A couple of medical buildings between Lions Gate Hospital and Lonsdale and 13th are coming down. The Northmount Medical Centre 1 is from 1969 – a classic 60s box:
Its western neighbour, Northmount 2, even though finished only a few years later in 1973, adopted the Brutalist style – one of the purer examples in the region.
Unfortunately I can’t find the architect of record for this building, a typical problem since even Emporis, the usual source, doesn’t include architects. (Anyone know a useful online source?)
Perhaps part of the explanation comes from Ryan McLaughlin’s comment below:
I’m sure people will look back at the architecture of our era and draw conclusions about the zeitgeist of our time. Sleek, optimized, austere, and amoral. Postmodern, post-values. Rational, unassuming, cool-tempered. No frills!
For many people, these buildings don’t seem to be ‘architecture’: they’re austere no-frills products.
Here’s what will replace them:
And we do know the name of the designer: Chris Dikeakos Architects.
The new building will be a significant improvement over the no place, no design, no welcoming stubby buildings there now. Mixed use (retail, office,residential), through-block porosity, townhouses on the lane, and a contribution to both the Central Lonsdale Town Centre skyline and to a walkable precinct. More developments should strive to do so much to help create memorable places. Full disclosure – I had an extremely tiny part in the early stages of this project by Millennium.
I am slowly working on documenting buildings around the region and their architects. It can be harder to find out the architects from this time period.
I was surprised to see this! Growing up my family doctor was in the former and our dentist was in later.
The Northmount 2 also houses North Shore’s motor vehicle branch. It is a building that has loomed large in the minds of generations of youth in North and West Vancouver as they prepare for the driver’s licensing exams. I think that many times it is the use more so than the form that gives places meaning.
This project is “stalled” by the looks of it.