The housing stock in the Dunbar area of Vancouver has undergone significant change in the past five years. Originally a working class neighbourhood with many quite modest homes surrounded by lovely gardens, it is now a neighbourhood that 99% of the people working in Vancouver cannot afford because the replacement homes are built to the maximum footprint and cost millions. Greenspace has been reduced. Included on this website are photos of many (not all) of the disappeared houses.
View Teardowns in the Dunbar area of Vancouver, BC in a larger map

Demolitions West of the Dunbar Community Centre

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Now There Are Two

This house must have been one of the first on its block. It was built in 1920 (but there was at least one house built nearby in 1918), and it ended up being situated on an ample 66 foot lot. The lot is now divided, with two houses under construction. The photos show 3524 West 21st Avenue in mid May 2013; it was torn down in early July.

Just to the east is one of the few "narrow" houses in the Dunbar area, this one built in 1988 on a 16.5 foot lot. They were not quite as controversial in their day as laneway houses are today, but people wondered at the time, why would anyone want to live in a small house?

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Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Small Footprint


Note the leaded glass in the front windows of this house built in 1927 or 1928 on a nearly 50 foot lot. This photo is from December 2011; the house was torn down in June 2013. A larger house is sure to be built. Will there ever be incentives in our urban environment to retain or construct smaller more modest houses with more permeable green space such as this one?
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Friday, September 6, 2013

A Noisy Day

It was a noisy day. Was it the construction at nearby 4070 (yes), was it thunder (yes), or was it something else? It was yet another nearby demolition, this one at 4077 West 32nd Avenue. I was away in the morning, and by the time I arrived with my camera in early afternoon, there wasn't much left. What did the house look like?
It was a modest house, built in 1940. Torn down September 5, 2013. the fourth one on this side of this block since I have been blogging the destruction.


A long-ago resident left lots of pails of paint, paint thinner, etc. in the garage, but it all got pushed over and will go to the landfill. We still have a long way to go to be "green" with disposal and recycling of waste.

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Tuesday, September 3, 2013

In an Historical Neighbourhood


This house was advertised as a "starter" on a 33 foot lot, a half block from St. George's Junior School, formerly the Convent of the Sacred Heart, built in 1912-1913. This fairly typical Dunbar dwelling was built in 1929 and torn down in July 2013, shortly after this photo was taken.

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