Park Board Heritage "A"
at 2099 Beach Avenue

From top: The Park Board office at
2099 Beach Avenue, present day;
the Park Superintendent's house at
Beach Avenue, circa 1920-30; inside
front lobby of the building in 1961
- showcasing custom light shades.

July 11, 2005 - Vancouver's diverse and world-respected parks and recreation system gives rise to numerous daily inquiries at the 2099 Beach Avenue hub of central operations. Stanley Park history ranks high on the list of most frequently asked questions followed by the widest variety of "asks" you could possibly imagine, from recreation programs to horticultural requests to architectural details, combining recent events with, what seems at times, ancient history.

A Beautiful Building

The Park Board main administration office located at the Beach Avenue entrance to Stanley Park is a Class A Heritage Building with an interesting back story. Starting with its construction in 1911, the Stanley Park Pavilion's second floor served as the central command post for the Park Board Administration with the nearby Stanley Park Service Yard and nurseries located just off Pipeline Road. At the time, housing for the Park Board Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent were provided within Stanley Park allowing quick access by these civil servants to their worksites especially during a crisis. This housing compensation was reflected in their remuneration.

The Site History

By 1960 it had become abundantly clear that the Pavilion facility was bursting at its seams with administration staff as the park system burgeoned in all directions.

Park Superintendent Phil Stroyan (1943-1961) was due to retire in April 1961 so he suggested a bold move. Always mindful of keeping Stanley Park as undeveloped as possible, Stroyan proposed that the Park Board Commissioners resolve to demolish (his) the Superintendent's arts & crafts house at the park's Beach Avenue entrance and there build a new Park Board Administration office spacious enough to readily accommodate public meetings and a large staff. The idea was approved and in December 1961 the new offices were officially opened.

The Building Design

This post & beam style building designed (along with its subsequent additions) by the architectural firm Underwood McKinley Cameron Wilson and Smith is an elegant example of building melding into landscape, both inside and out. It is over 20,000 square feet and is a low, two story structure. Its exterior is granite clad at the base with the upper wooden facades painted forest green and black thereby giving a natural counterpoint to the beautiful trees and shrubs that would anchor it in the landscape. Inside, the designers employed clear grain cedar panelling echoing the relationship with that of the forest located just steps away. All furnishings for the building, including the large Board Room leather - topped circular table and cut metal lobby light shades, were unique designs for this project and gave the open surrounds the feeling of space and air – two commodities that all Park Commissioners, past and present, continue to hold dear.

The Tree on the Front of the Building

Park Board Deputy Superintendent and Landscape Designer William "Bill" Livingstone got to work shrubing up the exterior of the new building immediately employing a lovely collection of specimen native maples and, the office's most distinguishing feature, an espalier Atlantic Cedar tree (Cedrus atlantica glauca) whose limbs and leader are kept in check by continual pruning throughout the year. In the wild this is one of the world's "giants" with bluish foliage, wide girth and reaching 80 – 100 feet in height. The tree was planted in 1961, the year the new administration building opened for business.

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