The housing stock in the Dunbar area of Vancouver has undergone significant change in the past five years. Originally a working class neighbourhood with many quite modest homes surrounded by lovely gardens, it is now a neighbourhood that 99% of the people working in Vancouver cannot afford because the replacement homes are built to the maximum footprint and cost millions. Greenspace has been reduced. Included on this website are photos of many (not all) of the disappeared houses.
View Teardowns in the Dunbar area of Vancouver, BC in a larger map

Demolitions West of the Dunbar Community Centre

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Vancouver Vanishes into a Book



Vancouver Vanishes launched a book on November 23! The enthusiastic and large audience at the Book Warehouse was keen to keep Vancouver's older homes from demolition. My 1938 house  has the flooring ubiquitous to many of the unfortunate houses now gone to smithereens.

Friday, November 6, 2015

Near Pacific Spirit Park

The next-door neighbour alerted me that this house would be demolished today. The first photo was taken in July 2011 when it was for sale. But according to the BC Assessment website, no sale occurred. Notice the greenery.

It was put up for sale again in May 2014. The "bluebells" came up and are flowering despite the attempt a few months before to pull out all the bushes for a barren desert-type landscape. The place was gussied up with nice potted plants on the entrance steps, but no attention was paid to repairing the fence.

The house was finally sold in November 2014. This third photo is from April 2015. Somehow, the large tree in the front has also disappeared.

The house probably suffered some abuse from years of being rented out, evidenced by the garage (which was still there tonight) full of the detritus of the rented house, a mattress, broken chairs, the odd sock, and much more. Built in 1938 on a 44x131 foot lot. Demolished November 6, 2015.

P.S. Here is the scene 2 days later; the garage is gone.

And this is from a neighbour: "Vancouver archives notes a building date of 1930 for 4085 west 33rd ave." I got the 1938 date from the BC Assessment website. I wonder why the discrepancy.