Postcards from the Past (2.0): Birks’ elegant #edwardian masterpiece, (1913 -1974) A delicately adorned & finely proportioned #architectural gem, purpose built for Canada’s Finest Purveyors of Luxury & Jewelry, Henry Birks & Sons, (Montréal). Architects Somervell & Putnam rose to the occasion, w/ #design #inspired by Louis Sullivan’s influential “Chicago School”/ “... Style” & Chicago’s Fair “City Beautiful Movement”* (See below) ____|💎🏛💎|____ “Everybody loved the Birks’ Building,”~ Dal Richards, (legend/ Big Band Leader) “The corner rounded (curved) glass windows all the way up ... for years, a familiar meeting place: ‘Meet you at the Birks’ clock!’ people often said.” ___|📝|___ #vintagepostcard notes: "Birks Building & Vancouver Block. c.1913. [main image by: Valentine & Sons' Pub. Co., Ltd. 🇬🇧] Location: 718 Granville @ W. Georgia. #built 1912-13. #demolished: 1974; made way for Vancouver Centre Mall & ScotiaBank Tower (see # 10 / model). Public outrage over threat of its loss sparked voracious heated outcry & launched Vancouver's heritage conservation era 1976 onwards... • Also (photo R): Vancouver Block, 736 Granville St. Built 1910-12; (extant) #stillexists Architects: Parr & Fee. - inspired by “White City” aka “City Beautiful Movement”* - this 14-storey wedding cake 'skyscraper' still reaches skyward; Its 76.2m/250 ft. height (to top of neonlit clock) slowly eclipsed by rising tide of glass giants. * footnote: #architecturalhistory - #citybeautifulmovement refs. a period of #neoclassical #architecture (~>WWI) hence, #citybeautiful #inspired , in part, by 1893 #chicagoworldsfair ~ Columbian Exposition & Paris’ #beauxarts || #designinspiration : “Cities ought aspire to a higher aesthetic value for all.” A fundamental idea urged #urbanplanning to treat cities not merely as products/symbols of commerce & industrialization, but to champion “civitas” enhanced civic environments w/ classical aesthetics/order (Greco-Roman), graced by parks/gardens & dignity of well-planned urban realms. #vintagevancouver #heritagevancouver #birksbuilding #vancouverhistory #urbanhistory #smallstudiodesign (at Vancouver Centre Mall)
