Looking toward a modern future in `living city'
Saving historic institutions by transforming them into contemporary developments
Aproposal coming soon to city hall seeks to transform one of Vancouver's landmark blocks, preserving cherished historic institutions by building something decidedly modern directly overhead.
Bonnis Properties has been in informal talks with the city for years about possible plans for the east side of Granville Street's 800-block, home to three beloved 90-year-old institutions: the Commodore Ballroom, Commodore Lanes, and the Orpheum Theatre. Now, the family-owned developer says they plan to submit a formal application with the city within weeks.
It won't be Bonnis' first crack at incorporating architectural and cultural heritage into a major development. And while some purists may balk at the idea of such a dramatic transformation of such a historic block, others say this approach can preserve a city's past while building for its future.
Kerry Bonnis, who runs the company with his brother Dino, said they want to revitalize a part of town that's dear to them and many other Vancouver families.
The development would encompass almost the entire block, building a sort of “bridge” over the Commodore, Bonnis said, preserving the city's best music venue and one of its last bowling alleys.
The Lanes downstairs, Bonnis said, “absolutely will stay as a bowling alley.”
“We've had large big box retailers that wanted to take over the Commodore Lanes and offered to pay significantly higher rents, and my brother and I said it's not all about dollars and cents,” Bonnis said. “Our parents bowled there . ... I bowled there as a kid and I now go there with my kids.”
Above, the building would provide almost 400,000-sq.-ft of offices, enough space for more than 2,500 workers, plus expanded cultural space.
Ever since Bonnis bought the Commodore property in 2000, the company has been acquiring other sites along the street, and now owns most of the block.
“It's been a 21-year assembly,” Bonnis said.
If approved, the development would also add a new 300-person performance hall, Bonnis said, which, along with expanded and upgraded back-of-house operations, would benefit both the Commodore and the Orpheum.
Those changes could go a long way toward ensuring the Commodore's long-term viability as a music venue, said Paul Haagenson, president of Live Nation Canada, which owns the Commodore.
“There's no value in kicking the can down the road . ... Let's build it for the long-term for the next 100 years for the Commodore,” said Haagenson. “If we lose it, we lose it forever.”
The distinctive, terraced building would slope from a height of 17 storeys on the north end near Robson Street down to nine storeys to the south, above the Orpheum.
“We essentially took a tower, and placed it on its side,” said Ryan Bragg, a principal of the Vancouver studio of Perkins&Will, the architectural firm behind the design. “It's a sizable addition, but it's one that is more horizontal than vertical.”
Bragg described the design as “provocative.” Indeed, it may draw criticism from traditionalists.
“We want to be very bold with our statement, I think the street demands it,” Bragg said. “We are not being sentimental about the heritage, but we are very respectful of the heritage. ... Sentimentality is not necessarily a great approach.”
Bonnis Developments recently tackled a similar project, on a smaller scale, in Kitsilano. Vancouver's previous council agreed in 2018 to a plan where Bonnis would renovate the shuttered 1935-built Hollywood Theatre, and produce a six-storey mixed-use project next door. Now, the theatre has been renovated and reopened, while the adjacent development is under construction.
“We hope we'll be judged by what we've done” with the Hollywood, Bonnis said.
Michele Smolkin, a key figure in the multi-year community effort to save the Hollywood, said while she didn't necessarily envision the taller new building going up above the theatre, she's happy the theatre has a new life.
“It's not exactly what we wanted,” Smolkin said. “But you have to compromise. All in all, we're pretty pleased . ... Everybody will benefit, it will put some life back into that section of Broadway.”
Another major Bonnis development with a heritage component, a proposed project at the corner of Main and Union, comes to council next week. The site is home to some of the last remaining physical vestiges of Hogan's Alley, the historic heart of Vancouver's Black community. If the project is approved, Bonnis has committed to a first right of refusal to lease a corner retail unit to a business recommended by the non-profit Hogan's Alley Society.
Hogan's Alley Society founding director Stephanie Allen said the society is glad to “have an opportunity to do something really great” in the historic location.
That proposed 11-storey mixed-use development would incorporate facades and elements of the old buildings currently there, but would completely change the look of the site. But, in Allen's view, the value of new housing and economic development for the Black community can outweigh preserving buildings in their present form.
“We take a different approach to heritage,” Allen said. “We see the balance between historical preservation, and meeting the needs of contemporary marginalized communities such as our own.”
Information about Bonnis' Granville proposal had been circulating recently around the cultural community and details were first reported last week on the website Daily Hive.
Since then, a lively debate over the project unfolded between local architects, designers and urbanists on PriceTags, the website of former longtime Vancouver Coun. Gordon Price. While some PriceTags readers liked the design, others described it as “very bulky,” “incredibly awful,” and “like a giant alien mother ship from War of the Worlds landing on an innocent strip of heritage buildings.” Reached for comment, Price said that stretch of Granville could use “something dramatic.”
“We tried keeping Granville pretty much as it's been, and, you know, I don't think people would have too much of a problem in saying that we should try something else,” he said.
For better or for worse, this project would fundamentally change that stretch of Granville, at least from the perspective of someone standing on the sidewalk. But the hope is that for someone bouncing on the Commodore dance floor 50 years from now, the view could still be the same as it ever was.