The old Vancouver Post Office, at the corner of Granville and Hastings Streets, was expanded before ultimately being deemed insufficient to meet the demands of the growing city.
HISTORY
A MIDCENTURY MARVEL
Opened in 1958 to replace its predecessor just a ten-minute walk north, this International Style building helped to power Vancouver’s postwar population boom.
Though the Main Post Office was decommissioned in the early 1980s, it has retained most of its character-defining elements: its original form and scale, original granite and concrete details, terra cotta panels, and commissioned interior and exterior artworks.
THE POST OFFICE
TECH-DRIVEN AND TRANSFORMATIVE
This building is a city block-sized monument to the height of twentieth-century design, technology, and infrastructure.
Once the largest building in Vancouver and the largest welded steel structure in the world, the Main Post Office served a rapidly changing city. It had ramps, chutes, elevators, and tunnels. It even had a 730-meter underground conveyor belt system connecting it to nearby rail hubs and waterways like Waterfront Station. Its McCarter Nairne & Partners design stands as the most noteworthy example of the International Style in all of western Canada—an architectural movement that prioritizes functional flexibility across a large volume of space, smooth exterior planes, and modern mix of materials like granite, marble, terra cotta, cast concrete, terrazzo, and aluminium.
Its construction marked a hinge point for a city on the verge of a boom: while it was in service, the metro area’s population more than doubled, from about 600,000 to more than 1.3 million.
TIMELINE
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1935–1937
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1955-1956
Nairne & Partners, artworks were commissioned: a 4.9-metre carved granite postman bas-relief on its façade and tile mural of a woman and child in the postal hall, both by Paul Huba (1956); a stone inscription on the southwest corner of the building (1955); and a large painted mural near the Homer Street entrance showing early postal transportation methods in BC, by Orville Fisher.
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1958
The Main Post Office was opened, showing off state-of-the-art technology on a massive scale.
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OCTOBER 16, 1981
The Canada Post Corporation Act came into effect, which had the effect of introducing greater automation. It also shifted a much larger volume of mail toward air transportation. The Main Post Office was decommissioned shortly thereafter.
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GALLERY
Looking Back at the Post’s Past
It’s difficult to put into words the massive impact and influence of this building on Vancouver, its people, and its role as a Canadian metropolis. These images from its rich history will help do the job.
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