Vancouver Vanishes : Narratives of Demolition and Revival

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)