info@vsb.bc.ca
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