THIS WEEK IN HISTORY: 1961
The $6-million Bayshore Inn opened on tidal flats reclaimed from Coal Harbour
Fifty-four years ago, the Bayshore Inn opened on the Coal Harbour waterfront. “They’ll come by land, sea and air,” trumpeted an ad in The Vancouver Sun. “The Bayshore Inn’s resort-like atmosphere, the unique marine background (and) its proximity to Stanley Park and downtown Vancouver make it one of North America’s most distinctive hotels.” To emphasize the point, the ad featured a drawing of a helicopter whizzing in to drop off guests. Which more or less came true, although the waterfront helipad is actually a few blocks east. The 308-room hotel was an instant hit when it opened, fulfilling the vision of Hugh Martin and Douglas Welch of Marwell Construction. Today, building a hotel on the waterfront next to Stanley Park seems like a no-brainer. But when Martin and Welch conceived the Bayshore in the late 1950s, much of the site was on tidal flats that became part of Coal Harbour at high tide. “Countless tons of fill were dumped onto the four-and-ahalf-acre property to build it up,” reported The Province on March 27, 1961. Once the tidal flats were filled in, the builders had to sink concrete piles 40 feet down to hit bedrock. The complexity of building on reclaimed land pushed the hotel’s construction cost to $6 million. Martin and Welch were able to finance the Bayshore by going into partnership with Western Hotels, a Seattle chain that had 33 hotels around the world. It sounds bizarre, but Martin and Welch originally wanted to build a motel on the site. But when they approached Western, the chain’s management took the concept up a notch. “(When) Mr. Carlson and Lynn P. Himmelman of Western saw the site, they thought it was fantastically unusual, and much too good for anything but the finest type of resort hotel,” Welch told The Sun. The design was by local architect Douglas Simpson. “The two wings of the hotel are in (a) basic T-design, with the cross front section of four storeys, and the other of eight storeys,” reported The Province. “Built of reinforced concrete, its exterior walls of off-white contrast strikingly with glazed Japanese spandrels in burnt orange. “All rooms are large, (and) include separate dressing alcove and bathrooms of pink and brown mosaic tile. All furniture is of oiled walnut.” The hotel parking lot had room for 325 cars, and an attached marina had space for 70 boats, “including large yachts.” As if the hotel wasn’t cool enough, a Trader Vic’s tiki restaurant/bar opened alongside the Bayshore. The San Francisco chain spent $500,000 on the restaurant, which was designed like a Polynesian long house. The interior was incredible, an airy space brimming with tribal shields, masks, spears, carved poles, bamboo screens, conch shells, canoes, long boats, and thatched baskets. “(Architect) Reno Negrin recalled that one hour before the restaurant opened, the Liquor Control Board refused to issue a licence, because half a dozen of the tiki poles had fertility figures with erect penises,” recounts local tiki expert Don Luxton. “Negrin resolved this problem with a hacksaw, and the restaurant opened on schedule.” A 20-storey tower was added to the original hotel in the mid-1960s, and became internationally renowned when billionaire recluse Howard Hughes holed up there for six months in 1972. Hughes booked the top two floors, but stayed in Room 2090, which now rents for $300 to $800 per night, depending on the season. After a $51-million reno in 2000, the Bayshore now has 511 rooms. But it doesn’t have Trader Vic’s, which closed in 1999 after the Vancouver park board insisted the owners of the Bayshore give it some waterfront park space when the Bayshore parking lot was developed into condos. Trader Vic’s was hoisted onto a barge and moved to a new location in Saanich. The new owner planned to use it as an event space, but it never happened.