Description of Historic Place

The Vancouver Public Safety Building is comprised of a four-storey rectangular block on the southeast corner of Cordova and Main Streets in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, and a six-storey extension to the south. The building is stone-faced with polished red granite facing at the base.

Heritage Value

The Vancouver Public Safety Building is significant for its historical, social, cultural, and aesthetic values, in particular its austere Modernist style and social function, reflecting the city's post-Second World War spending priority on public safety and well-being.

The construction of the building in 1953 (and the 1954 addition by Dawson and Hall) announced the beginning of the post-war development of a law enforcement precinct in the Downtown Eastside. The building's location reflects the area's centrality and public profile, but downgraded status, away from the contemporaneous top-drawer downtown development west of Granville Street.

The Public Safety Building is significant for its association with the architectural firm Townley Matheson and Partners, a prolific design office important for landmark projects that contribute to the character of the city, such as Vancouver City Hall, built during the 1930s.

The building is notable for its sober restrained Modernist design, characterized by such elements as a flat roof, cast-in-place concrete, and horizontal strip banks of windows. In a manner typical of Modernist practices, the building composition of horizontal massing in the office portion and vertical in the south portion, as well as their differing fenestration designs, indicate different interior uses. Physically imposing on the street with its solid massing and zero setbacks, the building is of cultural significance as the public image of policing at the time, and its continued use to this day.

Source: City of Vancouver Heritage Conservation Program

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of the Vancouver Public Safety Building include:

Siting, Context and Landscape
- Orientation to the street corner, with north and west facades treated similarly
- Location of the building east of the downtown core, in the Downtown Eastside

Architectural Qualities
- The construction of the building to the lot line, with no setback from the street
- Two coordinated buildings, differing in fenestration, design and proportioning

Architectural Elements
- Fenestration of 1953 building different for main floor (lobby and reception), and for the floors above (offices)
- Flat roofs
- Horizontal bands of windows, separated vertically by concrete spandrels
- Exterior cladding materials: Haddington Island andesite and polished red granite
- Protruding frame of concrete around spandrel and window strips
- Unembellished alcoves with stairs leading to building front entrances
- Brass stair railings
- Simple lettering identifying building
- Flagpole on roof at corner