Woodward's Building - Original Structure

Original Structure

The building grew over many years in incremental phases, so the structure varied in each phase of the building. The majority of the building was supported by concrete slabs and columns with only the original 1903-08 building using massive heavy timber construction from the old growth forests that were available near Vancouver at the turn of the 20th century. Much of the square footage of the building was not retail space; mazes of stockrooms and offices comprised much of the building's space, outside the view of customers.

In 1995 the building was acquired by Fama Holdings. The firm by using services of Brook Development Planning, Davidson Yuen Simpson and Foad Rafii Architects developed a plan to build private housing in the building. However, many of those in the neighbourhood strongly objected, as they felt it important that the project incorporate social housing. The provincial government of British Columbia decided to fund some social housing as part of the project, but Fama and the province could not come to an agreement, and the project died. The building stood largely vacant, except for the occasional film shoot. In 2001 the province bought the building from Fama for $22 million. A variety of options were pursued to develop the building, but in early 2002 the new Provincial government put the project on hold.

In the fall of 2002 a small group of community activists occupied the empty building for one week in a campaign to secure social housing from the Provincial government. After the police eviction a tent city was erected on the sidewalks around the building for another three months. The series of events is known as the Woodward's Squat, or "Woodsquat", which has been acknowledged for "setting in motion the eventual redevelopment of the landmark department store building".

On the morning of September 30, 2006 all but the oldest original portion (1903-08 building) of the Woodward's structure was demolished with a "roll-over" implosion by Pacific Blasting which signaled the beginning of the construction of the new complex of buildings.