#burrard

An artistic impression of an imagined 510 Burrard Street in Vancouver from the early 1980s by Wayne Lunan, a building that ultimately become the (new) Montreal Trust Company Building, also known as the Manulife Tower. When Montreal Trust was sold to Scotiabank in 1994, it also became a Scotiabank tower, though Vancouver already has a Scotia Tower (650 W Georgia St) as well as an old Montreal Trust Building (now known as 966 Howe Street).

The architectural illustrator, Wayne Lunan, was one of the top local names in architectural rendering of the pre-cgi era, along with Ron Love, Bob McIlhargey (deceased 1998), Lori Brown, and Barry Lundahl. I had hoped to meet both Wayne and Barry in preparation for my show at the MoV Vancouver Imagined, the Way We Weren’t, but I never managed to do so. Until now, I’ve never had a good opportunity to feature Wayne Lunan’s work, but I recently found this original artwork for sale, and the price was right, so I bought it!

The illustrated building is simple but striking, showing two converged rectangular forms clad in mirrored glass and merged together at a dramatic perpendicular angle. The angle is perfectly aligned to reflect the Marine Building in the distance, as well as the Abbotsford Hotel (still there today, known as the Days Inn Vancouver Downtown). Wayne worked out of the Marine Building at the time of this drawing. Also prominently visible is a Bentall Tower from across Burrard Street. Without seeing any other preliminary plans, this rendering may have been a vanity project / portfolio piece, and not specifically for this particular development or architect. The work does speak to the medium of illustration rather well, reflecting old and new towers in the same structure.

Take a close look at the drawing, and it would seem that every other car in his illustration is a long and low Lincoln Continental Mark VI. Coming down Pender Street, we can spot a single BC Hydro transit bus, barely making out the distinctive circular logo adorning the front of the vehicle along with the blue/green stripes down the side of the bus. Thus, we can date this drawing some time before March of 1982, the month BC Transit was formed, and the month the ceremonial groundbreaking for Skytrain took place.

Speaking of Peter Ewart, I see I missed some key paintings in the last few years...

Sold in 2025: GEORGIA ST. WEST oil on hardboard, signed lower right, 8 x 10 in — 20.3 x 25.4 cm

Sold in 2025: BIRK'S CORNER oil on hardboard, signed lower right; titled to gallery label verso 10 x 12 in — 30.5 x 35.6 cm

Sold in 2023: Robson & Burrard Streets, 10" x 12" (25.4 x 30.48 cm.), Oil on board, Signed lower right; titled verso (framed)

Sold in 2022: Boats in False Creek, oil on board, 20 x 24 in. (50.8 x 61 cm) (unframed)

Sold in 2022: Untitled - Vancouver Harbour and Burrard Street Bridge, oil on board, 10 x 14 in (25.4 x 35.6 cm) (unframed)

Unsold in 2022: Georgia & Granville 10x12 (passed)

His muted colour palette is very endearing when applied to these urban scenes, they are practically timeless if we hadn't demolished the Birks Building decades ago. Based on the car in the first painting, I would say at least three of these paintings are circa 1960s. Not sure who J. Stevens was, whether they simply purchased the painting at Alex Fraser Galleries, or whether this painting was a commission, I can only imagine.

The largest painting of this lot showing boats on False Creek is a scene so familiar it could have been painted yesterday. But of course Peter passed away in 2001, so it's already from another era. We don't see the reverse of that last painting, but the first painting which did have a dealer sticker on the back reveals the address 5669 Granville. This means it had to have been sold from 1948 until around 1967. But the sticker also had an old style phone number, AM 6-6010 which suggests we can probably narrow down the time between 1959 and 1966. The AMherst (AM) telephone exchange prefix was used in the Vancouver Westside area, specifically Kerrisdale, before the transition to 7-digit dialing in the late 1950s and into the 1960s. This was a progressive change so not everyone's phone number changed at once.

Searching for Peter's name in the local papers, it becomes apparent that Peter was exhibited and featured at Alex Fraser Galleries CONSTANTLY during this period, typically being advertised multiple times per year, often right before Christmas. This likely stems from his popularity gained from the BC Tel phone book cover I most recently posted about. And low and behold, I found not one but THREE articles featuring the very cover I was missing, the 1959 telephone directory. That cover featured a cattle drive at Gang Ranch near Dog Creek in the Cariboo. I shall now update that last post with those three articles, and I still await an actual image of the phonebook. By 1967, Alex Fraser had moved his gallery to 2027 W 41 St, and by the early 1970s, Peter Ewart no longer seems to be exclusively bound to the Alex Fraser Gallery, appearing in a number of gallery advertisements.

https://www.hdwallpaperslife.com/burrard-inlet-port-landscape-at-dusk-4k-wallpapers.html

Burrard Inlet Port Landscape at Dusk 4K

Burrard Inlet, North Vancouver, B.C.