Hotel Vancouver
The green copper chateau of the Pacific – eleven Depression years in building, opened for the 1939 royal visit, gargoyles watching the harbour rain.
At a glance
- Type
- Hotel
- Period
- 1928-1939
- Style
- Canadian Chateau
- Location
- Georgia Street, Vancouver, Canada
- Coordinates
- 49.2838, -123.1207
- Architects
- Archibald and Schofield
Overview
The third Hotel Vancouver raises the national railway-chateau formula’s last great peak: a steep copper roof now verdigris green over seventeen storeys of Haddington Island stone, gargoyles and chimeras at the parapets, begun 1928 and stalled by Depression until the rival railways finished it jointly for George VI’s 1939 visit – the city’s castle ever since.
History
The chateau succession – Frontenac, Banff, Empress – branded Canada’s rail age; Vancouver’s version hosted royalty from its first week, wartime brass, and the city’s celebrations beneath the roof’s griffins. Renovations keep the 1939 lobby’s relief panels of Canadian industry and the famous roofline lit against the North Shore mountains.
Architecture and Design
Steep chateau roofs, dormers, and carved beasts crown classical shafts; hermes-figures flank Georgia Street’s entrance under the carved royal arms. The copper’s green, the stone’s grey, and the glass towers around compose Vancouver’s old-new signature view.
Cultural significance
The hotel completes the chateau-style canon Canada counts as national architecture and anchors downtown’s heritage skyline – the building Vancouverites measure change against.
Visiting today
The lobby, bar, and notable dog-ambassadors welcome visitors; the art gallery’s neoclassical courthouse faces across Georgia. Gastown and the seawall lie within easy walk.
Getting there
Vancouver City Centre and Burrard SkyTrain stations are a block away each.
Sources and resources
Find it on the map
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