Tweedale Block

The Tweedale Block is a four-storey Edwardian residential apartment building located on East Hastings Street in Vancouver.

The Tweedale Block is significant for its contribution to the streetscape in this block of East Hastings Street. Built c. 1915 by Baynes and Horie to a design by architects Thornton and Jones, it is named for its original owner, Cyril Tweedale, a noteworthy local financier.

The building was built as a rooming house, and operated under the name of the Olympia Rooms (later the Olympia Hotel) until 1987, when the name changed to the Sunlight Hotel. It continues to be used for residential accommodation.

There is also value in the architectural styling. The symmetry, clean lines, and the simplified ornamentation speak to the changing public taste from the elaborate ornamentation of the Victorian period to the more refined decoration of the Edwardian era. The spandrels are unique in that they have Tweedale's initials set in a cartouche amid vegetative decoration. The building's name is set in an ovoid block just under the cornice.

Source: City of Vancouver Heritage Conservation Program

The character-defining elements of the Tweedale Block include:

- its location on the East Hastings Street strip

- the rectangular form and massing

- built right to the lot line with no setback

- characteristics of Edwardian architectural style, including glazed brick on the front facade, narrow square plan with light wells on the east facade to provide daylight to interior rooms, sheet metal spandrels with central cartouche with initials, keystone at centre of each pair of upper storey windows, heavy sheet metal cornice with brackets, building name in sheet metal between keystones, and floor tiles at west side entry to upper floors