Canada Permanent Building

Built in 1911-12, the Canada Permanent Building is valued as a fine example of sophisticated Beaux-Arts style architecture, featuring interior and exterior materials and craftsmanship of a highly refined quality. Planned to convey a sense of permanence, conservatism and security, the facade of the Canada Permanent Building is a temple form with characteristic Neoclassical elements such as symmetrical fenestration, a triangular pediment, and Tuscan order detailing. The composition is crowned by a large, elaborate pediment sculpture incorporating the corporate crest of the Canada Permanent Mortgage Corporation.

The Canada Permanent Building contributed to the establishment of the Victory Square area of Vancouver as the primary financial, corporate and commercial district in the city during the early twentieth century. This was one of many financial service companies, corporations, and institutions which located their headquarters on or near West Pender or West Hastings Streets. The company that commissioned the building, the Canada Permanent Mortgage Corporation, played an important role in housing the nation by providing mortgages. A branch opened in Vancouver in 1892, providing mortgages for newly arriving fishermen, farmers, cattle ranchers, fruit growers and miners, offering migrants the opportunity to own property. In anticipation of continued economic expansion, when this new building was built in 1911-12, it was designed to be enlarged in the future with the addition of two storeys.

Additionally, this building is as a significant design by architect John Smith Davidson Taylor (1885-1952). Taylor opened his architectural practice in Vancouver in 1909, having emigrated from Scotland after a five-year apprenticeship in the office of the City Architect of Aberdeen. Before the Great Depression he had a prolific career, designing commercial buildings, apartment buildings (such as the Beaconsfield Apartments in the West End, 1909-10) and residences.