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Photo: Zhatt, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
A high-rise building built in the Beaux-Arts style. It was completed in 1912 and was the tallest building in the British Empire at the time. The tower is noted for its dome (painted to look like copper cladding) and its exterior was used in the TV series, Smallville.
The Sun Tower is a 17 storey 82 m (269 ft) Beaux-Arts building at 128 West Pender Street in Vancouver, British Columbia. It was known for its faux-patina steel dome painted to imitate copper cladding. In early February 2021 a newly finished roof clad in real penny-coloured copper tiles was revealed. The new roof was a part of restoration work that began on the heritage building in 2018. Nine nude muses, the "nine maidens" supporting the cornice line can be seen. The terracotta for this building, including the ladies, was made in Tamworth, Staffordshire, England by Gibbs and Canning Limited.
© OpenStreetMap contributors
A small park covering one city block. It has the cenotaph commemorating the dead from World War I and is the site of Vancouver's Remembrance Day ceremonies.
A distinctive red and mustard coloured building completed in 1910. It was the first steel-framed high-rise built in Vancouver and briefly was the tallest commercial building in the British Empire.
Located at the western edge of Chinatown, it consists of ornamental arches with tiled roofs in traditional Chinese style.
This two-storey building is the world's narrowest commercial building according to the Guinness Book of World Records, with a width of just 4'11" (1.5 m) at its base. Its slim size is due to the city expropriating most of the lot to widen the street. The owner went ahead and built anyway, and businesses have been operating out of its confines since 1913. If you do take a look, the perspective is better from the other (north) side of Pender.
The oldest part of downtown. You will find cobble-paved boulevards and over-priced tourist traps selling every imaginable thing you can print "Vancouver" on. Popular with tourists are the Gastown Steam Clock, promoted as the only active steam clock in the world but in fact an electric clock that pumps steam, rather an underwhelming experience. The area is notorious for aggressive beggars-drug addicts who are quite unsettling.
A Ming-dynasty style garden in Chinatown. Built in 1986 by Chinese craftsmen using traditional materials, tools, and techniques, this was the first classical garden built outside China. The gardens combine traditional Chinese buildings, plants, a small lake, and curved footpaths to create the illusion of a very big place within a single block. Tours are available. Compared to the city park next door, the differences are quiet but profound: more interesting materials, richer vistas, greater serenity.