We looked at another comparison with this 'before' picture in 2019. The Archives image was taken in 1927, so theLion's Gate Bridge to the North Shore was just being planned - and there wasn't a lot there except the forest if you did manage to cross on the ferry. The picture was taken by Pacific Airways, apparently for the Union Steamship Company.
Most of the area in Vancouver's West End had been developed as houses in the early years of the 20th century, often by the city's elite of the day. They soon moved on to occupy the Shaughnessey subdivision, south of False Creek, leaving their former mansions to be divided up into rooming houses or apartments.
On Georgia Street the huge Vancouver Arena was on the north side of the street, and the Horse Show Building on the south side, closer to the Stanley Park causeway.
The more recent image was published by Trish Jewison in October 2022, who took it from the Global traffic helicopter. It shows The Norwegian Jewel about to head to Alaska with up to 2,300 passengers and 1,100 crew aboard. Having been quarantined for covid, the ship was refurbished before coming back into service not long before this picture was taken.
Stanley Park appears as green as ever, but that is misleading, and is certainly not the case today. Several years of drought, and an infestation of looper moth has killed tens of thousands of western hemlocks, (many of them relatively young trees). Some western red cedar and Douglas fir have also been affected - altogether the estimate is that over 30% of around 600,000 trees in the park's forest have died since 2019. A huge logging operation is now underway to remove around 160,000 of the dead trees that pose the greatest threat for potentially devastating fire, or damage to buildings or power lines if they fell.
In the five years since the previous image, five new residential towers have been built. All over on the right of the picture, Kengo Kuma's Alberni tower, another designed by Henriquez Architects for Bosa, a rental tower on Robson for GWL and twin towers next door have replaced the 1970s Empire Landmark Hotel. Two more are now under construction on West Georgia, and ten more have been proposed in the same area of the West End, permitted by the new West End Community Plan that was approved in 2017, and that was expected to add at least 10,000 more people (to the 45,000 already living there) over 30 years.
On the waterfront on the right hand edge of the image, the tower of the Bayshore Hotel can be seen. The hotel was bought some years ago by Concord Pacific, so no doubt redevelopment and additional towers can be anticipated there too.
Image source: City of Vancouver Archives CVA 374-181 and Trish Jewison on twitter.
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