B.C.’s official Heritage Week is approaching (Feb. 19-25) but it will likely be marked in West Vancouver by the loss of some heritage homes.
Council voted this week to halt the demolition of two West Coast Modern classics facing redevelopment in hopes they can persuade the owners to protect the homes instead. We wish them lots of luck though we aren’t holding our breath.
If the owners have already applied for demolition permits, their minds are most likely made up. Council may stay the executioner’s blade but the sentence has still been passed.
But we applaud our municipalities’ efforts to save these old-timers, even though they aren’t always successful.
And we welcome the creation of a new heritage advisory committee, announced by West Vancouver’s mayor this week. We’re certain there are some community-minded folks with a big place in their hearts for heritage who can give council the guidance they need to keep more of these modernist classics in tact.
Some might ask why should we bend over backwards to save some old posts and beams and single-paned windows? For the same reason we revere the artwork of Monet, Degas and Cézanne. They mark a turning point. West Coast Modern architecture was born here and it continues to influence design today.
West Vancouver’s Binning House has been called a “cultural Rosetta Stone.”
And with developers ready to raze any old home in the name of a good return on investment, these classics won’t just save themselves.
We won’t be able to salvage all of these physical links to our past, but we want to see our councils make the effort.
Beauty, famously, is fleeting. Wood rots and glass is brittle.
But heritage is forever.
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