The Well-Tailored Building
February 4, 2009
No pre-war facade is complete without a cornice – “the horizontal projection that crowns or completes a building or wall.” But too many don’t; they’re rarely replaced after having rotted away.
So kudos to the owners of the small stone block on the east side of Granville between Dunsmuir and Pender.
They’ve just installed a wonderfully fitted cornice in copper, all shiny and finely detailed:
And on the main floor, appropriately, there’s a clothier.
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Looks good.
I think that cornices were also removed from buildings to “update” them during the 1950s and 60s to more of a modernist asthetic (a bit like modernist buildings were followed by the post-modern movement to “pretty” them up, or have had additions to them). i.e. the suburban post-moderni renovation of Sears downtown (it looked better as a pure modernist building without the oversized framing often seen in strip malls) or the canopies added to Royal Centre.
Basically, a consequence of following the fashion of the day, rather than adhering to the style in which the building was built.
Noticed the other day that the former London Drugs next to the Moore’s Building has been renovated with a modern look with glass fins. It provides a nice contrast on the block, much like the new/ renovated buildings on Granville adjacent to the Commodore Ballroom have really livened up the street.