Demolition began over the weekend on Oakridge United Church, which is located on 41st Avenue between Cambie and Oak streets. Photograph By DAN TOULGOET
Sometimes, rather than being worth 1,000 words, a picture can elicit a 1,000 questions.
That was certainly the case for Oakridge United Church on 41st Avenue between Oak and Cambie streets. Photos were widely circulated online over the weekend of the church lying in a heap of rubble, inviting all sorts of anger and confusion about the demolition: Why was this happening? What’s being done to retain the church’s materials and 70-year heritage value? What’s happening to Vancouver?
DEMOLISHED: Oakridge United Church, designed in 1949 by Twizell & Twizell – on our 2015 Top10 Threat List https://t.co/jcu1nkoAkY + see @TheTyee w/ photos https://t.co/WCdtNAd6jL #vanre pic.twitter.com/4tpUFQnYFw
— Heritage Vancouver (@HeritageVan) March 4, 2018
In speaking with both the developer and church reverend today, though, a lot of that anger was rooted in emotion rather than information, so we brought them some of the most pressing questions surrounding the project to learn more about what was going on behind the scenes.
Firstly, why was the building, which was designed in 1949 by Twizell & Twizell architects, allowed to be torn down?
Answer: the church wasn’t subject to any specific protections or heritage designations. As such, it was re-zoned from its former land use designation of one-family dwelling to comprehensive development, and will become a mixed-use development comprised of a six-storey concrete building that opens in the fall of 2019.
But what happens to the church?
According to both the developer, Townline Homes, and the church’s reverend, Neill McRae, a new, 6,000 square foot church will be on the ground floor of the development when it opens next year.
OK, but has the congregation been displaced?
Yes and no. McRae said congregants knew of the site’s impending sale five years ago and the deal was finalized last year. “We bit by bit prepared the congregation,” he said. “They understood it. It was not manipulative. It was informative so that they got it.”
Townline development manager Stefan Slot added that the church has been “empty for several months now” with McRae explaining that the building was decommissioned last spring. Roughly 60 worshippers have been moved to another church in Marpole and will return next year.
“We will absolutely going back,” McRae said. “And there will be others coming with us.”
But what about the materials? The loudest outrage seems to be about reclamation — as in, what effort was made to preserve items from within the church: pews, windows, plaques, wooden beams, art and the like?
As it turns out, congregation members were given dibs on those items. Others were sold. The stained glass piece behind the altar will be retained in the new site, as will other stained glass works. Pews, pulpits and overhead lights were sold to those in the TV and film business.
What is seen in the photos from the weekend, says the developer, were the remnants of the building that no one wanted.
So that leaves the rest of the city that was seemingly caught off guard by the wrecking ball’s presence over the weekend. For heritage lovers, it's little consolation. It will still be considered a loss, as the church was on Heritage Vancouver’s 2015 Top 10 Watch List of endangered sites in the city.
“Church buildings are used not just for Sunday worship space, but for all those other community, social and cultural and educational activities,” Heritage Vancouver board member George Challies told the Courier Monday. “They often have daycares or offer courses seven days and week and they’re affordable.”
With dwindling congregation numbers, more community centres offering more amenities, and the obvious development pressures, however, McRae cautions that church demolitions will continue to take place.
“This kind of situation has [occurred] all across Canada,” McRae said. “If you go up to Edmonton you have a congregation that meets in a purpose-built room in a nursing home. You go to Toronto and you’ve got entire church buildings from the grand old days in the late 1800s and early 1900s, you would see church buildings which had bowling alleys and swimming pools. And it was all because it was a community centre. That’s not the case anymore.”
More to come…
