Special Friday Feature
Georgia Medical Dental Building
The stately fifteen storey George Medical Dental Building stood proudly at 923 Georgia Street on the corner with Hornby Street from 1929 to 1989. It was just what its name said it was, a building of offices of doctors and dentists. In fact it even contained a hospital and auditorium. But what was really distictive about the modern skin of this pink terra cotta and brick building was the art deco decoration. Giant white nurse sculptures watched Vancouverites from three corner parapets nine storeys above the street. They were nicknamed the Rea sisters, Pya, Dya, and Gonna. White cement icing gracing the top of the building completed the art deco facade.
The original Rea sisters were cast in terracotta and filled with concrete. These were no frail women; they each weighed 5000 pounds. When the building was demolished in 1989 they bcame the property of the Vancouver Museum. However, the molds belong to Cathedral Place. A 500 pound fiberglass replica can be seen at ItalDecor Ltd. on East Hastings Street at Sperling Avenue. Yes, a larger than life Georgia Medical Dental Building nurse is standing in the Hastings Street yard amid cement urns, gargoyls, and fountains. Whether she is Pya, Dya, or Gonna, is unknown.
In 1989 the 1929 Georgia Medical Dental Building was deemed "economically unsaveable" because of skyrocketing prices of downtown office space. The demolition was dramatic and took place Sunday morning at 7:45 am on May 28, 1989. It was done by a "controlled explosion", an implosion. The streets around the building were filled with people who had come to honor the building and wonder at what an implosion looked like. The crowds were not disappointed and gasped as the gutted 15 storey building quickly crumbled. Then some went across the street to the Vancouver Hotel for breakfast.
Later in the year the framed set of four photos by Graham Hollins was sold in local stores. The photos show not only the original building and the stages of implosion, but also an interesting shadow in the south wall of the pink windowed Park Place building at 666 Burrard Street. Look closely and you can see the outline of the Vancouver Hotel, just the roof in the first photo and then gradually the whole building.
The building that now stands on the site on the north west corner of Georgia and Hornby is the 23 storey Cathedral Place. A sculputed bust of a nurse sits in the lobby as a very small tribute to the original 1929 Geogia Medical Dental Building.
Photo: Copy of framed photo taken Sunday May 28, 1989 by Graham Hollins.
Books: Exploring Vancouver 2 by Harold Kalma, 1974.
Vanishing Vancouver by Michael Kluckner, 1990.
Research: Thank you to Mario at ItaliDecor Ltd.
