Page 14 - Demo

14|November 2019
An Indiana Limestone
Restoration Revives a Gold Rush Building in Vancouver
ornamental facade was covered with unsightly stucco, its arched entrance was completely obliter- ated. (It had become a structural hazard.) The onetime home of the Bank of Vancouver had fallen into disrepair.
The Canadian Salient Group took over the building with an aim to save it from demo- lition from neglect. Furthermore, the company was determined to bring it back to its splendid orig- inal look.
style masonry commission that is almost non-existent these days. Architectural Masonry worked with a team of carvers, and local suppliers/fabricators Red Leaf, under company owner Steffen Waite. The team of artisans faith- fully reconstructed the masonry heritage including the stone entry archway, using only vintage pho- tographs for reference.
Slippery rock Gazette
“Flack Block”, the intricately carved building name as well as the building number, a feature of the original, are once again em- blazoned on the 20-foot archway.
Thanks to this careful crafts- manship, the restoration project has renewed interest in the old world craftsmanship of hand- carved stone work.
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The Flack Block building is one of the most impressive examples of Vancouver’s turn-of the-century architecture. The four-story Romanesque Revival-style structure, with its expressive stone facade, was built by noted architect William Blackmore between 1898 and 1900.
Steven Schrenk
Polycor
Photos Courtesy Acton Ostry
in some part thanks to the mag- nificent Flack Building which became a calling card for the area. The Flack Building’s orig- inal entry had been of sandstone,
Intricately hand-carved re- lief-sculptures of mythical creatures & whimsical gar- goyle faces adorn the arch.
Vancouver-based, British-born carver Tony Rogac and his company Architectural Masonry was commissioned to reproduce the arch.
This was the era of the Gold Rush, when Vancouver was an important pit stop, a place for supplies and transportation, for fortune seekers on their way to the Yukon. It was built for Thomas Flack who himself made a fortune in the Klondike heyday. It was one of the largest buildings constructed in Vancouver during the era.
The building is located in the Gastown neighborhood, an area that became a busy commercial development and retail center,
and included an elaborate hand- carved archway with voussoirs. Fiery griffins, wizened faces and elaborate floral ornamentation came alive in the original stone- work, which was supported by coupled columns.
But, years after it was built, the building’s physical state took a turn for the worse. The neigh- borhood declined and the reputa- tion and condition of the historic property suffered with it. The sandstone had deteriorated quite dramatically and the elaborate
The building’s two-year, $20 million renovation and resto- ration project was lead by the local architecture firm Acton Ostry Architects. The extensive renovation was a combination of heritage and savoir-faire that also saw environmental, mechanical and electrical system upgrades. The ground floor commercial space was outfitted to meet LEED® Gold standards.
A new 6,100 square foot steel and glass rooftop addition incor- porated into the original four story structure extended the building to 50,200 square feet. The new addi- tion complemented rather than de- tracted from the heritage façade.
The focal point, though, was the restoration of the building’s beautiful original stonework. Vancouver-based, British-born carver Tony Rogac and his com- pany Architectural Masonry was commissioned to reproduce the arch. It was the kind of major old
For the reconstruction they used INDIANA LIMESTONE - STANDARD BUFF TM. Steffen Waite and his team ordered stone blocks from Polycor’s Indiana quarries in Bloomington, Indiana and then cut the stone into billets related to the individual stone sizes. “All the stone was carved by hand using templates produced from the drawings,” Waite said.
Approximately 80,000 pounds of Indiana Limestone was hand- carved to recreate the long-lost details. The new arch, sculpted in Indiana Limestone, was divided into 15 sections. It also features a lower ornamental arch. The in- tricately hand-carved relief-sculp- ture of fierce griffins and wizened gargoyle faces was brought back to life atop the entry’s heav- ily ornamented pediments. The work was all done by hand with a masterful hammer-and-chisel technique.