Description of Historic Place

The Tip Top Tailors Building is an unusual example of modern expressionistic commercial design, with a concave aluminum canopy on the front facade that acts as a large signboard. It is located on the south side of West Hastings Street in the Victory Square Area of Vancouver, BC.

Heritage Value

The Tip Top Tailors Building is significant as an example of how design reflected the recovering economy and increased consumerism during the postwar era. The building is additionally valued for its association with Dominion Construction and Charles Bentall.

Built in 1948, the heritage value of the former Tip Top Tailors Building is its representation of the blatant consumerism of the ebullient post-Second World War era. Here, the entire front facade is expressed as an enormous sign, incorporating the most modern materials such as aluminum and neon for a futuristic appearance. Tip Top Tailors, a Jewish-owned national chain based in Toronto, fitted in to the Hastings Street milieu of clothing businesses, many of which were owned by Jewish entrepreneurs such as Murray Goldman. The Tip Top Tailors Building was one of few modern buildings constructed on West Hastings Street during the postwar era and remains significant as a demonstration of the evolving nature of retail at the time.

Further, the heritage value of the Tip Top Tailors Building lies in its association with Dominion Construction and Charles Bentall. Known as one of the largest and most successful construction companies in western Canada, Dominion Construction has a long (1911-present) and varied history in the design of buildings through the employment of in-house architectural staff. Charles Bentall (1882-1974) was the mastermind of the business. Born in England, he arrived in Vancouver in 1908 during its great building boom. Bentall was hired as an Assistant General Manager by the Dominion Construction Company Ltd. and saw an opportunity to provide in-house design expertise to their clients. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s Dominion Construction designed and built numerous high quality modernistic commercial and institutional structures, including this structure in 1948.

Character-Defining Elements

The elements that define the heritage character of the Tip Top Tailors Building are its:

- siting in an area of historic commercial buildings on Hastings Street;
- commercial form, scale and massing as expressed by its two-storey plus basement height and symmetrical, rectangular plan, and its entrance at grade;
- elements of modern expressionistic design of the front facade such as its tubular aluminum cladding on the curved concave canopy, fluted piers framing the facade and curved horizontal projecting canopy above the storefront;
- flat roof with horizontal parapet;
- reinforced concrete construction for both structure and cladding; and
- receiving bays on the alley facade.