The Province of British Columbia’s Criminal Court building in Vancouver (222 Main Street) recently received a rather dramatic haircut as a result of their “Ivy Removal Project”:
According to a source familiar with the matter, the project was undertaken for three reasons: to limit damage to the concrete, to eliminate the “highway for rats and rodents to enter the building”, and to eliminate organic scaffolding that could be a motivating factor for an ambitious climber to scale the side of the building.
Moreover, the justification for the removal is logical. Frank Lloyd Wright likely did not envision rat highways and related rodent incursions when he said, “The doctor can bury his mistakes, but an architect can only advise his clients to plant vines.“
That is definitely NOT an aesthetic improvement.
Looking forward to more of those 1970’s bunkers being replaced…