Vancouver Vanishes
Narratives of Demolition and Revival
- Publisher
- Anvil Press
- Initial publish date
- Nov 2015
- Category
- General, 20th Century, Cultural Heritage
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781772140347
- Publish Date
- Nov 2015
- List Price
- $32.95
Classroom Resources
Where to buy it
Description
Finalist, Bill Duthie Booksellers' Choice Award (BC Book Prizes), 2016
#1 on the BC Bestseller List
Since 2005, nearly 9,000 demo permits for residential buildings have been issued in Vancouver. An average of three houses a day are torn down, many of them original homes built for the middle and working class in the 1920s, '30s and '40s. Very few are deemed significant enough to earn the protection of a heritage designation, but they are part of our heritage nonetheless and their demolition is not only an architectural loss.
When these old homes come down, a whole history goes with them - the materials that were used to build them, the gardens, the successive owners and their secrets. These old houses and apartments are repositories of narrative. The story of our city is diminished every time one disappears.
Based on the popular Facebook Page, Vancouver Vanishes is a collection of essays and photographs that together form a lament for, and celebration of, the vanishing character homes and apartments in the city.
Vancouver Vanishes includes essays from Caroline Adderson, Kerry Gold, John Atkin, Elise & Stephen Partridge, John Mackie, and Eve Lazarus as well as poems from Evelyn Lau and Bren Simmers. Introduction by Michael Kluckner.
The majority of photographs (b/w & colour throughout) are by Tracey Ayton and Caroline Adderson.
The book is large format (9.25 × 10.25) with French flaps.
Praise for Vancouver Vanishes:
"provides a most useful contribution to the increasingly anxiety-ridden conversation that continues to grip this town over the subject of housing" (Allen Garr, Vancouver Courier)
"a gorgeous but troubling commentary on the disposability of our young city's architectural history" (Shelley Fralic, The Vancouver Sun)
"... a shared attempt to document and protest the rampant destruction of perfectly fine family dwellings in Vancouver for no reason other than speculative profit... difficult to debunk her contention that wide-scale destruction of wooden houses is antithetical to the conceit of Vancouver City council to make Vancouver into the greenest city on the planet." (BC BookWorld)
About the authors
Caroline Adderson is the author of Very Serious Children (Scholastic 2007), a novel for middle readers about two brothers, the sons of clowns, who run away from the circus. I, Bruno (Orca 2007) and Bruno for Real are collections of stories for emergent readers featuring seven year-old Bruno and his true life adventures.
Caroline Adderson also writes for adults and has won two Ethel Wilson Fiction Prizes, three CBC Literary Awards, as well as the 2006 Marion Engel Award given annually to an outstanding female writer in mid-career. Her numerous nominations include the Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist, the Governor General's Literary Award, the Rogers' Trust Fiction Prize and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. Most recently, Caroline was the Vancouver Public Library's 2008 Writer-in-Residence.
Her eight year-old son Patrick and his many friends inspire her children's writing. Caroline and her family live in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Caroline Adderson's profile page
Michael Kluckner is a Canadian writer and artist. His early books on the history of Canadian cities, heritage, planning issues, and art, include Vancouver The Way It Was, Vanishing Vancouver, Paving Paradise, and British Columbia in Watercolour. He has won numerous awards, including the Duthie Prize, the Vancouver Book Prize, the Toronto Book Prize (short list), the Hallmark Society (Victoria) Award of Merit, and the Heritage Canada Medal of Achievement. In 1991 Michael was the founding president of the Heritage Vancouver Society. From 1996 until 2001, he was the British Columbia member of the board of governors of the Heritage Canada Foundation, and served as chair from 1998 to 2000. Michael chaired the Vancouver Heritage Foundation in 2002-3. He received the Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal in 2002 for the contributions made, through books and volunteer efforts, to increasing awareness of Canada's heritage and culture.
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