Description of Historic Place

The Vancouver Club is a sophisticated five-storey building, notable for its symmetrical five-bay, brick and terra cotta front facade, with central entrance and projecting balcony. Displaying Classical Revival ornamentation, it is an imposing presence mid-block on the north side of West Hastings Street, between Burrard and Hornby Streets. The rear of the club faces north to the harbour.

Heritage Value

The heritage value of the Vancouver Club lies in its historical, associative, and architectural significance.

The Vancouver Club is valuable for its unique role in the history of the city as one of the primary social organizations for many of the city's and the province’s most prominent citizens, including leaders in business and political affairs. This building recalls this unique social activity from 1914, when the club moved to this building from its previous clubhouse, located on the lot immediately to the east. The Vancouver Club survives as one of the few private clubs left in Vancouver.

The current Vancouver Club, opened on January 1, 1914, is one of the city's most sophisticated examples of Edwardian era architecture, displaying a high quality of workmanship and a significant degree of architectural integrity. Referencing its role as a home away from home for members, the club was built to resemble a substantial British townhouse. The club was inspired by seventeenth and eighteenth century English classicism - architecture influenced by the practices of the Italian Renaissance - and displays Palladian style ornamental motifs. Many of the famous gentlemen's clubs in London were similarly styled, and the style and appearance of the Vancouver Club reflects the British origins of most of its early members. When completed, the club was described as an example of ‘modern Renaissance’ design, due to its symmetrical appearance, harmonious proportions, Palladian-style attic type windows and ornamentation in the classical manner. The interior of the club displays handsome and dignified design. Rooms throughout feature elements such as vaulted ceilings, elaborate plasterwork, beautiful panelling and other fine materials such as terrazzo and marble. Principal rooms such as the Grand Ballroom (former Dining Room) are substantial in size, highly finished, and represent some of Vancouver’s greatest surviving early interior spaces.

This successful architectural achievement was the work of the firm of Sharp and Thompson, one of Vancouver’s most prolific and accomplished architectural partnerships. Shortly after winning the commission for the Vancouver Club, the firm won their most famous commission, the competition for the new University of British Columbia. One of the key talents of Sharp and Thompson was their ability to design in traditional styles but still remain in the forefront of advanced technology. Such was the case with the Vancouver Club, featuring a historical facade on an early example of a modern, reinforced concrete superstructure. Belying its traditional appearance, the club was provided with up-to-date ventilation, heating and electrical systems and engineered with all modern conveniences in the way of kitchens, refrigeration, central vacuum, electric lifts and dumbwaiters.

Source: City of Vancouver Heritage Conservation Program

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of the Vancouver Club include its:
- continuous use as a private club
- institutional form, scale and massing as expressed in its five storey height, flat roof and regular, rectangular plan
- masonry construction, such as its brown coloured Hebron pressed brick facade; tan terra cotta detailing and granite-clad foundation
- elements of the exterior relevant to Sharp and Thompson's original design, including a symmetrical five-bay front facade; T-shaped plan; flat roof and stepped parapet with terra cotta cartouche and hanging torus mouldings; central entrance flanked by two service entrances; oak and glazed double doors with transoms, continuous balcony across the second storey with torus moulding; and simple continuous entablatures with dentils
- deeply inset, regular fenestration with multi-pane, steel-sash casement windows; double-hung multi-paned wooden sash windows; and small square attic windows

Key elements that define the heritage character of the Vancouver Club’s interior include its:
- interior spatial configurations relevant to Sharp and Thompson's original design
- interior detailing, materials and finishes, such as its dark honey-coloured oak window and door casings with square corner blocks
- mixed flooring materials, including white marble with grey veining, terrazzo with black and white marble inlay, black marble baseboards, unglazed white porcelain tile flooring with green border in lavatories
- ashlar terra cotta and black and white mosaic tiles in the main entrance
- double stair in main hall; vaulted, barrel-vaulted and flat ceilings
- Adams and Georgian style detailing
- and original fireplaces and radiators throughout

Key elements that define the Vancouver Club’s location include:
- prominent mid-block location on West Hastings Street, amongst numerous other prominent heritage properties
- contiguous and spatial relationship to the harbour