The changing face of the old Sears building in Vancouver

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – It’s the end of an era for a Downtown Vancouver landmark: the last of the hated white panels on the former Sears location at Pacific Centre is being removed today.

Critics have described it as the “giant urinal on Granville Street,” ever since it opened as an Eaton’s store back in 1973. The removal of the final panel is part of the redevelopment process that will see US retailer Nordstrom move in by 2015.

It looks like the “Great White Wall” will not be missed.

“It turned its back on the street and, like a shopping mall, the experience of going through it was way better on the inside than it was on the outside. That was a kind of an anti-urban idea at the time,” says Michael Kluckner, a local artist and author, who was also a founding director of Heritage Vancouver.

Klucker says the city would come to regret the building’s shortage of windows.

“The great proponent of Pacific Centre was a mayor by the name of Tom Campbell, who was a developer,” he recalls.

“When I interviewed him in 2001, the one regret that he expressed to me about the way that Vancouver had developed was the fact he couldn’t get more windows into the Eaton’s building. He figured that that was something they got wrong a little bit.”

That’s why Kluckner is encouraged by the more open, mixed retail and office concept chosen by owner Cadillac Fairview.

“Anything that opens up the street level to passers-by and helps to animate the street, I think, is a really positive thing.”

“Between them and the re-do of the Bay, which has been very, very successful, they’re trying to make that corner of Georgia and Granville a real downtown destination for that kind of shopping. I think it’s terrific.”

Cadillac Fairview says those panels will be re-purposed, along with 90 per cent of the materials removed during the redevelopment.