Sun
The dismantling also turned up blocked-up windows. Some provided daylight to a series of small hotel rooms via a narrow three-foot-wide light-well. Others, in the east wall of the Grand “were bricked-up when the adjacent building to the east was constructed by the same hotelier in 1911.” Photograph by : Mark van Manen, Vancouver Sun
The developer of the Terminus new-home project in Gastown reports that, as a source of building materials, the 115-year-old Grand Hotel is more than meeting expectations.
“We have been very pleased that so much of the original brick in the Grand is suitable for ‘facing’ material,” Robert Fung of The Salient Group says.
“We will be facing the entire west and south facades of the new Terminus project, as well as the upper exterior walls of the building, with original brick.”
The Terminus homes will rise on lots occupied by the Terminus and the Grand. Fung expects to begin selling them in March.
The Grand bricks defy identification, Fung reports. “We haven’t found any distinguishing marks on them that might reveal their provenance.”
Their high quality, however, means they were unlikely shipped here as ship’s ballast, he says.
The timbers that Ace Demolition is pulling out of the building also bear no maker’s marks. “It is interesting to note that though much of the building structure had suffered from severe rot and deterioration, there still remains a small amount of very good timber in various sections of the building,” Fung reports.
The sound timbers, much of the surviving interior trim material, doors and bathroom fixtures – “including some original, but very nasty, clawfoot tubs” — have been sold to heritage builders and salvage specialists.
The dismantling also turned up blocked-up windows. Some provided daylight to a series of small hotel rooms via a narrow three-foot-wide light-well. Others, in the east wall of the Grand “were bricked-up when the adjacent building to the east was constructed by the same hotelier in 1911.”
© The Vancouver Sun 2006
