Vancouver Vanishes

By (author): Caroline Adderson

By (photographer): Tracey Ayton

Introduction by: Michael Kluckner

Finalist, Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award (BC Book Prizes), 2016

#1 on the BC Bestseller List

Since 2005, nearly 9,000 demo permits for residential buildings have been issued in Vancouver. An average of three houses a day are torn down, many of them original homes built for the middle and working class in the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s. Very few are deemed significant enough to earn the protection of a heritage designation, but they are part of our heritage nonetheless and their demolition is not only an architectural loss.

When these old homes come down, a whole history goes with them – the materials that were used to build them, the gardens, the successive owners and their secrets. These old houses and apartments are repositories of narrative. The story of our city is diminished every time one disappears.

Based on the popular Facebook Page, Vancouver Vanishes is a collection of essays and photographs that together form a lament for, and celebration of, the vanishing character homes and apartments in the city.

Vancouver Vanishes includes essays from Caroline Adderson, Kerry Gold, John Atkin, Elise & Stephen Partridge, John Mackie, and Eve Lazarus as well as poems from Evelyn Lau and Bren Simmers. Introduction by Michael Kluckner.

The majority of photographs (b/w & colour throughout) are by Tracey Ayton and Caroline Adderson.

The book is large format (9.25 × 10.25) with French flaps.

Praise for Vancouver Vanishes:

“provides a most useful contribution to the increasingly anxiety-ridden conversation that continues to grip this town over the subject of housing” (Allen Garr, Vancouver Courier)

“a gorgeous but troubling commentary on the disposability of our young city’s architectural history” (Shelley Fralic, The Vancouver Sun)

“… a shared attempt to document and protest the rampant destruction of perfectly fine family dwellings in Vancouver for no reason other than speculative profit… difficult to debunk her contention that wide-scale destruction of wooden houses is antithetical to the conceit of Vancouver City council to make Vancouver into the greenest city on the planet.” (BC BookWorld)

AUTHOR

Caroline Adderson

Caroline Adderson is the author of four novels (A History of Forgetting, Sitting Practice, The Sky Is Falling, Ellen in Pieces), two collections of short stories (Bad Imaginings, Pleased To Meet You) as well as books for young readers. Her work has received numerous prize nominations including the Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award, International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, two Commonwealth Writers’ Prizes, the Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist, the Governor General’s Literary Award and the Rogers’ Trust Fiction Prize. Winner of two Ethel Wilson Fiction Prizes and three CBC Literary Awards, Caroline was also the recipient of the 2006 Marian Engel Award for mid-career achievement.

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Details

Dimensions:

224 Pages
10.19in * 9.24in * .71in
750gr

Published:

November 15, 2015

ISBN:

9781772140347

Book Subjects:

ARCHITECTURE / Historic Preservation / General

Featured In:

All Books

Language:

eng

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