The birthplace of many of the North Shore’s lifelong residents could soon face the wrecking ball.
The fate of the historic Activation Building at Lions Gate Hospital, built in 1929 as the new hospital for the North Shore, is up in the air following council for the City of North Vancouver putting the brakes on any potential demolition until a heritage commemoration plan is created.
Whether the building, which was later an acute care psychiatric facility, will be demolished entirely or have its facade retained as a historic site is in question. But council has said that decision is out of their jurisdiction and for the provincial government to make.
Following the opening in December of the HOpe Centre for Mental Health and Addictions on the southeast corner of the Lions Gate Hospital campus, the Activation Building now sits vacant and no longer has a function.
The building that was constructed in 1929 as North Vancouver’s first major hospital is falling into disrepair and Vancouver Coastal Health wants to demolish it. But first, VCH is looking to the city to create a commemoration plan for the A-listed heritage building — one that would allow for, among other things, an on-site photo collection of the hospital’s years of service and the retention of the building’s original driveway and surrounding mature trees.
But some members of the public are hoping the city will go one step further. Jennifer Clay, vice-president of the North Shore Heritage Preservation Society, expressed during the meeting’s public input period her disdain over tearing down the historic structure.
“If the city really wants to commemorate their own heritage A-listed building, the most appropriate commemoration would be to retain the facade,” Clay said. “Please consider setting a good example for other owners of heritage A-listed buildings. If you do not, we would fear we will soon have a city of commemoration plaques, that would be sad.”
Council was in agreement that efforts to retain the building’s facade should be made.
“It’s an old girl, it’s had its day, it needs to go. It’s absolutely not preservable from a functional sort of sense; however, there is that beautiful facade and I think the discussions have been centred around what we can do to preserve as much as possible,” said Coun. Rod Clark who said the city needs to step up and voice these concerns to the provincial government.
“I think we need to provide some leadership with respect to this and basically tell the province that we’re not prepared to give up on the facade at this moment in time and that they need to come back with plans that incorporate this potential.”
Coun. Don Bell was also in agreement to seeing what can be done to preserve the facade of the building as a historic site.
“It’s council that really needs to inform the owners of its heritage value in maintaining at least the facade,” he said. “It’s up to us to express that because if we don’t nobody will. The community is going to and I think that while the suggestion of the motion is that the people go to the provincial government, I think that we need to stand up with those people at the same time and share that message.”
While in support of the motion, Mayor Darrell Mussatto wanted to make it clear that this is a provincial government issue and heritage advocates who want to save the building’s facade should take up their concerns with the provincial government.
“This is on our table but it’s a provincial government issue. They should be going to their MLAs ... to say ‘We think this is a valuable heritage building’ and get them to pony up the dollars and bring it forward,” he said.
In the end, council voted unanimously in favour of the motion to hold off on demolition until a facade retention plan is made by the province.
