McLennan & McFeely Bldg/Koret Lofts

The McLennan and McFeely Building is a large five-storey brick-and-stone commercial building at East Cordova and Columbia Streets, in the Gastown area of Vancouver. Built for McLennan and McFeely in 1906 as headquarters and retail location for their hardware business. It was designed by Vancouver architect Edward Evans Blackmore, a significant designer whose other projects at the time included the Model School and the first Pantages Theatre. It remained the headquarters for Mc & Mc until 1953.

In the 1960s the building was purchased by Acklands (now Acklands-Grainger) which also purchased McLennan, McFeely and Prior and continued to operate a hardware business from the building. Koret of Canada, a ladies sportswear manufacturer shop, occupied it during the 1980s and 90s.

The five storey building and basement was constructed of heavy timber frame with cast steel lintel beams spanning across large storefront openings, supporting the exterior brick walls. On the exposed steel lintels are decorative rosette medallions, a typical architectural feature of the era. The exterior facades are high-grade clay brick.

After standing vacant from 1999-2004, the building was rehabilitated as the Koret Lofts by Worthington Properties (With help from a grant from the Government of Canada. The 160,000 square foot building was adapted into 118 commercial live/work strata units in 2004. The conversion retained much of the building’s heritage character, including its large double hung wood windows, brick walls, heavy timber beams and columns, and much of the original fir flooring.

The place includes the former Canadian Pacific Railway right-of-way, which cuts diagonally across the northwest corner of the property.

The building was a stop on the 2007 VHF Open Vancouver Heritage House Tour.

Source

Canada's Historic Places, VHF 2007 Heritage House Tour Brochure

More information

http://www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx?id=1174