A demolition permit has been approved for North Vancouver General Hospital, a heritage structure on East 13th Street that was built in 1929.
On Monday, City of North Vancouver council voted 4-2 in favour of a request from Vancouver Coastal Health to demolish the building, known as the Activation Building, as part of its Lions Gate Hospital master plan, which calls for significant growth and redevelopment over the next two decades as a regional trauma centre and teaching hospital.
NVGH was the third hospital built in North Vancouver and the first building to go up at the current Lions Gate Hospital site. Since the completion of the $62-million HOpe Centre in 2014, the decaying building has sat vacant and no longer meets public care standards.
According to VCH it would cost up to $50 million to fully upgrade the Activation Building – a price tag that does not include the cost of preserving the heritage elements of the building.
Both city council and the North Shore Heritage Preservation Society initially favoured preserving the heritage facade of the structure, which is classified as a Category A Heritage Building.
Understanding its historical significance, VCH had a structural engineer look into the possibility of keeping the historic facade. To do so would cost more than $3 million, but according to Mike Nader, chief operating officer - coastal, Vancouver Coastal Health, the biggest concern in retaining the facade was the constraints it would have on future redevelopment at the LGH site.
In order to retain a heritage element, VCH hired an engineering and preservation firm to design a commemoration monument that would include elements of the facade.
“We’ve gone through a very extensive consultation process and discussion with planners to look at how we can commemorate the history and the heritage that was associated with the activation building – this is part of our history and we do not give up on that lightly,” said Nader.
VCH, which has had numerous meetings with the planning department, heritage planners, city staff and the heritage society, stated in a letter sent to council that “city staff support the request to demolish the Activation Building subject to appropriate commemoration of the building. The Heritage Advisory Council unanimously agreed that the building cannot be retained in its present form, also recommends commemoration.”
During his council presentation Monday, Nader detailed plans to commemorate the Activation Building and shared a conceptual sketch of the monument, which would be constructed of new and salvaged granite from the current entry and include architectural elements such as the original bronze gable cartouche from the 1929 hospital building.
While council voted 4-2 in favour of issuing the demolition permit for the heritage building – with Couns. Rod Clark and Pam Bookham voting against – an addendum was added to the motion that will require city approval of the final plans for the commemorative monument after some councillors expressed concern over the current conceptual design.
“I felt what was being presented was quite an understatement for the history that this particular building has in our community,” said Coun. Linda Buchanan. “This is the start of the hospital in a community and that story has to be told. And so I feel that the monument is a little understated.”
Buchanan asked Nader about VCH’s commitment in terms of what is being asked for from council and the broader community for properly commemorating the historic hospital.
“We’d like to work with your staff to lay out the details of what that would look like,” said Nader.
VCH will report back to the city in April 2017 with a progress report on site redevelopment.
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