Cliff Building

The Cliff Building is significant for its contribution to the consistent and distinctive built form of downtown New Westminster, which dates from 1898 to 1913, when the city was the major centre of commerce and industry for the booming Fraser Valley area.

Built in 1910, the Cliff Building is valued for its construction history. This prominent structure was built at the extraordinary pace of one floor per week. The building was composed of B.C. Douglas fir girders, covered with plasterboard in the interests of fireproofing. The pressed tan bricks used for the exterior cladding came from the Clayburn brick factory in Matsqui. Other construction brick was manufactured at the Westminster Brick Works. Typical of commercial buildings of the Edwardian era, the facade has elements of the Classical Revival style. The double-hung windows cover a great deal of the wall surface, illustrating the desire for ever greater amounts of glazing and light, and the gradual shift toward a lighter appearance of buildings. It was built during the Edwardian era building boom for an investment group headed by Ronald Lorraine Cliff (1881-1953), a lumber manufacturer.

The Cliff Building is valued for its association with its architect Henry Sandham Griffith (1865-1943), a prominent architect with successful offices in both Victoria and Vancouver, known for designing all types and styles of buildings, from skyscrapers to palatial residences. He executed several commissions in New Westminster including the Coulthard-Sutherland Building.