Yola Nde Cole
Province
This tulip tree, also known as a Liriodendron tulipifer — standing in the gardens of a house on 1245 Harwood St. in the West End — is believed to be the oldest planted deciduous tree in Vancouver. A local architecture firm backs a plan to grant it heritage status. –HANDOUT PHOTO
A local architecture firm is taking a unique approach to protecting a tulip tree that’s believed to be Vancouver’s oldest deciduous tree: It wants the West End property where it’s located declared a heritage site.
Local firm Bing Thom Architects is asking city council to give heritage status to 1245 Harwood St. in order to protect the 100-year-old tulip tree that towers over the house’s gardens.
“The West End along Beach Avenue was always lined with these big sort of mansions that looked out to English Bay, and this is one of those old houses,” says Michael Heeney, executive director of Bing Thom. “It had a beautiful garden in front of it, and they had planted this tulip tree, which was been able to grow unfettered. It’s a beautiful, fully symmetrical tree [that] is 120 feet tall.”
The firm has been working with the city on the issue for six years, ever since the house’s former resident contacted them about her concern for protecting the tree. A council committee will vote Thursday on offering incentives to support “landscape resources” like the tree, which can’t be protected through a legal designation because it falls on two properties.
City heritage policies currently support providing incentives, typically as extra density allowances aimed at compensating the developer for preservation costs, in exchange for designation of historic sites like buildings and structures, or living resources like parks and trees.
The application to protect the property at 1245 Harwood also proposes development of a new residential tower beside the home that would incorporate the bonus density acquired through protecting the tree. City heritage planner Yardley McNeill has recommended the city not support bonus incentives for landscape resources that cannot be fully protected through legal designation.
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