Description du lieu patrimonial

The Victoria Block is an Edwardian-era three-storey masonry commercial building, identifiable for its buff-coloured brick cladding, eclectic Classical Revival style detailing, chamfered corner and repeating bay windows. It is located on a north sloping corner lot on the south side of West Pender Street at the intersection of Homer Street, within the context of buildings of a similar age and scale in downtown Vancouver.

Valeur patrimoniale

Built in 1908, the Victoria Block is valued as a handsome and eclectic example of a commercial and residential block with Classical Revival embellishments. The upper storeys of the Victoria Block are notable for their detailing, including repetitive pilasters, embossed swags, and a balcony doorway with sidelights and fanlight.

The Victoria Block is notable for its unusual mixed-use plan, considered atypical due to its triple function purpose: it provided retail space at street level, office space on the second storey, and residential quarters on the third storey. Additionally, the building was designed to allow an interior connection to the earlier apartment block, the Victoria House, located next door on Homer Street.

Additionally, the Victoria Block was one of the earliest local projects undertaken by architect William F. Gardiner (1884-1951). He was commissioned by the British Columbia Permanent Loan and Savings Company to design this building, and was also responsible for the Hartney Chambers (1908) situated across West Pender Street. Born and trained in England, Gardiner established a successful commercial and institutional practice, with a corporate clientele including banks, insurance companies, and automobile and service station companies. Gardiner was still a young man when he arrived in Vancouver and this commission demonstrates his almost immediate success in his profession.

The Victoria Block contributes to the development of the Victory Square area as the commercial and retail centre of downtown Vancouver during the early period of the twentieth century. This block originally possessed various governmental and company offices, such as those of the local School Board, plus accounting, brokerage, financial service, and numerous real estate offices. The uppermost floor, which contained residential accommodation, recalls the vibrant, mixed use that was typical of the neighbourhood.

Source: City of Vancouver Heritage Conservation Program

Éléments caractéristiques

Key elements that define the heritage character of the Victoria Block include its:
- corner location, north sloping lot, with minimal street setback and a large rear courtyard
- contribution to the streetscape as part of an unbroken streetwall with continuous retail storefronts
- flat roof with raised horizontal parapets
- commercial form, scale and massing, as expressed by its three-storey height and L-shaped plan
- masonry construction, including pressed, buff-coloured brick with stone pilasters
- Classical Revival detailing, such as engaged pilasters, swag motifs embossed on the bay window sheet metal cladding, keystones, upper-storey balcony doorway with multi-pane sidelights and fanlight set within a blind arch (between second and third-storey window grid) above main entrance, and parapet roundel, surrounded with keystones
- additional exterior features, such as recessed main entry to the upper storeys, flanked by secondary, commercial doorways, main entrance encased by sheet metal surround with 'Victoria Block' lettering in relief, multiple additional recessed entries to ground floor commercial spaces, black and white porcelain mosaic tile with Greek key design borders within recessed entries and 'Victoria' inset in the tile at main entrance, sheet metal frieze, sign plate (between first and second storeys) and string course (between second and third levels), and chamfered corner with doorway
- regular fenestration: double-height recessed angled bay windows clad in sheet metal, segmental arched, second-storey windows with keystones, ground floor display windows, smooth finished window sills along the Pender and Homer Street facades, with rough-dressed sandstone sills on the rear elevation
- interior features, such as its main entrance flooring of small, white, unglazed, polygonal porcelain tiles, and the main entrance marble threshold