Introduction – 2005 Top10 Watch List

This year marks publication of the fifth annual Heritage Vancouver Top10 Endangered Sites.

This is a celebration of sorts—our Top10 list is now recognized as an authoritative overview of the city’s threatened heritage resources. As well, its effectiveness has prompted the sincerest form of flattery, and we welcome New Westminster Heritage Preservation Society’s publication of its own Top Ten list.

It was difficult to keep the list to ten: the explosive real estate development market is placing even designated sites once thought safe—like Chinatown and Gastown—in extreme jeopardy. That designated heritage sites are on our list is cause for great concern, as is the state of the Heritage Register—itself endangered and urgently requiring rescusitation! The sites finally chosen are either already in critical danger or likely be so shortly.

This year’s No. 1 is a new entry—the houses of Yaletown. Woodward’s remains on our list as Number 2, while another new entry, Arthur Erickson’s Evergreen Building, is in third place.