Statement of Significance
Source: Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, Minute, November 1993

Description of Historic Place

The Vogue Theatre is an Art Deco-style theatre built for live and cinematic performances in 1940-1. It is located on Granville Street in the heart of Vancouver's "Theatre Row". The formal recognition consists of the building on its legal property at the time of designation.

Heritage Value

The Vogue Theatre was designated a national historic site in 1993 because:
-it is a particularly well-preserved theatre of the Moderne style in Canadian architecture;
-it is a rare example, by virtue of its scale, age and design, of a theatre that accommodated both cinema and live performance;
-the Vogue illustrates the major shift to integration of sound amplification and modulated lighting into theatre design.

The Vogue's auditorium relies wholly on the fusion of shapes, massing and electrical systems for atmospheric effect. Smooth, curving wall surfaces are not intended solely as aesthetic devices, but also as acoustical enhancers and as backdrops for the subtle hues cast by the modulated lighting system.

Vogue interior. Vancouver Public Library, VPL16418 Special lighting effects included undersea murals at the sides, which glowed as the lights dimmed, and a dramatically tiered ceiling highlighted by coloured indirect lighting.

Light shows that simulated sunrises and sunsets replaced surface decoration as the principal atmospheric device. In this respect, the Vogue's design heralded a trend in theatre design.


Character-Defining Elements

The key elements that relate to the heritage value of the Vogue Theatre include:
-the Moderne style of its exterior, evident in the crisp, geometrical symmetry of the façade associated with the classical stream of the style;
-the use of exterior textures and materials consistent with the Moderne style, including textured concrete walls, Vitrilux and terrazzo panels, textured terra cotta piers, wrought-iron screens, and stainless steel mullions;

-the existence of a tall sign tower that dominates the facade, outlined in neon and surmounted by a stylized figure of the goddess Diana;
-the commercial arrangement of the façade, with a recessed theatre entrance and ticket booth flanked by shops on either side;
-the streamlined Moderne design of the interior, evident in the sinuous, sweeping curves of the auditorium, lobby, foyer and staircase, and in the recessed lighting systems in auditorium, foyers and lobby;
-the fluid lines of the auditorium, including the curving, tiered plaster coves of the ceiling; the column-like structures flanking the proscenium, the curved side walls and balcony, and the rounded stairwell corners;
-features that integrate aesthetics with mechanical objectives, including the concealment of the air conditioning system and ducts behind the ceiling coves and proscenium columns, the lighting system, concealed behind the ceiling coves and linked to a 'modulite' control system; and the auditorium's ceiling, formed by a series of plaster coves radiating out from the stage in a series of elliptical arches that concealed mechanical systems and was believed to improve sound;
-auditorium features designed to accommodate live performances, including the stage, loft, and chorus and dressing rooms;
-auditorium features designed for movie viewing, including the projection booth;
-Moderne design features of the lobby, foyer and staircase, including coved ceilings and recessed wall niches that house original neon and incandescent lighting system, and the wood columns flanking the staircases.

A Whistler entrepreneur has expressed dejection over Vancouver city council’s recent refusal of his application to open a licensed supper club at the Vogue Theatre.

“It’s disappointing, obviously, that we didn’t get to create that difference down there that we wanted to create, but I obviously didn’t do a good enough job selling that change to them,” Joey Gibbons, president of Gibbons Hospitality Group, told the Georgia Straight by phone on May 27. “Change is risky.”

NPA councillor Kim Capri introduced a motion at the May 22 city services and budgets committee meeting to uphold a staff recommendation to refuse a liquor licence. The motion passed unanimously.

“The proposal has a lot of merit,” Capri told Gibbons. “It is the proposal in the context of the district that is challenging.”

The Vogue Theatre, built in 1940, is a national historic site and is A-listed on the city’s heritage register. The 1,029 “liquor primary” seats Gibbons requested are almost double the 680 seats held by the previous owner before the building changed hands in January 2006.

According to city chief licence inspector Paul Teichroeb’s May 6 memorandum to council’s city services and budgets committee, Gibbons’s intention was to build a “ ‘high-end’ eating and drinking establishment for older clientele”. On March 13, the committee deferred any decision on the Vogue for 60 days, pending further input from the local hospitality industry, heritage advocates, and the city’s office of cultural affairs.

Teichroeb factored a lack of support and general uncertainty from these sectors into his decision to recommend that council reject the application at the committee’s regular meeting on May 22.

Prior to the vote, council heard an emotional plea from Vogue general manager Gwyn Roberts in support of the application by Gibbons. “For the next four months, there are zero shows [at the Vogue],” Roberts, also general manager of the Penthouse on Seymour Street, said in the chambers. “It is very difficult for me to see the theatre change [to a supper club]. I have shed blood, sweat, and tears there.…But it definitely cannot function without a liquor licence. We cannot keep offering water and pop for $300 a night.”

The main concern expressed by council was the fact that Gibbons was looking at doubling the Vogue’s seat quota in a controversial liquor-rich area—the Granville entertainment district—that NPA councillor Suzanne Anton told council was “just coming under control”.

Gibbons told council he had received a legal opinion, based on the provincial Land Title Act, that a covenant could be placed against the building’s land title, giving the city a say should the building change hands.

Council left the covenant issue unexplored by rejecting the application, which left Gibbons blaming his sales pitch.

“In downtown Vancouver, I guess, they see these liquor seats as problems as opposed to opportunities,” he said. “When you’ve got that outlook on liquor seats as being problems, why would you want to add more problems? It was up to me to figure out how to let these people know that the liquor seats that I have—and have had within our company for 30 years-haven’t created problems. And I failed.”

Gibbons said he has not made a final decision yet on his next move, but added: “I will be back, for sure.”