Exploring Vancouver: The Architectural Guide - Softcover

Kalman, Harold; Ward, Robin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1553658663 ISBN 13: 9781553658665

Publisher: Douglas & McIntyre, 2012

Synopsis

Vancouver's streetscapes and neighbourhoods have changed drastically in recent years. New buildings representing current architectural trends are mixing with and often replacing those of earlier eras and tastes, and a maturing architectrual melange is emerging. This book invites the reader to explore the city's continually evolving urban landscape in a highly readable, yet authoritative, guide to its architecture.

In this completely updated edition of Exploring Vancouver, with brand-new entries and accompanying photographs, Harold Kalman and Robin Ward have divided the city (including the North Shore, Richmond, Burnaby and New Westminster) into fourteen areas, selecting buildings and structures in these neighbourhoods that represent the best exakmples of the new and old architecture. Each area is preceded by an informative introduction that provides historical context for the entries that follow.

There are over 400 entries, each featuring a short description that combines architectural, historical and social commentary. The prose is lively as the authors consider the new and the old, the modest and the grand, the attractive and the not-so-attractive in a wide-ranging work that encompasses everything from heritage to "monster" homes.

This book is designed as a walking tour guide, with a map of each area showing the location of every entry.

About this title

About the Author

Harold Kalman is a specialist in architectural history and heritage conservation. Born in Montreal, he received his education at Princeton University with additional training in conservation at Cornell University and York in the UK. He is currently the BC representative on the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada. He is the author of many standard texts on architecture and conservation and teaches these subjects at the University of Hong Kong (where he is Honorary Professor of Architecture) and the University of Victoria.

Robin Ward is an architectural critic and writer, artist, graphic designer, and historian. Born in Glasgow, he studied at the Glasgow School of Art, a building that inspired his fascination with architecture, and worked a design manager for the BBC and a freelance writer and book-designer in London. He moved to Vancouver in 1988, a city which he had first visited in 1972. He is a Canadian citizen resident in Edinburgh.

John Roaf has specialized in architectural photography for 40 years. He was born and educated in Vancouver, and studied architecture at the University of British Columbia. John is a Canadian citizen resident in Chichester, UK.

Review

"The reading is astounding. Harold Kalman and Robin Ward's text is as straightforward as John Roaf's images. It also has enough wit to please the armchair reader and enough facts to make walks of Exploring Vancouver's fourteen architectural districts time well spent."

--Malcolm Parry

"Easily the most substantial, witty and fearless companion for touring the buildings/streets of Vancouver -- all other guides are fly-bys."

--Trevor Boddy, curator of "Vancouverism: Architecture Builds the City"

"An indespensible guide to anyone who is curious about Vancouver's architecture of yesterday and today."--Bing Thom

"Exploring Vancouver: The Architectural Guide is exactly what its title says. Original authors Harold Kalman and Robin Ward have added considerable detail to their original appraisals, and also report on two decades' worth of structures added since...John Roaf's colour photographs of each building, many familiar but some less so, merit double-page treatment. Still, they make the not-quite-pocketable book a valuable companion on walks for which the authors provide useful maps."--Malcolm Parry "Vancouver Sun "

"Exploring Vancouver is organized into 14 chapters -- or tours...How some of the heritage buildings have been altered, adapted or reused by subsequent generations of architects is of particular interest. And of course, new buildings are featured alongside older ones, which only emphasizes how the collective architectural inventory of Vancouver and its surrounding municipalities is both idiosyncratic in stylistic approach and rich in cultural history."--Canadian Architect

Edition details

• Publisher: Douglas & McIntyre
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1553658663
• ISBN 13: 9781553658665
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 336