News & Events
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Flack’s Gold Created the Flack Block
This week we’re celebrating the Flack Block, Tides Canada’s new Vancouver home. A heritage building and LEED certified green office space that has been turned it into a shared space for socially and environmentally progressive organzations, and given the name the Tides Renewal Centre.
Up until recently, the beautiful heritage building, where Tides Canada now resides, had been left to slowly decay. The history of the building goes way back to the late 1890’s when the Klondike gold rush spurred a building boom along Hastings Street.
It was built by Thomas Flack, who struck gold himself in 1897 and decided to begin construction on the building the following year. Vancouver subsequently became the main supply center for those headed to the gold fields in the Yukon. Barristers, insurance agents and mining brokers took office in the stone building and it became home to the original Bank of Vancouver. Gold dealers, retailers selling mining supplies, and even jewelers inhabited the building, making use of the 10 or so massive gold vaults dotted throughout the various floors.
Its story was brought back to life in 2008 by the Salient Group and Renewal, who not only re-carved the old archway but redeveloped the entire site, exposing beautiful old features like the original elevator shaft and the gold vaults.
Thomas Flack was a visionary, fulfilling a need at the time for office space dedicated to servicing a growing industry, namely gold mining. Similarly, the Tides Renewal Centre is offering a home to the rapidly expanding progressive socially and environmentally aware group of organizations and businesses.
The developer, the Salient Group, headed by Robert Fung, has restored and preserved the heritage character of the building to a remarkable degree. The elaborate stonework arch and pediments were faithfully recreated using old photographs. A modern elevator was added, but the presence of the original was maintained. New glass brick was installed in the sidewalks in place of the crumbling original prisms lending natural light to the basement interior. A seismic upgrade, installation of modern environmentally friendly amenities, and the addition of a spectacular top floor, were all part of the modernization completed before Salient handed over four floors of office space to the Tides Renewal Centre.
Tides Canada was a natural fit for the centre, many of our clients now renting space around and alongside us on the 4th floor.
The Hollyhock Room is magnificent. If you’d like to rent a room or a board room in the Flack Block take a look at the rates of the the rooms available.
Contact Sarah Davey at 604-647-6611 ext 610 or sarah@tidescanada.org for more information.
